April 12 Events

467 - Anthemius is elevated to Emperor of the Western Roman Empire
1204 - Constantinople is sacked by warriors of the Fourth Crusade.
1606 - The Union Jack is adopted as the national flag of Great Britain.
1633 - The formal interrogation by the Inquisition of Galileo Galilei begins.
1776 - North Carolina's Provincial Congress authorized its delegates to the Second Continental Congress to vote for independence by issuing the Halifax Resolves.
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.
1923 - Kandersteg International Scout Centre came into existence.
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 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies, and Harry S. Truman is inaugurated as the 33rd President of the United States.
1946 - Syria gains independence from France.
1954 - Bill Haley and His Comets record "Rock Around the Clock" in New York City. Initially unsuccessful, the recording would help launch the rock and roll revolution a year later.
1955 - The polio vaccine, developed by Dr. Jonas Salk, is declared safe and effective.
1961 - Yuri Gagarin becomes the first man to fly in space.
1968 - Nerve gas accident at Skull Valley, Utah.
1975 - Khmer Rouge troops capture Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
1980 - Samuel Doe takes control of Liberia in a coup d'etat, ending over 130 years of democratic presidential succession in that country.
1981 - The first launch of a Space Shuttle: Columbia launches on the STS-1 mission.
1984 - LiSARS is created
1989 - TV show Fast Forward starts on the ATN-7 Network (Australia).
1990 - Christian Bernard, F.R.C., becomes Imperator of AMORC.
1992 - Euro Disneyland opens in Marne-la-Vallee, France.
1994 - Canter & Siegel post the first commercial mass Usenet spam.
1996 - Yahoo! had its initial public offering, selling 2.6 million shares at $13 each.
1998 - Catastrophical earthquake in Slovenia in Posoc¼je 5,6 on the Richter scale.
2002 - Pedro Carmona becomes interim President of Venezuela during the Venezuelan coup attempt of 2002, a military coup against Hugo Chávez.
2005 - In Canada, a motion by the opposition Conservative Party to kill legislation opening the door for legalized same sex marriage is defeated 164-132.

April 12 Births

599 BC - Mahavira, Indian founder of Jainism (d. 527 BC)
812 - Muhammad at-Taqi, Arabian Shia Imam (d. 835)
1484 - Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, Italian architect (d. 1546)
1500 - Joachim Camerarius, German classical scholar (d. 1574)
1526 - Muretus, French humanist (d. 1585)
1550 - Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, English politician (d. 1604)
1577 - King Christian IV of Denmark (d. 1648)
1713 - Guillaume Thomas François Raynal, French writer (d. 1796)
1722 - Pietro Nardini, Italian composer (d. 1793)
1724 - Dr. Lyman Hall, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (d. 1790)
1726 - Charles Burney, English music historian (d. 1814)
1748 - Antoine Laurent de Jussieu, French botanist (d. 1836)
1777 - Henry Clay, American statesman and five-time Presidential candidate (d. 1852)
1794 - Germinal Pierre Dandelin, Belgian mathematician (d. 1847)
1799 - Henri Druey, Swiss Federal Councilor (d. 1855)
1823 - Alexandr Ostrovsky, Russian dramatist (d. 1886)
1839 - Nikolai Przhevalsky, Russian explorer (d. 1888)
1848 - José Gautier Benítez, Puerto Rican poet
1856 - William Martin Conway, English art critic and mountaineer (d. 1937)
1869 - Henri Désiré Landru, French serial killer (d. 1922)
1884 - Otto Meyerhof, German-born biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1951)
1887 - Harold Lockwood, American silent film actor (d. 1918)
1888 - Heinrich Neuhaus, Soviet pianist (d. 1964)
1892 - Johnny Dodds, American jazz clarinetist (d. 1940)
1893 - Robert Harron, American actor (d. 1920)
1898 - Lily Pons, American soprano (d. 1976)
1902 - Louis Beel, Prime Minister of the Netherlands (d. 1977)
1903 - Sally Rand, American dancer and actress (d. 1979)
1903 - Jan Tinbergen, Dutch economist, Bank of Sweden Prize winner (d. 1994)
1907 - Felix de Weldon, Austrian-born sculptor (d. 2003)
1912 - Walt Gorney, American actor (d. 2004)
1916 - Beverly Cleary, American writer
1917 - Helen Forrest, American singer (d. 1999)
1922 - Tiny Tim, American musician (d. 1996)
1923 - Ann Miller, American actress and dancer (d. 2004)
1928 - Hardy Krüger, German actor
1928 - Jean-François Paillard, French conductor
1932 - Dennis Banks, American activist
1932 - Lakshman Kadirgamar, Sri Lankan Politician (assassinated) (d. 2005)
1933 - Montserrat Caballé, Catalan soprano
1935 - Johnny Bucyk, Canadian ice hockey player
1939 - Alan Ayckbourn, English writer
1940 - Herbie Hancock, American pianist and composer
1941 - Bobby Moore, English footballer (d. 1993)
1944 - John Kay, German-born musician (Steppenwolf)
1946 - Ed O'Neill, American actor
1947 - Tom Clancy, American author
1947 - David Letterman, American talk show host
1948 - Jeremy Beadle, British television presenter
1948 - Joschka Fischer, Foreign Minister of Germany
1948 - Sandra "Lois" Reeves, American singer (Martha & the Vandellas)
1949 - Scott Turow, American writer
1950 - David Cassidy, American singer and actor
1950 - Kari Palaste, Finnish architect
1952 - Ralph Wiley, American sports journalist (d. 2004)
1954 - Pat Travers, Canadian musician
1956 - Andy Garcia, Cuban-born actor
1956 - Herbert Grönemeyer, German singer, pianist, and actor
1957 - Vince Gill, American musician
1961 - Lisa Gerrard, Australian singer and film composer
1962 - Art Alexakis, American musician (Everclear)
1964 - Amy Ray, American musician (Indigo Girls)
1970 - Nick Hexum, American musician (311)
1971 - Nicholas Brendon, actor
1971 - Shannen Doherty, American actress
1974 - Marley Shelton, American actress
1978 - Guy Berryman, British musician (Coldplay)
1978 - Riley Smith, American actor
1979 - Claire Danes, American actress
1979 - Mateja Kez¼man, Serbian footballer
1982 - Deen, Bosnian singer
1985 - Hitomi Yoshizawa, Japanese singer (Morning Musume)

