On This Day in History - April 12th - Almanac

Today is Wednesday, April 12, the 102nd day of 2017 with 263 to follow.

The moon is waning. Morning stars are Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Venus. Evening stars are Mercury, Mars and Jupiter.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Aries. They include U.S. statesman Henry Clay in 1777; opera singer Lily Pons in 1898; author Beverly Cleary in 1916 (age 101); actor/dancer Ann Miller in 1923; singer Tiny Tim in 1932; jazz keyboard player Herbie Hancock in 1940 (age 77); actor Ed O'Neill in 1946 (age 71); author Tom Clancy in 1947; entertainer David Letterman in 1947 (age 70); actor Dan Lauria in 1947 (age 70); writer Scott Turow in 1949 (age 68); actor/singer David Cassidy in 1950 (age 67); musician Pat Travers in 1954 (age 63); writer Jon Krakauer in 1954 (age 63); actor Andy Garcia in 1956 (age 61); country singer Vince Gill in 1957 (age 60); actor Shannen Doherty in 1971 (age 46); actor Claire Danes in 1979 (age 38); actor Jennifer Morrison in 1979 (age 38).

On this date in history:

In 1861, the Civil War began when Confederate troops opened fire on Fort Sumter in South Carolina.

In 1935, "Your Hit Parade" premiered on radio.

In 1945, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the longest-serving president in U.S. history, died of a cerebral hemorrhage at Warm Springs, Ga., three months into his fourth term. About 3 hours later, Vice President Harry S. Truman was sworn in as chief executive.

In 1955, U.S. health officials announced that the polio vaccine developed by Dr. Jonas Salk was "safe, potent and effective."

In 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, in Vostok 1, became the first human to travel to outer space and the first to orbit Earth.

In 1981, the Columbia was launched on the first U.S. space shuttle flight. The crowd of more than 3,000 VIPs oohed-and-aahed, shouting, "Go Baby Go," and staring into the bright early morning sky long after Columbia was out of sight over the Atlantic Ocean.

In 2002, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was overthrown in a military coup. He was returned to office two days later riding a wave of public sentiment.

In 2003, Gen. Amir al-Saadi, Saddam Hussein's top science adviser, denied Iraq had any weapons of mass destruction and surrendered to U.S. forces.

In 2007, Kurt Vonnegut Jr., whose novels such as Slaughterhouse-Five resonated with a generation, died in New York at the age of 84.

In 2009, U.S. Navy SEALs rescued a U.S. ship captain, Richard Phillips, held hostage by pirates off the Somalia coast, by killing three of the kidnappers four days after the standoff began. The incident inspired the 2013 Tom Hanks movie, Captain Phillips.

In 2012, North Korea, defying international warnings, fired a long-range test rocket but the launch ended in failure. U.S. officials said the rocket broke up and fell into the sea.

In 2013, John Berry ended a four-year term as director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

In 2014, pro-Russian gunmen seized police stations and other facilities in an escalating crisis in eastern Ukraine.

A thought for the day: "Before you hate something you should try to understand it." -- Martha Grimes