TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS MONDAY, APRIL 12, the 102nd day of 2021. There are 263 days left in the year. TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY:
On this date in 1945, President Franklin D. Roosevelt died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Warm Springs, Georgia, at age 63; he was succeeded by Vice President Harry S. Truman.
In 1861, the Civil War began as Confederate forces opened fire on Fort Sumter in South Carolina.
In 1877, the catcher’s mask was first used in a baseball game by James Tyng of Harvard in a game against the Lynn Live Oaks.
In 1955, the Salk vaccine against polio was declared safe and effective.
In 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man to fly in space, orbiting Earth once before making a safe landing.
In 1963, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested and jailed in Birmingham, Alabama, charged with contempt of court and parading without a permit. (During his time behind bars, King wrote his “Letter From Birmingham Jail.”) In 1975, singer, dancer and civil rights activist Josephine Baker, 68, died in Paris. In 1981, the space shuttle Columbia lifted off from Cape Canaveral on its first test flight. Former world heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis, 66, died in Las Vegas, Nevada.
In 1988, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued a patent to Harvard University for a genetically engineered mouse, the first time a patent was granted for an animal life form.
In 1989, former boxing champion Sugar Ray Robinson died in Culver City, California, at age 67; radical activist Abbie Hoffman was found dead at his home in New Hope, Pennsylvania, at age 52.
In 1990, in its first meeting, East Germany’s first democratically elected Parliament acknowledged responsibility for the Nazi Holocaust, and asked the forgiveness of Jews and others who had
suffered.
In 2009, American cargo ship captain Richard Phillips was rescued from Somali pirates by U.S. Navy snipers who shot and killed three of the hostagetakers. Angel Cabrera became the first Argentine to win the Masters.
In 2015, Hillary Rodham Clinton jumped back into presidential politics, announcing in a video her muchawaited second campaign for the White House. Jordan Spieth romped to his first major championship with a record-tying performance at the Masters, shooting an 18-under 270 to become the first wire-to-wire winner of the green jacket since 1976.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Actor Jane Withers is 95. Playwright Alan Ayckbourn is 82. Jazz musician Herbie Hancock is 81. Rock singer John Kay (Steppenwolf) is 77. Actor Ed O’Neill is 75. Actor Dan Lauria and talk show host David Letterman are 74. Author Scott Turow is 72. Actor-playwright Tom Noonan is 70. R&B singer JD Nicholas (The Commodores) is 69. Singer Pat Travers is 67. Actor Andy Garcia and movie director Walter Salles are 65. Country singer Vince Gill and actor Suzzanne Douglas are 64. Model/ TV personality J Alexander and rock musician Will Sergeant (Echo & the Bunnymen) are 63. Rock singer Art Alexakis (Everclear) is 59. Country singer Deryl Dodd and folk-pop singer Amy Ray (Indigo Girls) are 57. Actor Alicia Coppola is 53. Rock singer Nicholas Hexum (311) and actor Retta are 51. Actors Nicholas Brendon and Shannen Doherty are 50. Actor Marley Shelton is 47. Actors Sarah Jane Morris and Jordana Spiro are 44. Rock musician Guy Berryman (Coldplay) and actor Riley Smith are 43. Actors Claire Danes and Jennifer Morrison are 42. Actor Matt McGorry is 35. Actor Brooklyn Decker, contemporary Christian musician Joe Rickard (Red) and rock singer-musician Brendon Urie (Panic! at the Disco) are 34. Actor Saoirse Ronan is 27.