October 12

1812: Nobel Prize winner Ascanio Sobrero, who discovered nitroglycerine, was born. 1860: Elmer Sperry, inventor of the gyrocompass, was born. 1920: Construction of the Holland Tunnel began. 1926: Maytag made what was at the time the largest single shipment of merchandise in the country. 1928: The iron lung was first introduced in Boston to treat Polio patients. 1964: The Soviet Union launched its Voskhod-1, the first spaceship to carry a multiple crew, into orbit around the Earth. 1992: Arecibo radio telescope began searching for occupied planets. 1997: Singer John Denver was killed in the crash of his privately built Long-EZ aircraft in Monterey Bay, CA. 2000: Al Qaeda terrorists killed 17 sailors on the USS Cole as it refueled in Yemen. 2005: The Large Binocular Telescope Osbervatory achieved "first light."