TODAY IN HISTORY

MONDAY APR 12, 2021 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.

1861

The Civil War began as Confederate forces opened fire on Fort Sumter in South Carolina.

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.

1955

The Salk vaccine against polio was declared safe and effective.

1961

Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man to fly in space, orbiting the earth once before making a safe landing.

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.

1975

Singer, dancer and civil rights activist Josephine Baker, 68, died in Paris.

1981

The space shuttle Columbia blasted off from Cape Canaveral on its first test flight. Former world heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis, 66, died in Las Vegas, Nevada.

1989

Former boxing champion Sugar Ray Robinson died in Culver City, Calif., at age 67; radical activist Abbie Hoffman was found dead at his home in New Hope, Pa., at age 52.

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.

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.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Jazz musician Herbie Hancock is 81. Actor Ed O’neill is 75. Actor Dan Lauria is 74. Talk show host David Letterman is 74. Actor Andy Garcia is 65. Actor Shannen Doherty is 50. Actor Marley Shelton is 47. Actor Claire Danes is 42. Actor Jennifer Morrison is 42. Actor Brooklyn Decker is 34.