Good morning. It’s October 12th—and before we turn the dial to 1978, let’s see what this date has already carried through history.
Today is National Gumbo Day—a fine excuse for a slow-simmered bowl with a story in every spoonful.
📅 On This Day — October 12
1492 — Christopher Columbus’s expedition reached an island in the Bahamas. The landing began sustained European contact with the Americas—and centuries of conquest, displacement and profound change for Indigenous peoples.
1810 — Bavaria’s Crown Prince Ludwig married Princess Therese, and Munich’s public festivities helped launch the tradition that became Oktoberfest.
1915 — British nurse Edith Cavell was executed by a German firing squad in occupied Brussels after helping Allied soldiers escape.
1964 — The Soviet Union launched Voskhod 1 with three cosmonauts, the first spaceflight to carry more than one person.
1968 — Equatorial Guinea became independent from Spain.
1997 — Singer-songwriter John Denver died when the experimental aircraft he was piloting crashed into Monterey Bay.
2000 — Terrorists attacked the USS Cole while it refueled in Aden, Yemen, killing 17 U.S. sailors and injuring 37.
Now, let’s set the dial back to 1978...
⏪ REWIND: 1978
Disco still owned the dance floor, newspapers thumped onto doorsteps, and television viewers chose among three major networks. At the ballpark, October belonged to the Dodgers and Yankees. In Washington, though, the day’s most consequential scene unfolded around a negotiating table.
📰 The Headlines
On October 12, Egyptian and Israeli delegations opened peace-treaty talks at Blair House in Washington, building on the Camp David Accords signed less than a month earlier. President Jimmy Carter welcomed the negotiators, but the hard work was just beginning: the talks would stall, restart and demand months of diplomacy before Egypt and Israel signed their treaty in March 1979. On this Thursday in 1978, peace was not yet a finished document. It was a room, a table and a decision to keep talking.
🎬 At the Movies
For the week ending October 11, Animal House returned to No. 1 in Variety’s sampled-city chart, with $1,868,567 reported from the surveyed engagements. That sampled gross is not a nationwide total.
National Lampoon’s Animal House had turned a scruffy fraternity comedy into a full-blown phenomenon. Released in July, the $3 million film was on its way to a $141.6 million domestic run. John Belushi’s barely verbal Bluto became its chaotic mascot, and Hollywood got a durable lesson: a low-budget comedy could crash the gates like a runaway parade float.
🎵 On the Charts
Exile’s “Kiss You All Over” sat at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart dated October 14—its third of four consecutive weeks at the top. The record’s polished mix of soft rock, disco pulse and synthesizer strings sounded built for late-’70s radio, even as the Kentucky band would later reinvent itself as a country act.
🏆 In Sports
October 12 was a travel day in the World Series, and the Dodgers boarded the flight east with a 2–0 lead over the defending-champion Yankees. Los Angeles had won Game 1, 11–5, then survived Game 2, 4–3, when rookie Bob Welch struck out Reggie Jackson to end it. Game 3 awaited at Yankee Stadium the next night. The pause belonged to the Dodgers; the comeback, as history knows, would belong to New York, which won the series in six.
📺 On Television
Thursday’s television choices ranged from an alien visitor to family drama:
ABC — Mork & Mindy aired “Mork’s Seduction.”
CBS — The Waltons aired “The Moonshiner.”
NBC — Project U.F.O. was on the evening’s schedule.
🏰 Disney Vault
The Cat from Outer Space had landed in theaters that June. Disney’s G-rated science-fiction comedy sent an extraterrestrial feline named Jake into the orbit of scientists, the Army and a physicist trying to repair the cat’s spacecraft. It was a cheerfully odd artifact of a year when Hollywood’s space craze could make room for laser battles—and a telekinetic Abyssinian.
— a couple of quick things before you go —
❤️ Health Snap
Move more, sit less. The CDC says any amount of moderate- or vigorous-intensity activity offers some health benefit, and the usual adult target is 150 minutes of moderate activity each week plus muscle-strengthening on two days. A short walk today still counts; build from there at a pace that fits you.
🎉 October 12 Birthdays
Forward this to them right now—there’s no better “this is the day you were born” gift than a little time travel.
In good company:
Dick Gregory, born in 1932, the comedian and civil-rights activist, would have turned 94.
Luciano Pavarotti, born in 1935, the operatic tenor who brought a stadium-sized voice to global audiences, would have turned 91.
Susan Anton, born in 1950, the actor and singer, turns 76.
Hugh Jackman, born in 1968, the actor and song-and-dance showman, turns 58.
Josh Hutcherson, born in 1992, the actor known for The Hunger Games, turns 34.
From a Bavarian wedding to a table at Blair House, October 12 reminds us that history can begin with a gathering—and that the outcome is rarely visible from the first day. Thanks for spending a few minutes in 1978 with us. Tomorrow, we’ll turn the dial again.
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