Which event does this 1492 photograph show?

A crew that nearly mutinied a week earlier sights land at two in the morning (1492). A lookout sighted land in the early hours of 12 October 1492, after five weeks at sea and days of the crew pressing to turn back. Columbus later claimed the prize for the first sighting himself, on the grounds that he had seen a light the previous evening. Which island it was is still argued over.

Which event does this 1933 photograph show?

An army prison on an island is handed over to be a maximum security jail (1933). The army handed Alcatraz to the Justice Department on 12 October 1933, to hold the prisoners no other jail could keep. It ran for 29 years. Thirty-six men tried to escape and five were never accounted for, which is the whole basis of the legend; the freezing currents make survival unlikely but nobody knows.

Which event does this 1928 photograph show?

A machine that breathes for a paralysed patient is used for the first time (1928). The first iron lung was used on 12 October 1928 on a girl at Boston Children's Hospital who was unconscious from polio. She revived within a minute of the pump starting. Philip Drinker had built the prototype from an iron box and two vacuum cleaners. Some polio survivors went on living in them for decades.

Which event does this 1870 photograph show?

A defeated general dies as a college president, five years after surrendering (1870). Robert E. Lee died on 12 October 1870, aged 63. After surrendering at Appomattox he took the presidency of a small and nearly bankrupt college in Virginia and spent his last years running it. He discouraged former Confederates from keeping the quarrel alive, and never applied successfully for the restoration of his citizenship, which Congress finally granted in 1975.

Which event does this 1915 photograph show?

A nurse is shot by a firing squad for helping soldiers escape an occupied country (1915). Edith Cavell was shot in Brussels at dawn on 12 October 1915. She had run a nursing school and treated wounded from both sides, and had helped around two hundred Allied soldiers slip out of occupied Belgium. The night before she died she said that patriotism is not enough, and that she must have no hatred for anyone.

What happened on October 12? Columbus makes landfall, Alcatraz becomes a federal prison and 3 more

What happened on October 12

All 5 specimens from this file, spanning 1492 to 1933, with the story behind each photograph.

Reveal the full answer key

Exploration · 1492

A crew that nearly mutinied a week earlier sights land at two in the morning

A lookout sighted land in the early hours of 12 October 1492, after five weeks at sea and days of the crew pressing to turn back. Columbus later claimed the prize for the first sighting himself, on the grounds that he had seen a light the previous evening. Which island it was is still argued over.
Crime · 1933

An army prison on an island is handed over to be a maximum security jail

The army handed Alcatraz to the Justice Department on 12 October 1933, to hold the prisoners no other jail could keep. It ran for 29 years. Thirty-six men tried to escape and five were never accounted for, which is the whole basis of the legend; the freezing currents make survival unlikely but nobody knows.
Science · 1928

A machine that breathes for a paralysed patient is used for the first time

The first iron lung was used on 12 October 1928 on a girl at Boston Children's Hospital who was unconscious from polio. She revived within a minute of the pump starting. Philip Drinker had built the prototype from an iron box and two vacuum cleaners. Some polio survivors went on living in them for decades.
History · 1870

A defeated general dies as a college president, five years after surrendering

Robert E. Lee died on 12 October 1870, aged 63. After surrendering at Appomattox he took the presidency of a small and nearly bankrupt college in Virginia and spent his last years running it. He discouraged former Confederates from keeping the quarrel alive, and never applied successfully for the restoration of his citizenship, which Congress finally granted in 1975.
Conflict · 1915

A nurse is shot by a firing squad for helping soldiers escape an occupied country

Edith Cavell was shot in Brussels at dawn on 12 October 1915. She had run a nursing school and treated wounded from both sides, and had helped around two hundred Allied soldiers slip out of occupied Belgium. The night before she died she said that patriotism is not enough, and that she must have no hatred for anyone.