Today in History: October 12, Bali nightclub bombings kill more than 200

On Monday, Oct. 12, 2026—day 285 of the year—history highlights include a deadly Bali attack and several major global milestones. In 2002, bombs blamed on al-Qaida-linked militants destroyed two nightclubs on the Indonesian island of Bali, killing 202 people, many of them foreign tourists. The date also marks events such as Christopher Columbus’s first expedition landing on what is now San Salvador in 1492, and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev famously pounding his shoe at the United Nations in 1960. Later, in 2000, the USS Cole was attacked in Aden, Yemen, killing 17. Eliud Kipchoge ran under two hours in 2019 in Vienna.