12 April - Definition and Overview

April 12 is the 102nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (103rd in leap years). There are 263 days remaining.

Events

up to 19th century

• 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.

20th century

• 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 fly in 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 - EuroDisney opens in Marne-la-Vallee, France.

21st century

• 2002 - Coup d'Etat against Hugo Chávez in Venezuela

Births

up to 19th century

• 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 (d. 1976)

20th century

1900s-1960s

• 1902 - Louis Beel, Prime Minister of the Netherlands (d. 1977)
• 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, English musician (d. 1996)
• 1928 - Jean-François Paillard, French conductor
• 1933 - Montserrat Caballé, Catalan soprano
• 1939 - Alan Ayckbourn, writer
• 1940 - Herbie Hancock, musician
• 1941 - Bobby Moore, English national football team captain (d. 1993)
• 1944 - John Kay, of Steppenwolf
• 1946 - Ed O'Neill, actor
• 1947 - Tom Clancy, author
• 1947 - David Letterman, talk show host
• 1948 - Joschka Fischer, foreign minister of Germany
• 1948 - Sandra "Lois" Reeves, singer, member of Martha & the Vandellas
• 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
• 1961 - Lisa Gerrard, singer, film composer
• 1971 - Shannen Doherty, actress
• 1971 - Nicholas Brendon, actor
• 1979 - Claire Danes, actress
• 1982 - Deen, Bosnian singer

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)
• 1980 - Clark McConachy, billiards and snooker player (b. 1895)
• 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