Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/April 12
This is a list of selected April 12 anniversaries that appears on the "On this day" section of the Main Page. To suggest a new item, in most cases you can be bold and edit this page. Please read the selected anniversaries guidelines before making your edit. However, if your addition might be controversial, or on a day that is or soon will be on the Main Page, please post your suggestion on the talk page instead.
Please note that the events listed on the Main Page are chosen based more on relative article quality and to maintain a mix of topics, not based solely on how important or significant their subjects are. Only 5–6 events are posted at a time and thus not everything that is "most important and significant" can be listed. In addition, an event is not generally posted this year if it is also the subject of the scheduled April 12, 2012 featured article or the April 12, 2012 featured picture.
To report an error when this appears on the Main Page, see Main Page errors. Please remember that this list defers to the supporting articles, so it is best to achieve consensus and make any necessary changes there first.
Images
Use only ONE image at a time
-
Shuttle-columbia.jpg
Space Shuttle Columbia
-
Space Shuttle Columbia
-
STS-1 flight insignia.png
STS-1 Crew Patch
-
Space Shuttle Columbia launching
-
Union Flag, 1606 version
-
Bombardment of Fort Sumter by the batteries of the Confederate states]]
.svg)
Ineligible
| Blurb | Why ineligible |
|---|---|
| 1204 – Alexius V Ducas fled Constantinople as forces under Boniface the Marquess of Montferrat and Enrico Dandolo the Doge of Venice entered and sacked the Byzantine capital, effectively ending the Fourth Crusade. | refimprove |
| 1606 – A royal decree established the Union Flag to symbolise the Union of the Crowns, merging the designs of the Flag of England and the Flag of Scotland. | lead too short |
| 1927 – Chinese Civil War: A large-scale purge of communists from the nationalist Kuomintang began in Shanghai. | needs more footnotes |
| 1980 – Samuel Doe took control of Liberia in a coup d'etat, overthrowing President William R. Tolbert, Jr. and ending over 130 years of national democratic presidential succession. | needs more footnotes |
| 1981 – Columbia, the first spaceworthy space shuttle, was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for its first flight. | refimprove |
Eligible
- 1992 – Disneyland Paris, the first Walt Disney Park in Europe, opened in the Paris suburb of Marne-la-Vallée.
- 1994 – Husband-and-wife law partners Laurence Canter and Martha Siegel posted the first massive commercial Usenet spam.
April 12: Rama Navami begins (Hinduism, 2011); Cosmonautics Day in Russia; Yuri's Night
- 467 – Anthemius was proclaimed Western Roman Emperor at the third or twelfth mile from Rome.
- 1831 – The Broughton Suspension Bridge in Manchester, England, collapsed, reportedly owing to a mechanical resonance induced by troops marching over the bridge in step.
- 1861 – Confederate forces began firing at Fort Sumter in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina, starting the American Civil War.
- 1910 – The SMS Zrínyi, one of the last pre-dreadnoughts built by the Austro-Hungarian Navy, was launched.
- 1961 – Aboard Vostok 3KA-3, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin (pictured) became the first man to enter outer space, completing one orbit in a time of 108 minutes.
- 1980 – Terry Fox dipped his artificial leg in the Atlantic Ocean at St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, and began running his "Marathon of Hope" towards the Pacific Ocean at Vancouver, British Columbia, to raise funds across Canada for cancer research.
