Wednesday 12th of October 1492

41-year-old Explorer, navigator, cartographer and captain Christophorus Columbus discovers and lands on the first land in the New World and calls it San Salvador in Guanahani, San Salvador, Bahamas.

Monday 12th of October 1654

Several 100s die in gunpowder storage building explosion in Kruithuis, Delft, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands.

Tuesday 12th of October 1875

Occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, painter and mountaineer Aleister Edward Alexander Crowley aka The Great Beast is born in 30 Clarendon Square, Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, United Kingdom.

Monday 12th of October 1891

Martyr and saint of the Catholic Church Edith Stein aka St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross is born in Breslau, Schlesien, Germany.

Tuesday 12th of October 1915

Nurse Edith Louisa Cavell is executed by the firing squad at the age of 50 in Tir National, Brussel, Schaerbeek, Brabant, Belgium.

Sixteen men forming two firing squads carried out the sentence pronounced on Cavell and on four Belgian men including Cavell's friend Philippe Baucq.

Friday 12th of October 1923

16-year-old Wilhelm Erdner is killed and his meat sold by serial killer Fritz Haarmann aka Der Hannover Werwolf in Das Mordhaus, Rote Reihe 4, Hannover, Niedersachsen, Germany.

Saturday 12th of October 1935

Tenor Luciano Pavarotti is born in Modena, Emilia-Romagna, Italy.

Tuesday 12th of October 1943

Presumed murderer Jeffrey Robert MacDonald is born in Jamaica, New York, United States.

Thursday 12th of October 1944

Assassin Josef Erwin Bachmann known for shooting Rudi Dutschke is born in Reichenbach im Vogtland, Sachsen, Germany.

Saturday 12th of October 1946

Neighbour to David Berkowitz aka Son of Sam John Carr aka Wheaties is born in Yonkers, New York, United States.

Wednesday 12th of October 1949

Terrorist Ilich Ramírez Sánchez aka Carlos the Jackal is born in Michelena, Estado Táchira, Venezuela.

Wednesday 12th of October 1955

Victim of Ted Bundy aka The Only Living Witness Susan Elaine Rancourt is born in La Conner, Washington, United States.

Thursday 12th of October 1967

47-year-old Reyer de Bruijn is beaten to death by serial killer Hans van Zon in Heeswijk, Noord-Brabant, Netherlands.

Afterwards van Zon returned to cut de Bruijn's throat.

Sunday 12th of October 1969

35-year-old Family leader Charles Milles Manson known for conspiracy to murder Sharon Tate is arrested in a police-raid in Barker Ranch, Death Valley National Park, California, United States.

Manson was hiding in a small cupboard under a bathroom sink and spotted by his hair sticking out of the door. Also arrested are Beth Tracy aka Collie Sinclair, Diane Bluestein aka Shake Lake, Sherry Andrews aka Claudia Leigh Smith, John Philip Haught aka Zero Christopher Jesus, Kenneth R. Brown aka Scott Bell Davis, Lee Hamic aka William Rex Cole aka Bill Vance, Vern Edward Thompson aka Plumlee, Lawrence L. Bailey aka Little Larry and Bruce Davis. They are all charged with auto-theft.

Tuesday 12th of October 1971

Musician Gene Vincent known for his top ten hit ‘Be-Bop-A-Lula’ dies of a ruptured stomach ulcer at the age of 36 in Newhall, California, United States.

Vincent tripped in his parents' house and ruptured a stomach ulcer. He was taken to the hospital where he died.

Saturday 12th of October 1974

Cult victim Arlis Kay Perry is sexually assaulted with altar candles, tortured and ritually murdered by cultists at the age of 19 in Stanford Memorial Church, Stanford, California, United States.

Thursday 12th of October 1978

19-year-old Susan Geiger is drugged, tortured and sexually assaulted by serial killer Richard Cottingham aka The Torso Killer in Airport Motel, US Hwy 46 N, Hackensack, New Jersey, United States.

Geiger survived with bruises and lacerations all over her body and contusions, abrasions and bite marks on her breasts.

