History of the Day for:
April 12
- 1606: England adopted as its flag the original version of the Union Jack.
- 1833: Charles Gaylor patented the fireproof safe in New York City.
- 1847: Yung Wing, the first student from China to graduate from Yale University, arrived in America.
- 1861: The Civil War began as Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter in South Carolina.
- 1877: The catcher's mask was first used in a baseball game.
- 1892: Voters in Lockport, N.Y., became the first in the nation to use voting machines.
- 1934: "Tender Is the Night" by F. Scott Fitzgerald was published.
- 1945: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd president of the United States, died of a cerebral hemorrhage at age 63. Vice President Harry S. Truman became the nation's 33rd chief executive.
- 1955: Dr. Jonas Salk's polio vaccine was termed "safe, effective and potent" by the University of Michigan Polio Vaccine Evaluation Center.
- 1961: Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man to fly in space.
- 1983: Chicagoans elected Harold Washington the city's first black mayor.
- 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.
- 1992: Euro Disneyland opened in France.
- 1994: Canter & Siegel post the first commercial mass Usenet spam.
- 1998: An earthquake in Slovenia, measuring 5.6 on the Richter scale occurs near the town of Bovec.
- 1999: US President Bill Clinton is cited for contempt of court for giving "intentionally false statements" in a sexual harassment civil lawsuit.
- 2002: Pedro Carmona becomes interim President of Venezuela during the military coup against Hugo Chávez.
- 2002: Palestinian suicide bomber (female) kills 7 and injures 104 (among them 9 Arab people) at the Mahane Yehuda Market in Jerusalem.
- 2009: U.S. Navy rescues captain Richard Phillips, killing three pirates and capturing a fourth.
- 2009: President Mahmoud Abbas of Palestine makes a courtesy phone call to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, restarting the Palestinian-Israeli dialogue.