What Happened on October 12

Athletics

2019 — Kipchoge Breaks Two-Hour Marathon Barrier in Vienna

The 34-year-old Kenyan covered 26.2 miles in 1:59:40, finishing with 20 seconds to spare after hitting the 40-kilometer mark 10 seconds ahead of schedule in an event that drew 100,000 spectators.

Eliud Kipchoge crossed the finish line alone in Vienna today, arms wide, mouth open in a silent roar. The Kenyan had run 26.2 miles in 1 hour 59 minutes 40 seconds.

The 34-year-old's time does not count as an official world record. The event, staged by petrochemical firm INEOS on a flat, tree-lined course with rotating pacemakers, falls outside World Athletics rules. But the clock showed what the clock showed.

Kipchoge, the 2016 and 2012 Olympic marathon champion and world record holder at 2:01:39, had attempted this once before. In 2017, on a Formula One track in Monza, Italy, he missed by 25 seconds. Two years of training, a redesigned course, and a battery of 41 pacemakers brought him back.

The run began before dawn on the Prater Hauptallee, a straight avenue through a city park. Kipchoge wore white, his expression fixed. Behind him, a digital clock tracked each kilometer against the two-hour deadline. At 40 kilometers he was 10 seconds ahead of schedule. He finished with 20 seconds to spare.

"I am the happiest man," he said afterward, "to run under two hours." The achievement draws immediate comparison to Roger Bannister's four-minute mile in 1954 — a barrier demolished, a psychological ceiling removed.

Vienna police estimated 100,000 spectators lined the route. The event cost undisclosed millions. Kipchoge's previous marathon victory came in London this April. He has lost only twice in 13 starts at the distance.

• Eliud Kipchoge from Kenya becomes the first person to run a marathon in less than two hours with a time of 1:59:40 in Vienna.

Source: Wikipedia — Eliud Kipchoge

The Indies Dispatch

1492 — Columbus Lands in Guanahani, Names Native Peoples 'Indios'

Admiral claims Bahamas island for Castile after three-month Atlantic crossing

Christopher Columbus, sailing for Spain, made landfall on Guanahani, an island in the Bahamas long inhabited by the Lucayan people. The island's native residents had settled there in the ninth century, living without the metal weapons or armor familiar to European armies.

Columbus took captives and gave the name "indios" to the Indigenous peoples he encountered. The royal standard was raised ashore as he claimed the territory for Castile.

In his log, Columbus described the Lucayans as gentle and poorly armed. His men obtained small quantities of gold jewelry through trade, along with parrots and plants as samples of the land's offerings.

Columbus had departed Palos in August after months of delays, commanding the Niña, Pinta and Santa María. His fleet crossed the Atlantic in just over two months before sighting land.

The expedition established sustained European contact with the Americas. Before returning to Castile, Columbus would leave thirty-nine men at a settlement on Hispaniola after the Santa María ran aground there in late December.

• Columbus left the Port of Palos in August 1492 with three ships.
• His landing place was an island in the Bahamas known by its native inhabitants as Guanahani.
• Columbus encountered the Lucayan people on the island Guanahani, which they had inhabited since the ninth century.
• Columbus returned to Castile in early 1493 with captured natives.
• Columbus gave the name 'indios' to the Indigenous peoples he encountered.

Source: Wikipedia — East Indies

Disaster Desk

2019 — Typhoon Hagibis Kills 10, Forces One Million to Evacuate in Japan

The storm makes landfall with record rainfall and swollen rivers.

Typhoon Hagibis struck Japan today, leaving 10 dead and forcing the evacuation of one million people. The storm brought record rainfall and swollen rivers to Honshu.

Winds reached 90 mph at landfall. Rivers overtopped banks in Nagano and Fukushima prefectures. The Japan Meteorological Agency issued its highest warning level for Tokyo and surrounding areas.

Rugby World Cup matches were canceled. Formula One qualifying at Suzuka was postponed. Bullet train service was suspended.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe convened an emergency meeting. Self-Defense Forces were deployed for rescue operations. Flooding from above reached rooftops in some towns.

• Typhoon Hagibis makes landfall in Japan, killing 10 and forcing the evacuation of one million people.

Source: Wikipedia — Typhoon Hagibis

Cosmonautics Bureau

1964 — Soviets Launch Voskhod 1 with Three-Man Crew, No Pressure Suits

The spacecraft achieves two orbital firsts in a single flight.

Three men in civilian clothing sat shoulder to shoulder in a cabin built for one. The Soviet Union launched Voskhod 1 today, the first spacecraft to carry more than one cosmonaut — and the first to fly without pressure suits.

Vladimir Komarov commanded. Konstantin Feoktistov, a spacecraft designer, and Boris Yegorov, a physician, completed the crew. The Voskhod capsule, a modified Vostok, had no ejection seats and no space for suits.

• The Soviet Union launches the Voskhod 1 into Earth orbit as the first spacecraft with a multi-person crew, and the first flight without pressure suits.

Source: Wikipedia — Voskhod 1

Pacific Weather Bureau

1979 — Typhoon Tip Smashes World Pressure Record at 870 Millibars

The 870-millibar reading, confirmed by U.S. reconnaissance flights, came from a system whose windfield reached 2,220 kilometers across.

Weather science has a new benchmark for nature's fury. Typhoon Tip registered a global record-low sea-level pressure of 870 mbar in the western Pacific today, the lowest ever measured in a tropical cyclone.

