April 12
1861
The Civil War began when Fort Sumter was attacked.
1862
James J. Andrews led the raiding party that stole the Confederate locomotive “The General,” inspiring the 1926 Buster Keaton movie.
1945
President Franklin Roosevelt died.
1955
The polio vaccine of Dr. Jonas Salk was called “safe, effective, and potent.”
1961
Soviet cosmonaut Yuri A. Gagarin became the first human in space and also the first human to orbit the earth in a spacecraft.
1981
The first space shuttle, Columbia, took its first test flight.
1983
Harold Washington was elected Chicago’s first African-American mayor.
1999
Arkansas federal judge Susan Webber Wright found President Clinton in contempt of court for lying about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky.
Birthdays
Henry Clay
American statesman (1777)
William Martin Conway
English explorer, art historian (1856)
Otto Meyerhof
physiologist (1884)
Montserrat Caball
chemist (1899)
Lily Pons
coloratura soprano (1904)
Herbie Hancock
jazz musician (1940)
Tom Clancy
novelist (1947)