October 12 marks numerous significant historical events, from attacks and Nobel Prizes to political upheavals and protests. This calendar page summarizes key moments, including birthdays and death anniversaries of prominent figures. It provides an overview of past dates that remain relevant today.
The calendar page for October 12 highlights historical dates that have shaped world politics and culture. In 2000, a suicide bombing targeted the US destroyer USS Cole in Aden harbor, Yemen, killing 17 US sailors and two attackers. That same year, exiled author Gao Xingjian, living in Paris, became the first Chinese writer to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature.
In 1990, German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble (CDU) was seriously injured by two shots from a mentally disturbed man during a campaign event. In 1960, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev protested with his shoe at the UN General Assembly in New York against the course of a debate—whether he hammered it on the table remains disputed. In 1890, the Socialist Workers' Party adopted the name Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) at its congress in Halle (October 12-18).
Birthdays include Hugh Jackman (born 1968, age 57), Australian actor in films like the X-Men tetralogy and Australia, and Sophie von Kessel (also 1968, 57), German actress in works such as Kunstfehler and Song für Mia. Others: Luciano Pavarotti (1935, Italian opera singer, died 2007) and Richard Meier (1934, 91), US architect of buildings like the Arp Museum in Remagen and the Getty Center in Los Angeles.
The death anniversary noted is 2012 for Harry Valérien (born 1923), German sports journalist who moderated 283 editions of Aktuelles Sportstudio on ZDF. Name days on October 12 are Edwin, Herlind, and Maximilian.