Portal:History of science/Selected anniversaries/April 12
- 1633 - The formal inquest of Galileo Galilei by the Inquisition begins
- 1705 - Birth of William Cookworthy, English chemist (d. 1780)
- 1748 - Birth of Antoine Laurent de Jussieu, French botanist (d. 1836)
- 1794 - Birth of Germinal Pierre Dandelin, Belgian mathematician (d. 1847)
- 1817 - Death of Charles Messier, French astronomer (b. 1730)
- 1852 - Birth of Ferdinand von Lindemann, German mathematician (d. 1939)
- 1902 - Death of Marie Alfred Cornu, French physicist (b. 1842)
- 1916 - Birth of Benjamin Libet, American scientist (d. 2007)
- 1955 - The polio vaccine, developed by Dr. Jonas Salk, is declared safe and effective
- 1968 - Nerve gas accident at Skull Valley, Utah