DAY IN HISTORY

Monday, April 12, 2021

Today is the 102nd day of 2021 and the 24th day of spring.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1861, Confederate forces fired on Union-held Fort Sumter in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina, in the first engagement of the Civil War.

In 1945, President Franklin D. Roosevelt died at his retreat in Warm Springs, Georgia.

In 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human being to travel in space and the first to orbit the Earth.

In 1981, the first space shuttle, Columbia, was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Henry Clay (1777-1852), politician/statesman; Lily Pons (1898-1976), opera singer/actress; Beverly Cleary (1916-2021), author; Herbie Hancock (1940- ), musician; Ed O’neill (1946- ), actor; Tom Clancy (1947-2013), author; David Letterman (1947- ), TV personality; Scott Turow (1949- ), author; Jon Krakauer (1954), author; Andy Garcia (1956- ), actor; Vince Gill (1957- ), singer-songwriter; Claire Danes (1979- ), actress; Tulsi Gabbard (1981- ), politician; Saoirse Ronan (1994- ), actress.

TODAY'S FACT: At the time of his death, seven of the nine Supreme Court justices had been appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1981, the New York Giants selected University of North Carolina linebacker Lawrence Taylor second overall in the first round of the NFL draft.

TODAY'S QUOTE:

“An oppressed people are authorized whenever they can to rise and break their fetters.” — Henry Clay

TODAY'S NUMBER:

108 — length (in minutes) of the first orbital human spaceflight, by Yuri Gagarin aboard the Vostok 3KA spacecraft on this day in 1961.

TODAY'S MOON: Between new moon (April 11) and first quarter moon (April 20).