October 12

---  A sailor on board the Pinta sighted land early in the morning of October 12, 1492, and a new era of European exploration and expansion began. The next day, the 90 crew members of Christopher Columbus's three-ship fleet ventured onto the Bahamian island of Guanahaní, ending a voyage begun nearly ten weeks earlier in Palos, Spain.

See : http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/oct12.html.

--- The first battle of Passchendaele was a World War I battle that took place on 12 October 1917 in the Ypres salient area of the Western Front, outside the Belgian town of Passchendaele, during the third battle of Ypres. The Allied attack failed to capture and hold the German-held high ground along the Passchendaele-Westrozebeke ridge and resulted in significant Allied casualties.

See : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_Passchendaele.