On this day, October 12th: California becomes the first state to ban the sale of new furs

In 1810, the citizens of Munich were invited to celebrate the wedding of Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria to Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen at the first Oktoberfest.

In 1915, British nurse Edith Cavell, 49, was executed by a German firing squad in Brussels for helping Allied soldiers escape Belgium during World War I.

In 1933, the U.S. Army Disciplinary Barracks on Alcatraz Island, also known as The Rock, was acquired by the U.S. Department of Justice. Less than a year later, the prison became home to some of the country’s most notorious criminals.

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In 1945, President Harry Truman awarded the Medal of Honor to Desmond T. Doss, the first conscientious objector to receive the award. Doss was the subject of Hacksaw Ridgea 2016 film starring Andrew Garfield.

In 1960, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev took off one of his shoes and slammed it on his desk during a speech at the United Nations.

In 1964, the Soviet Union launched Voskhod 1 into orbit around the Earth with three cosmonauts on board. It was the first spacecraft with a multi-person crew and the two-day mission was also the first orbital flight conducted without spacesuits.

In 1973, U.S. President Richard Nixon nominated House Minority Leader Gerald Ford of Michigan for vice president to replace Spiro Agnew, who had resigned two days earlier.

In 1984, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher escaped injury in the hotel bombing in Brighton, England. Four people were killed in the attack, which was attributed to the Irish Republican Army.

In 1992, an earthquake near Cairo killed more than 500 people and injured thousands.

In 1998, University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old gay man, died six days after being beaten, robbed and left tied to a fence. The U.S. Hate Crimes Prevention Act is often referred to as the “Matthew Shepard Act.”

In 2000, an explosion on the USS Cole while refueling in Yemen killed 17 sailors and injured 39. US President Bill Clinton blamed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden for the attack.

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In 2002, more than 200 people were killed in terrorist attacks near two crowded nightclubs on the Indonesian island of Bali.

In 2010, the U.S. government lifted a ban on deep-sea oil and natural gas drilling for companies following stricter rules to prevent a repeat of the massive BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

In 2016, CoverGirl announced its first male model: James Charles. The 17-year-old high school senior caught the attention of the makeup brand through his popular Instagram account.

In 2019, California became the first state in the U.S. to ban the sale of new fur products.

In 2022, a Connecticut jury convicted Infowars conspiracy theorist Alex Jones of paying nearly $1 billion to the families of eight Sandy Hook shooting victims and an FBI agent who responded to the 2012 massacre, because he spread lies and called the attack a joke.

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