HISTORY At A Glance

TODAY is Monday, April 12, the 102nd day of 2021. There are 263 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:

1945 U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies while in office; Vice President Harry Truman, becomes President upon Roosevelt’s death.

1955 Polio vaccine announced as safe and effective.

1961 The Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human to travel into outer space and perform the first manned orbital flight, Vostok 1. 1980 Samuel Doe takes control of Liberia in a coup d’état, ending over 130 years of minority Americo-Liberian rule over the country.

1992 The Euro Disney Resort officially opens with its theme park Euro Disneyland. The resort and its park’s name are subsequently changed to Disneyland Paris.

1999 US President Bill Clinton is cited for contempt of court for giving “intentionally false statements” in a sexual harassment civil lawsuit. 2002 A suicide bomber blows herself up at the entrance to Jerusalem’s Mahane Yehuda Market, killing 7 and wounding 104.

2007 A suicide bomber penetrates the Green Zone and detonates in a cafeteria within a parliament building, killing Iraqi MP Mohammed Awad and wounding more than twenty other people.

2009 Zimbabwe officially abandons the Zimbabwean dollar as its official currency.