TODAY IN HISTORY

TUESDAY APR 12, 2022

1861

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

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.

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.

1981

Former world heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis, 66, died in Las Vegas, Nevada.

1985

Sen. Jake Garn, R-utah, became the first sitting member of Congress to fly in space as the shuttle Discovery lifted off.

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.

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.

1992

After five years in the making, Euro Disneyland opened in Marne-la-vallee, France, amid controversy as French intellectuals bemoaned the invasion of American pop culture.

2015

Hillary Rodham Clinton jumped back into presidential politics, announcing in a video her much-awaited second campaign for the White House.

2020

Christians around the world celebrated Easter Sunday isolated in their homes by the coronavirus. St. Peter’s Square was barricaded to keep out crowds. Pope Francis celebrated Easter Mass inside the largely vacant basilica, calling for global solidarity in the face of the pandemic and urging political leaders to give hope and opportunity to people who had lost jobs.