Sunday, September 12, 1688

An explosion involving illegally stored mining detonators in Petlawad, India, killed 104 people and injured more than 150 others.

A Metrolink train collided head-on with a freight train in Los Angeles, California, resulting in 25 deaths and 135 injuries; the Metrolink driver had passed through a red signal, having likely been distracted by text messaging.

Typhoon Maemi, the strongest recorded typhoon to strike South Korea, made landfall near Busan.

The first public release of Steam, a distribution service for computer games, was made available for download.

Hurricane Ismael formed off the southwest coast of Mexico; it went on to kill over a hundred people in the country.

Aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour, American Mae Jemison became the first Black woman to travel to space.

The clandestine Boricua Popular Army staged a bank robbery in West Hartford, Connecticut, making off with $7 million in the largest cash theft in U.S. history at the time.

South African anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko died after being beaten in police custody in Port Elizabeth.

In a speech at Rice Stadium in Houston, U.S. president John F. Kennedy reiterated an aspiration to land a man on the Moon before 1970 (video featured).

Three boys in Flatwoods, West Virginia, U.S., reported seeing a ten-foot-tall (3 m) monster in the woods while investigating a UFO.

The People's Liberation Army launched the Liaoshen campaign, the first of the three major military campaigns during the late stage of the Chinese Civil War.

RMS Laconia was sunk by a U-boat off the coast of West Africa, which then attempted to rescue the passengers as it was acting under the old prize rules.