TODAY IN HISTORY

TUESDAY OCT 12, 2021 2000

17sailors were killed in a suicide bomb attack on the destroyer USS Cole in Yemen.

1792

The first recorded U.S. celebration of Columbus Day was held to mark the tricentennial of Christopher Columbus’ landing.

1933

Bank robber John Dillinger escaped from a jail in Allen County, Ohio, with the help of his gang, who killed the sheriff, Jess Sarber.

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.

1973

President Richard Nixon nominated House minority leader Gerald R. Ford of Michigan to succeed Spiro T. Agnew as vice president.

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.