October 12 – Some important events on this day.
539 BC 👉🏼 The army of Cyrus the Great of Persia takes Babylon
1160 👉🏼 Maurice de Sully is elected bishop of Paris, will initiate plan to build Notre Dame
1216 👉🏼 King John of England loses his crown jewels in The Wash as the flood tide swamps his wagons, probably near Fosdyke, perhaps near Sutton Bridge
1279 👉🏼 Nichiren, a Japanese Buddhist monk, founder of Nichiren Buddhism, inscribes the Dai-Gohonzon
1492 👉🏼 Christopher Columbus’s expedition makes landfall on a Caribbean island he names San Salvador (likely Watling Island, Bahamas). The explorer believes he has reached East Asia (OS 21 Oct)
1609 👉🏼 Children’s rhyme “Three Blind Mice” published in London
1740 👉🏼 English evangelist George Whitefield preaches to 30,000 people in Boston in the US during the ‘Great Awakening’
1789 👉🏼 French Revolution: King Louis XVI writes secretly to the King of Spain about complaining of harsh treatment; the Count of Artois writes to the Austrian king requesting military intervention in France
1810 👉🏼 First Oktoberfest!
Bavarian Crown Prince Louis, later King Louis I of Bavaria, marries Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen on this day. The Bavarian royalty invited the citizens of Munich to attend the festivities, held on the fields in front of the city gates. These famous public fields were named not by chance Theresienwiese (Therese’s fields), in honor of the crown princess, although locals have since abbreviated the name simply to the “Wies’n.” Horse races in the presence of the royal family concluded the popular event, celebrated in varying forms all across Bavaria.
The decision to repeat the festivities and the horse races in the subsequent year gave rise to the tradition of the annual Oktoberfest, which now begins in late September and lasts until the first Sunday in October. Interestingly, alcohol consumption is an important part of the modern festival, and more than 1 million gallons of beer are consumed annually at the event.
1891 👉🏼 Astronomical Society of France is inaugurated
1915 👉🏼 Despite international protest, Edith Cavell an English nurse in Belgium, is executed by the Germans for aiding the escape of Allied prisoners.
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1915 👉🏼 Ford Motor Company under Henry Ford manufactures its 1 millionth automobile at the River Rouge plant in Detroit
1931 👉🏼 Christ the Redeemer statue opens standing 30 meters high on top of Mount Corcovado overlooking Rio de Janeiro.
Built between 1921 and 1933 the monumental statue of Christ the Redeemer presides over the Brazilian city. The Art Deco style design of Christ with his arms outstretched was chosen and funded by Catholic groups in 1920.
Brazilian engineer Heitor da Silva Costa then designed and organized its construction with French sculptor Paul Landowski along with Romanian sculptor Gheorghe Leonida doing the work. Its outer layer is made of soapstone and its interior is of reinforced concrete. Today the statue stands 30 meters high, not including its 8 meter pedestal.
1933 👉🏼 Alcatraz becomes a federal prison (unofficially)
1968 👉🏼 IXX Summer Olympic Games open at Mexico City, Mexico: first Olympics in Latin America
1999 👉🏼 The Day of Six Billion: the proclaimed 6 billionth living human in the world is born
2003 👉🏼 Michael Schumacher in a Ferrari finishes 8th at the season-ending Japanese F1 Grand Prix at Suzuka; clinches 4th consecutive World Drivers Championship by 2 points from Kimi Räikkönen