Today in History(Oct.12)

                - 1492: Christopher Columbus landed in what is now the Bahamas,
                  thinking it was India.
                - 1609: The children's rhyme "Three Blind Mice" was published in
                  London.
                - 1692: The Massachusetts Bay colony discontinued witch trials.
                - 1792: Columbus Day was first celebrated.
                - 1850: The first women's medical school, the Women's Medical College
                  of Pennsylvania, opened.
                - 1871: President Grant condemned the Ku Klux Klan and gave orders to
                  arrest more than 600 people that were involved with it.
                - 1892: The original Pledge of Allegiance was first recited in public
                  schools.
                - 1901: President Theodore Roosevelt discarded the name "Executive
                  Mansion" and renamed the president's dwelling "The White House."
                - 1920: Construction began on the Holland Tunnel connecting New
                  Jersey and New York City.
                - 1933: Bank robber John Dillinger escaped from an Ohio jail.
                - 1942: In the Battle of Cape Esperance in World War II, the U.S.
                  Navy defeated the Japanese.
                - 1957: Canadian Prime Minister Lester Bowles Pearson won the Nobel
                  Peace Prize.
                - 1960: Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev began banging his shoe on a
                  desktop at a U.N. General Assembly meeting.
                - 1973: Gerald Ford became the first vice president ever appointed
                  under the 25th Amendment after Spiro Agnew was forced to resign.

                *Happy Birthday*
                ----------------
                - Susan Anton, 48, actress, "Baywatch," Miss California 1969
                - Kirk Cameron, 28, actor, "Growing Pains'" Mike Seaver
                - Pat Dinizio, 43, lead of rock group Smithereens
                - Sid Fernandez, 36, former MLB pitcher
                - Dick Gregory, 66, comedian/political activist/author
                - Ned Jarrett, 66, auto racer/announcer, 50 Grand National victories
                - Tony Kubek, 62, former New York Yankees shortstop, announcer
                - Jean Nidetch, 75, Weight Watchers founder, writer
                - Luciano Pavarotti, 63, tenor/opera singer
                - Adam Rich, 30, actor, "Eight is Enough's" Nicholas Bradford
                - Chris Wallace, 51, NBC newscaster/correspondent
                - Charlie Ward, 28, NBA guard, football's Heisman Trophy winner ('93)