On this day... October 12:

On this day...

October 12:  Our Lady Aparecida's Day and Children's Day in Brazil;Independence Day in Equatorial Guinea (1968); National Day in Spain (1492) 1799 – Jeanne Geneviève Labrosse (pictured)became the first woman to make a parachutedescent, falling 900 m (3,000 ft) in a hot-air balloon gondola. 1892 – The Pledge of Allegiance of the United States was first used in public schools to coincide with the opening of the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois. 1917 – First World War: New Zealand troops suffered 2,735 casualties, including 845 deaths, in the First Battle of Passchendaele, making it the nation's largest loss of life in one day. 1984 – The Provisional Irish Republican Army detonated a bomb at the Grand Hotel in Brighton, England, in a failed attempt to assassinate British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and most of her cabinet. 1999 – Pakistani General Pervez Musharraf led a military coupagainst the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.