"Today in history: On Oct. 12,1968, Mexican track and field athlete Enriqueta Basilio became the first woman to light the Olympic flame at the opening ceremonies of the Mexico City Summer Games. Also on this date: In 1492, Christopher Columbus's first expedition made landfall on what is now San Salvador Island in the Bahamas. In 1870, General Robert E. Lee, former overall commander of the Confederate States Army in the Civil War, died in Lexington, Virginia, at age 63."
"In 1960, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev protested remarks at the United Nations by pounding his shoe on his desk. In 1973, President Richard Nixon nominated House Minority Leader Gerald R. Ford of Michigan to succeed Spiro T. Agnew as vice president. 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 2000, the destroyer USS Cole was attacked by boat-borne al-Qaida suicide bombers during a refueling stop in Yemen's port city of Aden, killing 17 on board. In 2002, bombs blamed on al-Qaida-linked militants destroyed two nightclubs on the Indonesian island of Bali, killing 202 people, many of whom were foreign tourists. In 2019, Eliud Kipchoge became the first person to run a marathon in less than two hours, crossing the finish line of the INEOS 1:59 Challenge in Vienna, Austria, with a time of 1:59:40."
October 12 includes a range of historical events spanning exploration, sports, politics, war, and terrorism. Christopher Columbus's 1492 expedition made landfall on present-day San Salvador Island in the Bahamas. Enriqueta Basilio became the first woman to light the Olympic flame at the 1968 Mexico City Games. General Robert E. Lee died in 1870. Nikita Khrushchev pounded his shoe at the United Nations in 1960. Richard Nixon nominated Gerald R. Ford as vice president in 1973. Violent attacks occurred on this date, including the 1984 Brighton bombing, the 2000 USS Cole attack, and the 2002 Bali bombings. Eliud Kipchoge ran a sub-two-hour marathon in 2019. Several notable public figures celebrate birthdays on October 12.
Read at www.mercurynews.com
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