Thursday 12th of October 1978

20-year-old Nancy Laura Spungen aka Nauseating Nancy is stabbed to death by musician Sid Vicious in Hotel Chelsea, 222 West 23rd Street, New York City, New York, United States.

Sunday 12th of October 1980

42-year-old Wiener Aktionist Hermann Nitsch performs his 69. Aktion for the opening of the New York Art Fair in Passenger Ship Terminal Pier 92, New York City, New York, United States.

Sunday 12th of October 1980

34-year-old Mass murderer Freddy André Horion aka De Zonnebril tries to escape from prison by use of a replica handgun made out of breadcrumb in De Nieuwe Wandeling, Nieuwewandeling 89, Gent, Oost-Vlaanderen, Belgium.

Horion was caught on the roof of the prison.

Tuesday 12th of October 1982

21-year-old Craig Townsend is handcuffed, severely beaten up and left in a coma by serial killer Larry Eyler aka The Leather Boy Killer in Interstate 65, Lowell, Indiana, United States.

Townsend had escaped from the hospital before detectives completed their investigation of the unprovoked assault.

Friday 12th of October 1984

Spree killer Linwood Earl Briley is executed by Old Sparky at the age of 30 in Mecklenburg Correctional Center, Boydton, Virginia, United States.

Saturday 12th of October 1985

Seventeenth and eighteenth bomb attack by Terrorist organisation Les Cellules Communistes Combattantes aka CCC in Fabrimetal, Rue Puissant d'Agimont 15, Charleroi, Hainaut, Belgium.

A tax office in the same street was also bombed. It was the second action in their Campagne Karl Marx.

Sunday 12th of October 1986

Ophthalmologist Li Wenliang known for warning about the new ‘Wuhan’ COVID-19 aka ‘Corona virus’ strain is born in Beizhen, Liaoning, China.

Sunday 12th of October 1997

Singer-songwriter John Denver crashes with his experimental Rutan Long-EZ plane while making a series of touch-and-go landings at the nearby Monterey Peninsula Airport at the age of 54 in Monterey Bay, Pacific Grove, California, United States.

Denver was not legally permitted to fly at the time of the accident because had a number of drunk driving arrests in the previous years.

Tuesday 12th of October 1999

Cop killer Alvin Wayne Crane is executed by lethal injection at the age of 41 in Huntsville Prison, 815 12th Street, Huntsville, Texas, United States.

Friday 12th of October 2001

Murderer David Junior Ward is executed by lethal injection at the age of 40 in Raleigh State Prison, Raleigh, North Carolina, United States.

Saturday 12th of October 2002

202 die in al-Qaeda bomb attack in Paddy's Pub and Sari Club, Kuta, Bali, Indonesia.

The Mitsubishi L300 van bomb was made from potassium chlorate, aluminium powder, and sulfur. The terrorists assembled 12 plastic filing cabinets filled with explosives. The cabinets, each containing a potassium chlorate, aluminum powder, sulfur mixture with a TNT booster, was connected by 150 metres of PETN-filled detonating cord. Ninety-four RDX electric detonators were fitted to the TNT. The total weight of the van bomb was 1.020 kg. The attack killed 88 Australians, 38 Indonesians, 23 Britons and people of more than 20 other nationalities.

Saturday 12th of October 2002

Bandleader and composer Ray Joseph Raymond Conniff dies after falling and hitting his head on the sink at the age of 83 in Escondido, California, United States.

Tuesday 12th of October 2004

Murderer Donald Loren Aldrich is executed by lethal injection at the age of 40 in Huntsville Prison, 815 12th Street, Huntsville, Texas, United States.

Aldrich's last meal request was for chef salad with French/Ranch dressing, fried chicken breasts and legs, french fries, a cheeseburger, chocolate cake, deviled eggs, and biscuits with gravy.

Wednesday 12th of October 2005

In 1927 the Kuomintang carried out a purge of suspected communists in Shanghai. Thousands of victims of this purge were brought to the temple grounds to be executed in Longhua Martyrs Cemetery, Shanghai, China.

Sunday 12th of October 2014

A tree damaged by cattle in Kalmthoutse Heide, Kalmthout, Antwerpen, Belgium.