- October 12, 0539 BC – The army of Cyrus the Great of Persia takes Babylon.
- October 12, 0638 Honorius I ends his reign as Catholic Pope
- October 12, 0642 John IV ends his reign as Catholic Pope
- October 12, 1216 “King John of England loses his crown jewels in The Wash, probably near Fosdyke, perhaps near Sutton Bridge”
- October 12, 1285 “180 Jews refuse baptism in Munich Germany, they are set on fire”
- October 12, 1492 “Christopher Columbus’s expedition makes landfall in the Caribbean, specifically in The Bahamas. The explorer believes he has reached East Asia”
- October 12, 1654 “The Delft Explosion devastates the city in the Netherlands, killing more than 100.”
- October 12, 1692 The Salem Witch Trials were ended by a letter from Massachusetts Governor William Phips.
- October 12, 1773 America’s first insane asylum opens for ‘Persons of Insane and Disordered Minds’ in Virginia
- October 12, 1776 British Brigade begins guarding Throgg Necks Road in the Bronx
- October 12, 1792 First celebration of Columbus Day in the USA held in New York
- October 12, 1793 “The cornerstone of Old East, the oldest state university building in the United States, is laid on the campus of the University of North Carolina”
- October 12, 1810 First Oktoberfest: The Bavarian royalty invites the citizens of Munich to join the celebration of the marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria to Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen.
- October 12, 1822 2nd eruption of Galunggung (Java) destroys summit of mountain
- October 12, 1822 Peter I of Brazil is proclaimed the emperor of the Brazilian Empire.
- October 12, 1823 Charles Macintosh of Scotland begins selling raincoats (Macs)
- October 12, 1850 “The first women’s medical college opens, in Pennsylvania.”
- October 12, 1853 “John Morrissey wins boxing title, when Yankee Sullivan leaves ring after 36th round to slug Morrissey’s fans”
- October 12, 1860 British and French troops capture Peking
- October 12, 1861 Confederate ironclad Manassas attacks Union’s Richmond on Mississippi
- October 12, 1862 Maj Gen Earl Van Dorn assumes command of Conf troops in Missisippi
- October 12, 1886 Hurricane and sea surge kills 250 at Indianola Texas
- October 12, 1892 The Pledge of Allegiance is first recited in unison by students in US public schools.
- October 12, 1899 Boer republic of South Africa declares war with England.
- October 12, 1915 English nurse Edith Cavell executed by Germans in Belgium (WW II)
- October 12, 1915 Theodore Roosevelt criticizes US citzens with dual nationalities
- October 12, 1915 World War I: British nurse Edith Cavell is executed by a German firing squad for helping Allied soldiers escape from Belgium
- October 12, 1917 “The First Battle of Passchendaele, now Passendale”
- October 12, 1918 A massive forest fire kills 453 people in Minnesota.
- October 12, 1918 “Cloquet Minn and 25 other communities destroyed by forest fire, 559 die”
- October 12, 1918 First use of iron lung (Boston’s Children Hospital)
- October 12, 1924 Sokolnicheskaya Radio begins broadcasting from Moscow
- October 12, 1928 “An iron lung respirator is used for the first time at Children’s Hospital, Boston”
- October 12, 1933 Alcatraz becomes a federal prison (unofficially)
- October 12, 1933 “John Dillinger escapes from the Allen County, OH, jail”
- October 12, 1939 First deportation of Austrian / Moravian Jews to Poland.
- October 12, 1941 “Germans approach Moscow, partial evacuation of the city.”
- October 12, 1941 “This and the next day, German Nazis kill 11,000 Jews in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine. Einsatzkommando 6 massacres most of the remaining Jews of the city, marching them to a ravine where they were killed.”
- October 12, 1942 US navy defeats Japanese in WW II Battle of Cape Esperance
- October 12, 1944 700 Riot Police are called in to restore order at Frank Sinatra Columbus Day appearance in New York City’s Paramount Theater.