April 12

Events467 - Anthemius is elevated to Emperor of the Western Roman Empire1606 - The Union Flag is adopted as the flag of Great Britain.1633 - The formal inquest of Galileo Galilei by the Inquisition begins.1776 - North Carolina's Provincial Congress authorized its delegates to the Second Continental Congress to vote for independence by issuing the Halifax Resolves.1820 - Alexander Ypsilantis is declared leader of Filiki Eteria, a secret organisation to overthrow Ottoman rule over Greece.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.1917 - World War I: Canadian forces successfully complete the taking of Vimy Ridge from the Germans. It is also considered a major event in Canadian history for the primary role Canadian forces played in the attack.1927 - April 12 Incident: Chiang Kai-shek orders the CPC members executed in Shanghai, ending the First United Front (China).1934 - The strongest surface wind gust in the world, 231 mph, was measured by the staff of the Mount Washington Observatory on the summit of Mount Washington1934 - The Auto-Lite Strike, which culminated in a five-day melee between Ohio National Guard troops and 6,000 strikers and picketers, began.1935 - First flight of the Bristol Blenheim.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 while in office; vice-president Harry S. Truman is sworn in as the 33rd President of the United States.1955 - The polio vaccine, developed by Dr. Jonas Salk, is declared safe and effective. 1961 - Human spaceflight: Yuri Gagarin became the first human to travel into space in Vostok 3KA-2 (Vostok 1). 1963 - The Soviet nuclear powered submarine K-33 collides with the Finnish merchant vessel M/S Finnclipper in the Danish straits. Although both vessels are severely damaged both can make it to port.1968 - Nerve gas accident at Skull Valley, Utah. 1980 - Samuel Doe takes control of Liberia in a coup d'etat, ending over 130 years of democratic presidential succession in that country.1980 - Terry Fox begins his "Marathon of Hope" by dipping his artificial leg into the Atlantic at St. John's, Newfoundland.1981 - Human spaceflight: The first launch of a Space Shuttle: Columbia launches on the STS-1 mission.1990 - opening of Jim Gary's Twentieth Century Dinosaurs exhibition, the work of the only living sculptor ever invited to present a solo exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.1994 - Canter & Siegel post the first commercial mass Usenet spam.1998 - An earthquake in Slovenia, measuring 5.6 on the Richter scale near the town of Bovec.1999 - American President Bill Clinton was cited for contempt of court for giving "intentionally false statements" in the Paula Jones sexual harassment civil lawsuit. 2002 - Pedro Carmona becomes interim President of Venezuela during the Venezuelan coup attempt of 2002, a military coup against Hugo Chávez.2007 - The Kremlin vetos an investigation into the death of Yuri Gagarin, who was the first man in space.
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