• Today is Friday, Oct. 12, the 286th day of 2012. There are 80 days left in the year.
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• Today's Highlight in History:
• On Oct. 12, 1962, the devastating Columbus Day Storm, also known as the "Big Blow," struck the Pacific Northwest, resulting in some 50 deaths.
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• On this date:
• In 1492 (according to the Old Style calendar), Christopher Columbus arrived with his expedition in the present-day Bahamas.
• In 1810, the German festival Oktoberfest was first held in Munich to celebrate the wedding of Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen.
• In 1870, General Robert E. Lee died in Lexington, Va., at age 63.
• In 1915, English nurse Edith Cavell was executed by the Germans in occupied Belgium during World War I.
• In 1933, bank robber John Dillinger escaped from a jail in Allen County, Ohio, with the help of his gang, who killed the sheriff, Jess Sarber.
• In 1942, during World War II, American naval forces defeated the Japanese in the Battle of Cape Esperance. Attorney General Francis Biddle announced during a Columbus Day celebration at Carnegie Hall in New York that Italian nationals in the United States would no longer be considered enemy aliens.
• In 1960, Japanese Socialist Party leader Inejiro Asanuma was stabbed to death during a televised debate in Tokyo by an ultranationalist student, Otoya Yamaguchi, who hanged himself in jail.
• In 1971, the rock opera "Jesus Christ Superstar" opened at the Mark Hellinger Theatre on Broadway.
• In 1986, the superpower meeting in Reykjavik, Iceland, ended in stalemate, with President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev unable to agree on arms control or a date for a full-fledged summit in the United States.
• In 1987, former Gov. Alfred ("Alf") M. Landon, R-Kan., died at his Topeka home at age 100.
• In 1997, singer John Denver was killed in the crash of his privately built aircraft in Monterey Bay, Calif.; he was 53.

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