TODAY HISTORY LESSON: APRIL 12
1065 Pilgrims under bishop Günther of Bamberg reach Jerusalem
1204 The Fourth Crusade sacks Constantinople.
1606 England adopts the Union Jack as its flag.
1654 England, Ireland & Scotland unite
1770 Parliament repeals the Townsend Acts.
1811 The first colonists arrive at Cape Disappointment, Washington.
1844 Texas became a US territory
1861 The American Civil War begins
The bombardment of Fort Sumter near Charleston, South Carolina marked the beginning of hostilities. The conflict was sparked by deepening economic, social, and political differences between the southern and northern states
1862 James J. Andrews led the raiding party that stole the Confederate locomotive “The General,” inspiring the 1926 Buster Keaton movie.
1877 The first catcher’s mask is used in a baseball game.
1892 Voters in Lockport, New York, became the first in the U.S. to use voting machines.
1916 American cavalrymen and Mexican bandit troops clash at Parral, Mexico.
1927 The British Cabinet comes out in favor of voting rights for women.
1938 1st US law requiring medical tests for marriage licenses (New York)
1945 U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt died in Warm Spring, GA. He died of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 63. Harry S Truman became president.
1955 The University of Michigan Polio Vaccine Evaluation Center announced that the polio vaccine of Dr. Jonas Salk was “safe, effective and potent.”
1961 Soviet Yuri Alexeyevich Gagarin becomes first man to orbit the Earth.
1963 Police use dogs and cattle prods on peaceful civil rights demonstrators in Birmingham, Alabama.
1981 The Space Shuttle blasts off into space for the first time. Two astronauts took off for Space Shuttle Columbia’s first orbital test flight.
1982 3 CBS employees shot to death in NYC parking lot
1985 Federal inspectors declared that four animals of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus were not unicorns. They were goats with horns that had been surgically implanted.
1990 1st meeting of East German democratically elected parliament, acknowledges responsibility for Nazi holocaust & asks for forgiveness
1999 Arkansas federal judge Susan Webber Wright found President Clinton in contempt of court for lying about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky.
2002 It was announced that the South African version of “Sesame Street” would be introducing a character that was HIV-positive.
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
