Today is Monday, Oct. 12, the 286th day of 2020. There are 80 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
- In 1492 (according to the Old Style calendar), Christopher Columbus' expedition arrived in the present-day Bahamas.
On this date:
- In 1864, Roger B. Taney, the fifth Chief Justice of the United States, died at 87; he was succeeded by Salmon Chase.
- In 1870, General Robert E. Lee died in Lexington, Virginia, at age 63.
- In 1942, during World War II, American naval forces defeated the Japanese in the Battle of Cape Esperance. Attorney General Francis Biddle announced during a Columbus Day celebration at Carnegie Hall in New York that Italian nationals in the United States would no longer be considered enemy aliens.
- In 1957, the Dr. Seuss Yuletide tale “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” was first published by Random House.
- In 1973, President Richard Nixon nominated House minority leader Gerald R. Ford of Michigan to succeed Spiro T. Agnew as vice president.
- In 1976, it was announced in China that Hua Guofeng had been named to succeed the late Mao Zedong as chairman of the Communist Party; it was also announced that Mao’s widow and three others, known as the “Gang of Four,” had been arrested.
- In 1984, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher escaped an attempt on her life when an Irish Republican Army bomb exploded at a hotel in Brighton, England, killing five people.
- In 1986, the superpower meeting in Reykjavik, Iceland, ended in stalemate, with President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev unable to agree on arms control or a date for a full-fledged summit in the United States.
- In 1997, singer John Denver was killed in the crash of his privately built aircraft in Monterey Bay, California; he was 53.
- In 2000, 17 sailors were killed in a suicide bomb attack on the destroyer USS Cole in Yemen.
- In 2007, Former Vice President Al Gore and the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change won the Nobel Peace Prize for sounding the alarm over global warming.
Today’s Birthdays:
Former Sen. Jake Garn, R-Utah, is 88. Singer Sam Moore (formerly of Sam and Dave) is 85. Broadcast journalist Chris Wallace is 73. Actor-singer Susan Anton is 70. Pop/rock singer/songwriter Jane Siberry is 65. Actor Hiroyuki Sanada is 60. Actor Carlos Bernard is 58. Jazz musician Chris Botti is 58. Rhythm-and-blues singer Claude McKnight (Take 6) is 58. Rock singer Bob Schneider is 55. Actor Hugh Jackman is 52. Actor Adam Rich is 52. Rhythm-and-blues singer Garfield Bright (Shai) is 51. Country musician Martie Maguire (Courtyard Hounds, The Chicks) is 51. Actor Kirk Cameron is 50. Olympic gold medal skier Bode Miller is 43. Rock singer Jordan Pundik (New Found Glory) is 41. Actor Brian J. Smith is 39. Actor Tyler Blackburn is 34. Actor Marcus T. Paulk is 34. Actor Ito Aghayere is 33. Actor Josh Hutcherson is 28.