April 12
April 12 is the 102nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (103rd in leap years). There are 263 days remaining.
Events
- 467 - Anthemius is elevated to Emperor of the Western Roman Empire
- 1204 - The Fourth Crusade sacks Constantinople
- 1606 - The Union Jack is adopted as the national flag of Great Britain.
- 1633 - The formal interrogation by the Inquisition of Galileo Galilei begins.
- 1815 - Mount Tambora blows its top during an eruption event that started on April 5. 92,000 are killed during this eruption.
- 1861 - American Civil War: The war begins with Confederate forces firing on Fort Sumter, in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina
- 1864 - American Civil War: Fort Pillow massacre: Confederate forces under General Nathan Bedford Forrest kill most of the African American soldiers who had surrendered at Fort Pillow, Tennessee
- 1865 - American Civil War: Mobile, Alabama falls to the Union Army
- 1877 - The United Kingdom annexes the Transvaal
- 1926 - By a vote of 45 to 41, the United States Senate unseats Iowa Senator Smith W. Brookhart and seats Daniel F. Steck, after Brookhart had already served for over one year.
- 1937 - Sir Frank Whittle ground-tests the first jet engine designed to power an aircraft, at the British Thomson-Houston factory in Rugby, England
- 1945 - Harry S. Truman is inaugurated as the 33rd President of the United States.
- 1946 - Syria gains independence from France
- 1961 - Yuri Gagarin becomes the first man to go in to space.
- 1968 - Nerve gas accident at Skull Valley, Utah
- 1975 - Vietnam War: The United States embassy in Phnom Penh, Cambodia is evacuated as Khmer Rouge troops encircle the city
- 1981 - The first launch of a Space Shuttle: Columbia launches on the STS-1 mission.
- 1990 - Christian Bernard, F.R.C., becomes Imperator of AMORC
- 1992 - Euro Disney opens in Marne-la-Vallee, France
- 2002 - Coup d'Etat against Hugo Chávez in Venezuela
Births
- 599 BC - Mahavira, founder of Jainism (d. 527 BC)
- 812 - Muhammad at-Taqi, Shia Imam (d. 835)
- 1748 - Antoine Laurent de Jussieu (d. 1836)
- 1777 - Henry Clay, American statesman and orator (d. 1852)
- 1799 - Henri Druey, member of the Swiss Federal Council (d. 1855)
- 1832 - Hugo Adolph Steinheil, optician (d. 1893)
- 1856 - William Martin Conway, English art critic and mountaineer (d. 1937)
- 1867- Sindo Garay, Cuban singer and musician (d. 1968)
- 1884 - Otto Meyerhof, biochemist, winner of Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1922) (d. 1951)
- 1888 - Cecil Kimber, founder of MG
- 1892 - Johnny Dodds, jazz musician (d. 1940)
- 1895 - Lily Pons, opera soprano
- 1903 - Sally Rand, fan dancer (d. 1979)
- 1904 - Paul Dahlke, actor (d. 1984)
- 1907 - Felix de Weldon, sculptor (d. 2003)
- 1913 - Lionel Hampton, musician (d. 2002)
- 1916 - Beverly Cleary, writer
- 1922 - Tiny Tim, musician (d. 1996)
- 1933 - Montserrat Caballé, opera singer
- 1939 - Alan Ayckbourn, writer
- 1940 - Herbie Hancock, musician
- 1941 - Bobby Moore, English national football team captain (d. 1993)
- 1944 - John Kay, of Steppenwolf
- 1947 - Tom Clancy, author
- 1947 - David Letterman, talk show host
- 1948 - Joschka Fischer, foreign minister of Germany
- 1949 - Scott Turow, writer
- 1950 - David Cassidy, singer, actor
- 1952 - Ralph Wiley, sports journalist (d. 2004)
- 1956 - Andy Garcia, actor
- 1956 - Herbert Grönemeyer, singer, pianist and actor
- 1957 - Vince Gill, country musician
- 1968 - Stephanie Haumueller, clothing designer
- 1971 - Shannen Doherty, actress
- 1979 - Claire Danes, actress
Deaths
- 65 - Lucius Annaeus Seneca, philosopher, dramatist, statesman (b. c. 3 BC)
- 238 - Roman emperors Gordian I (suicide) and Gordian II (killed in battle)
- 1850 - Adoniram Judson, pioneer Baptist missionary to India and Burma (b. 1788)
- 1912 - Clara Barton, nurse and Red Cross advocate (b. 1821)
- 1938 - Feodor Chaliapin, operatic bass (b. 1873)
- 1945 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States (b. 1882)
- 1962 - Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya, Indian politician and engineer, dies at 101
- 1975 - Josephine Baker, dancer (b. 1906)
- 1981 - Joe Louis, boxer (b. 1914)
- 1988 - Alan Paton, novelist (b. 1903)
- 1989 - Sugar Ray Robinson, multiple time world champion boxer (b. 1921)
- 1989 - Abbie Hoffman, radical leader (b. 1936)
- 2001 - Harvey Ball, inventor of the Smiley (b. 1921)
- 2003 - Cecil H. Green, Texas Instruments Founder (b. 1900)
Holidays and observances
- The Roman holiday of Cerealia begins.
- Yuri's Night, an international celebration of the first human in space, Yuri Gagarin.
From "Lines in Praise of a Date Made Praiseworthy Solely by Something Very Nice That Happened to It", by Ogden Nash:
- "As through the calendar I delve
- I pause to rejoice in April twelve.
- Yea, be I in sickness or be I in health
- My favorite date is April twealth.
- ..."
April 11 - April 13 - March 12 - May 12 -- listing of all days