The U.S. Air Force confirmed the reading after flying repeated reconnaissance missions into the storm's core. At peak intensity, Tip's windfield stretched 2,220 kilometers across, making it the largest tropical cyclone on record.

• Typhoon Tip reached a worldwide record-low sea-level pressure of 870 hPa on October 12, 1979.
• At its peak, Tip had a windfield diameter of 2,220 km, making it the largest tropical cyclone on record.
• U.S. Air Force aircraft flew approximately 60 weather reconnaissance missions into the storm.
• Tip's peak sustained winds reached 305 km/h (190 mph).
• Rainfall from Tip indirectly led to a fire that killed 13 U.S. Marines and injured 68 at Camp Fuji in Japan.

Source: Wikipedia — Typhoon Tip

Jiuquan Launch Center

2005 — China Sends Two Astronauts on Five-Day Shenzhou 6 Flight

Second crewed mission marks China's steady advance into human space exploration.

The Long March of Chinese space ambition reached another waypoint this morning. Shenzhou 6 lifted from Jiuquan carrying two cosmonauts into orbit for a five-day mission, only the second human spaceflight in the nation's history.

The launch extends the program that began with solo astronaut Yang Liwei's 2003 flight. Where that mission lasted barely 21 hours, Shenzhou 6 doubles the crew and multiplies the duration fivefold. State media broadcast the ascent live.

• The second Chinese human spaceflight, Shenzhou 6, is launched, carrying two cosmonauts in orbit for five days.

Source: Wikipedia — Shenzhou 6

Lake County Bureau

1918 — Cloquet Fire Claims 453 Lives as Flames Sweep Northeast Minnesota

The 1918 disaster stands as the state's deadliest natural catastrophe.

Fire warden Thomas P. Barlow never imagined his warnings would come to this. By nightfall, a wall of flame had swallowed Cloquet, Moose Lake and dozens of lumber towns across Carlton and St. Louis counties, leaving 453 dead and thousands homeless.

The firestorm erupted October 12, 1918, fed by drought, logging slash and 60-mile-an-hour winds. Temperatures in the burning columns reached 2,000 degrees. Barlow's telephone lines to Duluth went dead as operators fled. Settlements vanished in minutes.

The disaster dwarfed the Chicago fire and matched the Peshtigo blaze of 1871. Survivors stumbled onto Lake Superior beaches, faces blistered, clothing smoldering. The Northern Pacific Railroad ran evacuation trains through burning tunnels. President Wilson ordered Army rations shipped north.

• A massive forest fire kills 453 people in Minnesota.

Source: Wikipedia — Cloquet Fire

Middle East Desk

1992 — Cairo Earthquake Death Toll Passes 510 as Rescue Teams Dig Through Rubble

A 5.8 temblor that killed 510 people struck Cairo at 3:15 p.m., crumbling ancient mosques and modern housing as rescue crews pulled victims from rubble in crowded neighborhoods.

At least 510 people died when a 5.8 earthquake shook Cairo before dawn today, collapsing apartment blocks and burying sleeping families in rubble.

The quake struck at 3:15 p.m. local time, its epicenter near the city center. Ancient mosques crumbled alongside modern concrete housing. Hospitals overflowed with injured.

Rescue crews worked through the afternoon pulling victims from collapsed buildings in crowded neighborhoods.

• A 5.8 earthquake occurred in Cairo, Egypt. At least 510 died.

Source: Wikipedia — 1992 Cairo earthquake

United Nations — New York

1960 — Khrushchev Pounds Shoe on Desk in Wild UN Outburst at Philippine Attack

Assembly president's gavel shattered as he tried to end the chaos.

Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev pounded his shoe on his delegate-desk Tuesday during the 902nd Plenary Meeting of the UN General Assembly in New York City, answering a Philippine attack on Soviet domination of Eastern Europe with a display of table-thumping fury.

The explosion came after delegate Lorenzo Sumulong of the Philippines accused the Soviet Union of "swallowing up" Eastern European peoples.

• Khrushchev pounded his shoe on his delegate-desk during the 902nd Plenary Meeting of the UN General Assembly in New York City.
• The protest was triggered by a speech from Philippine delegate Lorenzo Sumulong, who accused the Soviet Union of swallowing up Eastern European peoples.
• Assembly President Frederick Boland of Ireland slammed his gavel so hard to adjourn the chaotic meeting that he broke it, sending the head flying.
• Khrushchev called Sumulong 'a jerk, a stooge, and a lackey' and a 'toady of American imperialism' during the incident.
• The New York Times published a photograph showing Khrushchev and Andrei Gromyko with a shoe visible on Khrushchev's desk.

Source: Wikipedia — Nikita Khrushchev

Bavarian Court — Munich

1810 — Munich Citizens Launch Oktoberfest to Honor Royal Wedding

Celebration marks marriage of Crown Prince Louis and Princess Therese.

The meadows before the city gates have been transformed. Citizens of Munich gathered this day in 1810 to hold the first Oktoberfest, a public festival honoring the marriage of Crown Prince Louis of Bavaria to Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen.

The celebration drew thousands to the open fields west of the city walls. Local brewers erected tents and supplied their finest October beer for the common people and nobility alike.

• The citizens of Munich hold the first Oktoberfest in celebration of the marriage of Crown Prince Louis of Bavaria and Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen.

Source: Wikipedia — Oktoberfest