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more events on October 12
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2002
Terrorist bombers kill over 200 and wound over 300 more at the Sari Club in Kuta, Bali.
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2000
Suicide bombers at Aden, Yemen, damage USS Cole; 17 crew members killed and over 35 wounded.
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1999
Chief of Army Staff Perez Musharraf seizes power in Pakistan through a bloodless military coup.
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1994
NASA loses contact with the Magellan probe spacecraft in the thick atmosphere of Venus.
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1984
The Provisional Irish Republican Army detonates at bomb at the Grand Hotel in Brighton, England, in an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher; 5 others are killed and 31 wounded.
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1971
The House of Representatives passes the Equal Rights Amendment 354-23.
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1970
President Richard Nixon announces the pullout of 40,000 more American troops in Vietnam by Christmas.
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1968
Hugh Jackman, actor; well known for his recurring role as Wolverine in the X-Men films, his many awards include a Golden Globe (Les Miserables, 2013) and a Tony Award Special Award for Extraordinary Contribution to the Theatre Community (2012).
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1964
1964 USSR launches Voskhod I, first spacecraft with multi-person crew; it is also the first mission in which the crew did not wear space suits.
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1960
Inejiro Asanuma, leaders of the Japan Socialist Party, is assassinated during a live TV broadcast.
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1955
Ante Gotvina, Croatian lieutenant general; convicted in 2011 of war crimes during the Croatian civil war, his conviction was overturned in 2012.
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1949
Carlos the Jackal (Ilich Ramirez Sanches), one of the most infamous political terrorists of the 1970s; currently (2013) serving a life term in France.
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Eugenie Anderson becomes the first woman U.S. ambassador.
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1947
Chris Wallace, former host/moderator of Meet the Press, currently (2013) host of Fox News Sunday; the three-time Emmy winner is the only person thus far to host more than one major Sunday political talk show.
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1944
Angel Rippon, first female journalist to present BBC national television news on a permanent basis.