October
12
Independence
Day
Equatorial Guinea : October 12 1968
October
12 : International Girl-Child Day
The
International Day of the Girl Child initiative
began as a project of Plan International,
a non-governmental organization that operates
worldwide. The idea for an international day
of observance and celebration grew out of
Plan International's Because I Am a Girl campaign,
which raises awareness of the importance of
nurturing girls globally and in developing
countries in particular. Plan International
representatives in Canada approached the Canadian
federal government to seek support for the
initiative. A coalition of supporters raised
awareness of the initiative internationally.
International
Day of the Girl Child was formally proposed
as a resolution by Canada in the United Nations
General Assembly. Rona Ambrose, Canada's Minister
for the Status of Women, sponsored the resolution;
a delegation of women and girls made presentations
in support of the initiative at the 55th United
Nations Commission on the Status of Women.
On December 19, 2011, the United Nations General
Assembly voted to pass a resolution adopting
October 11, 2012 as the inaugural International
Day of the Girl Child. Each year's Day of
the Girl has a theme; the first was "ending
child marriage", and the second, in 2013,
was "innovating for girl's education".
October
12 : Spanish Language Day at the UN
http://www.un.org/es/events/spanishlanguageday/
Events
539
BC – The army of Cyrus the Great of Persia
takes Babylon.
1216 – King John of England loses his crown
jewels in The Wash, probably near Fosdyke,
perhaps near Sutton Bridge
1279 – Nichiren, a Japanese Buddhist monk
founder of Nichiren Buddhism, inscribes the
Dai-Gohonzon
1398 – The Treaty of Salynas is signed between
Grand Duke of Lithuania Vytautas the Great
and the Teutonic Knights, who received Samogitia.
1492 – Christopher Columbus's expedition makes
landfall in the Caribbean, specifically in
The Bahamas. The explorer believes he has
reached India.
1582 – Because of the implementation of the
Gregorian calendar this day does not exist
in this year in Italy, Poland, Portugal and
Spain.
1654 – The Delft Explosion devastates the
city in the Netherlands, killing more than
100 people.
1692 – The Salem witch trials are ended by
a letter from Massachusetts Governor William
Phips.
1773 – America's first insane asylum opens
for 'Persons of Insane and Disordered Minds'
in Virginia
1792 – First celebration of Columbus Day in
the USA held in New York
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
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.
1822 – Peter I of Brazil is proclaimed the
emperor of the Brazil
1823 – Charles Macintosh of Scotland sells
the first raincoat.
1871 – Criminal Tribes Act (CTA) enacted by
British rule in India, which named over 160
local communities 'Criminal Tribes', i.e.
hereditary criminals. Repealed in 1949, after
Independence of India.
1892 – The Pledge of Allegiance is first recited
by students in many US public schools, as
part of a celebration marking the 400th anniversary
of Columbus's voyage.
1901 – President Theodore Roosevelt officially
renames the "Executive Mansion"
to the White House.
1915 – World War I: British nurse Edith Cavell
is executed by a German firing squad for helping
Allied soldiers escape from Belgium
1917 – World War I: The First Battle of Passchendaele
takes place resulting in the largest single
day loss of life in New Zealand history.
1918 – A massive forest fire kills 453 people
in Minnesota.
1928 – An iron lung respirator is used for
the first time at Children's Hospital, Boston
1933 – The United States Army Disciplinary
Barracks on Alcatraz Island, is acquired by
the United States Department of Justice
1942 – World War II: Japanese ships retreat
after their defeat in the Battle of Cape Esperance
with the Japanese commander, Aritomo Gotō
dying from wounds suffered in the battle and
two Japanese destroyers sunk by Allied air
attack.
1944 – World War II: The Liberation of Athens
from the German invaders.
1945 – World War II: Desmond Doss is the first
conscientious objector to receive the U.S.
Medal of Honor.
1953 – "The Caine Mutiny Court Martial"
opens at Plymouth Theatre, New York
1959 – At the national congress of APRA in
Peru a group of leftist radicals are expelled
from the party. They will later form APRA
Rebelde.
