TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is Monday, Oct. 12, the 286th day of 2020. There are 80 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History:

On Oct. 12, 2002, bombs blamed on al-Qaida-linked militants destroyed a nightclub on the Indonesian island of Bali, killing 202 people, including 88 Australians and seven Americans.

On this date:

■ In 1492 (according to the Old Style calendar), Christopher Columbus’ expedition arrived in the present-day Bahamas.

■ In 1864, Roger B. Taney (TAH’-nee), 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.