April 12 Deaths

65 - Seneca the Younger, Roman philosopher, statesman and dramatist
238 - Gordian I, Roman Emperor (suicide)
238 - Gordian II, heir to the Roman Empire (killed in battle)
352 - St. Julius I, 35th Pope of the Catholic Church
1443 - Henry Chichele, Archbishop of Canterbury
1550 - Claude, Duke of Guise, French soldier (b. 1496)
1555 - Juana of Castile, queen of Philip I of Castile (b. 1479)
1687 - Ambrose Dixon, Virginia Colony pioneer
1704 - Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet, French bishop and writer (b. 1627)
1748 - William Kent, English architect
1782 - Metastasio, Italian poet and librettist (b. 1698)
1788 - Carlo Antonio Campioni, French-born composer (b. 1719)
1795 - Johann Kaspar Basselet von La Rosée, Bavarian general (b. 1710)
1814 - Charles Burney, English music historian (b. 1726)
1850 - Adoniram Judson, American Baptist missionary (b. 1788)
1878 - William Marcy Tweed, aka Boss Tweed, American politician (b. 1823)
1902 - Marie Alfred Cornu, French physicist (b. 1842)
1912 - Clara Barton, American nurse and Red Cross advocate (b. 1821)
1938 - Feodor Chaliapin, Russian bass (b. 1873)
1945 - Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States (b. 1882)
1962 - Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya, Indian politician and engineer (b. 1861)
1971 - Igor Tamm, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1895)
1971 - Ed Lafitte, American baseball player (b. 1871)
1975 - Josephine Baker, American dancer (b. 1906)
1980 - Clark McConachy, New Zealand billiards and snooker player (b. 1895)
1980 - William R. Tolbert, Jr., President of Liberia (b. 1913)
1981 - Joe Louis, American boxer (b. 1914)
1986 - Valentin Kataev, Russian writer (b. 1897)
1988 - Alan Paton, South African novelist (b. 1903)
1989 - Gerald Flood, British actor (b. 1927)
1989 - Abbie Hoffman, American radical leader (b. 1936)
1989 - Sugar Ray Robinson, American boxer (b. 1921)
1997 - George Wald, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1903)
1999 - Boxcar Willie, American singer (b. 1931)
2003 - Cecil H. Green, American manufacturer (b. 1900)

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