Today in History

April 12

1815 - Austria declares war on Joachim Murat, King of Naples, for occupying Rome.

1850 - French troops restore Pope Pius IX and occupy Rome.

1911 - French aviator Pierre Prier makes the first non-stop flight from London to Paris.

1945 - US President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies at 63.

1961 - Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first man to fly in space.

1976 - India successfully chases 406 runs to win the third cricket test against West Indies.

1980 - Liberian President William Tolbert is killed in a military coup led by Sergeant Samuel K. Doe.

1981 - The first voyage of the space shuttle Columbia begins. Captain Robert L. Crippen and John W. Young are on the flight.

1990 - East German parliament names Lothar de Maiziere as prime minister.

1992 - Euro Disneyland, a $4 billion (Dh14.7 billion) theme park, opens in Marne-La-Vallee, France.

1993 - Nato planes begin patrolling no-fly zone over Bosnia.

2004 - West Indies cricketer Brian Lara reclaims the highest score in Test cricket history and reaches 400 not out against England in St John’s, Antigua.

2006 - Death of Indian movie icon Rajkumar sparks violence in India.

2007 - The six-square-kilometre Lulu Island, stretching from the Abu Dhabi breakwaters to Mina Zayed, opens to the public.

2009 - Six students from Rashid School for Boys make history as the first Emiratis to reach the Everest base camp.

2010 - An Iranian and a Tajik face 25 years in jail after the Dubai Court of First Instance convicts them of collaboration in Chechen commander Sulim Yamadayev’s assassination.

2012 - UAE recalls ambassador to Iran after Iranian president visits the occupied UAE island of Abu Mousa.