1960 – Cold War: Nikita Khrushchev pounds
his shoe on a desk at United Nations General
Assembly meeting to protest a Philippine assertion
of Soviet Union colonial policy being conducted
in Eastern Europe
1960 – Inejiro Asanuma, Chair of the Japanese
Socialist Party, is assassinated in Japan
by Otoya Yamaguchi, a 17-year-old. The cameras
were rolling at the time, so the moment was
caught on film.
1962 – Infamous Columbus Day Storm strikes
the U.S. Pacific Northwest with record wind
velocities; 46 dead and at least U.S. $230
million in damages
1964 – The Soviet Union launches the Voskhod
1 into Earth orbit as the first spacecraft
with a multi-person crew and the first flight
without space suits
1967 – Vietnam War: US Secretary of State
Dean Rusk states during a news conference
that proposals by the U.S. Congress for peace
initiatives are futile because of North Vietnam's
opposition
1968 – Equatorial Guinea becomes independent
from Spain
1970 – Vietnam War: US President Richard Nixon
announces that the United States will withdraw
40,000 more troops before Christmas
1979 – The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy,
the first of five books in the Hitchhiker's
Guide to the Galaxy comedy science fiction
series by Douglas Adams is published.
1979 – The lowest recorded non-tornadic atmospheric
pressure, 87.0 kPa (870 mbar or 25.69 inHg),
occurred in the Western Pacific during Typhoon
Tip.
1983 – Japan's former Prime Minister Tanaka
Kakuei is found guilty of taking a $2 million
bribe from Lockheed and is sentenced to 4
years in jail.
1984 – Brighton hotel bombing: The Provisional
Irish Republican Army attempt to assassinate
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her cabinet.
Thatcher escapes but the bomb kills five people
and wounds 31.
1986 – Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh visit
the People's Republic of China
1988 – Jaffna University Helidrop: Commandos
of Indian Peace Keeping Force raided the Jaffna
University campus to capture the LTTE chief
and walked into a trap.
1988 – Two officers of the Victoria Police
are gunned down executional style in the Walsh
Street police shootings, Australia.
1991 – Askar Akayev, previously chosen President
of Kyrgyzstan by republic's Supreme Soviet,
is confirmed president in an uncontested poll.
1994 – NASA loses radio contact with the Magellan
spacecraft as the probe descends into the
thick atmosphere of Venus (the spacecraft
presumably burned up in the atmosphere).
1997 – Sidi Daoud massacre in Algeria; 43
killed at a fake roadblock.
1999 – Pervez Musharraf takes power in Pakistan
from Nawaz Sharif through a bloodless coup.
1999 – The former Autonomous Soviet Republic
of Abkhazia declares its independence from
Georgia
2000 – The USS Cole is badly damaged in Aden,
Yemen, by two suicide bombers, killing 17
crew members and wounding at least 39
2002 – Terrorists detonate bombs in the Sari
Club in Kuta, Bali, killing 202 and wounding
over 300.
2005 – The second Chinese human spaceflight
Shenzhou 6 launched carrying Fèi Jùnlóng and
Niè Hǎishèng for five days in orbit.
Holidays
and observances
Christian
Feast Day:
Heribert of Cologne (private feast day)
Wilfrid of York
October 12 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Children's Day or Feast of Our Lady of Aparecida
(Brazil)
Discovery of America by Columbus-related observances:
Descubrimiento de América (Mexico)
Día de la Hispanidad or Fiesta Nacional de
España (Spain)
Día de la Raza, "Day of the Race"
(Latin America)
Día de la Resistencia Indígena, "Day
of Indigenous Resistance" (Venezuela)
Día de las Américas, "Day of the Americas"
(Uruguay)
Día de las Culturas, "Day of the Cultures"
(Costa Rica)
Discovery Day (the Bahamas)
Freethought Day (United States)
Independence Day, celebrates the independence
of Equatorial Guinea from Spain in 1968.
Mother's Day (Malawi)
For details, contact Datacentre
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