Oct 12
1960
Nikita Khrushchev’s shoe speech
On this day in 1960, one of the most iconic Cold War moments unfolded when Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev allegedly banged his shoe at the United Nations. The confrontation began when the Philippine delegate gave a speech accusing the Soviet Union of hypocrisy for decrying Western colonialism while it “swallowed up” Eastern European nations. Khrushchev began beating his shoe on his desk. Or maybe he just brandished it. What actually happened has been debated, though the incident was in keeping with the fiery Khrushchev’s reputation.
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Featured Event
Architect of the Capitol
The New World was “discovered” this day in 1492 when land (most likely San Salvador) was sighted in the Caribbean from the Pinta, one of the three ships that participated in Christopher Columbus’s historic voyage.
Featured Biography
Gretchen Ertl/AP/REX/Shutterstock.com
Born on this day in Modena, Italy, in 1935, Luciano Pavarotti, an operatic lyric tenor noted for his mastery of the highest notes of a tenor’s range, is considered one of the finest bel canto singers of recent times.
More on October 12
AP/Wide World Photos
2001
The centennial Nobel Prize for Peace was awarded to the United Nations and the organization’s secretary-general, Kofi Annan. [How much do you know about the Nobel Prize?]
U.S. Department of Defense
© Bettmann/Getty Images
1999
American basketball player Wilt Chamberlain, who was considered one of the greatest offensive players in the history of the game, died at age 63. [Take our basketball quiz.]
Official White House Photo by Pete Souza
1998
American college student Matthew Shepard died in Fort Collins, Colorado, several days after being beaten by two men and left in the cold in Laramie, Wyoming; Shepard’s homosexuality was believed to have motivated the attack, and his death contributed to the expansion of federal hate-crime legislation.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1968
Equatorial Guinea gained its independence from Spain. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about Africa.]
George Grantham Bain Collection/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (Digital File Number: LC-DIG-ggbain-20235)
1915
During World War I, English nurse Edith Cavell was executed for assisting Allied soldiers in escaping from German-occupied Belgium. [Test your knowledge of World War I.]
Image: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1898
A landmark in labor union history, a coal-mine riot took place in Virden, Illinois, when strikebreakers were brought in. [Test your knowledge of U.S. history.]
Courtesy of the Italian Foreign Office, Rome
1896
Eugenio Montale, Italian poet, prose writer, editor, and translator who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1975, was born in Genoa. [Take our quiz about Nobel laureates in literature.]
Central Press Photos Ltd.
1866
Ramsay MacDonald, the first Labour Party prime minister of the United Kingdom—in the Labour governments of 1924 and 1929–31 and in the national coalition government of 1931–35—was born. [Test your knowledge of prime ministers.]
Joe Viesti/The Viesti Collection
1810
The first Oktoberfest was celebrated in Munich, in the form of a horse race held in honour of the marriage of the crown prince of Bavaria (who later became King Louis I) to Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen. [Learn key facts about Oktoberfest.]
