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April 12: Today in History – Historical Events
Early Centuries – April 12 Historic Events – Before the 1700s
1. 12th April 1096: Peter the Hermit gathered his army in Cologne.
2. 12th April 1204: The Fourth Crusade sacked Constantinople.
3. 12th April 1606: The original Union Jack was adopted by England as its flag.
18th Century – What Happened on April 12 – The 1700s
4. 12th April 1770: The British Parliament repealed the Townsend Acts.
5. 12th April 1782: In the American Revolution the British Navy won its only naval engagement at the Battle of Saints, off Dominica.
6. 12th April 1799: The comb-cutting machine was today patented by Phineas Pratt.
19th Century – April 12 This Day That Year – The 1800s
7. 12th April 1811: The first colonists arrived today at Cape Disappointment in Washington.
8. 12th April 1861: The American Civil War was today started by the shelling of Fort Sumter by the Confederacy.
9. April 1862: James Andrews steals Confederate train at Kennesaw.
10. 12th April 1862: Union troops occupy Fort Pulaski, Georgia.
11. 12th April 1864: Battle of Blair’s Landing, Louisiana.
12. 12th April 1864: Confederate Gen Nathan Bedford Forrest captures Fort Pillow.
13. 12th April 1869: An anti-Ku Klux Klan Law was passed by the North Carolina legislature.
14. 12th April 1877: The British today annex Transvaal in South Africa.
15. 12th April 1877: In a baseball game, the catcher’s mask was used for the first time.
16. 12th April 1892: New York became the first in the United States to use the voting machine.
17. 12th April 1894: Britain and Belgium entered into a secret accord on dividing Central Africa.
18. 12th April 1898: US Army transfers Yerba Buena Island in SF Bay to the Navy.
20th Century – Important Events On This Day April 12th – The 1900s
19. 12th April 1900: The US Congress today passed the Foraker Act, establishing Puerto Rico as an unincorporated territory.
20. 12th April 1905: French Dufaux brothers test helicopter.
21. 12th April 1905: The Hippodrome was opened in New York City.
22. 12th April 1907: The De Stain de Naeyer government in Belgium resigns.
23. 12th April 1907: In Switzerland, the parliament passed a new army bill reorganizing the nation’s forces into a standing militia, with training required for all males.
24. 12th April 1908: A fire broke out in Chelsea Massachusetts, rendering about 17,000 homeless.
25. 12th April 1909: Shibe Park in Philadelphia opens today.
26. 12th April 1911: Pierre Prier completed the first London-Paris non-stop flight in 3hrs and 56mts.
27. 12th April 1916: American cavalrymen today clashed with the Mexican bandits at Parrel in Mexico.
28. 12th April 1927: The British Cabinet today came out in support of voting rights for women.
29. 12th April 1931: Spanish voters rejected the monarchy.
30. 12th April 1933: Moffatt Field air station was commissioned today.
31. 12th April 1934: The novel “Tender Is the Night” by F. Scott Fitzgerald was published today.
32. 12th April 1934: The US Auto-Lite Strike began today. It culminated in a five-day melee between Ohio Nationa Guard troops and 6,000 striking workers and picketers.
33. 12th April 1937: Sir Frank Whittle ground-tested the first jet engine which was designed to power an aircraft in Rugby in England.
34. 12th April 1935: Publishing works of “not-Arian” writers is prohibited by Germany.
35. 12th April 1938: The first U.S. law which mandated medical tests for marriage licenses was enacted today in New York City.
36. 12th April 1940: Italy today annexed Albania.
37. 12th April 1942: Jpan kills about 400 Filipino officers in Bataan.
38. 12th April 1943: Dutch Catholic University Nijmegen closed.
39. 12th April 1943: Allies today conquer Soussa in North Africa.
40. 12th April 1944: The Twentieth Air Force of the U.S. was today activated to begin the strategic bombing of Japan.
41. 12th April 1945: In New York, the Eye Bank for Sight Restoration, which was the first ever eye bank was announced today.
42. 12th April 1945: Canadian troops liberate Nazi concentration camp Westerbork in the Netherlands.
43. 12th April 1945: Harry S Truman today became the president of the U.S. when President Franklin D. Roosevelt died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Warm Spring GA.
44. 12th April 1946: Syria today gains its independence from France.
45. 12th April 1952: Slaheddine Baccouche forms government in Tunisia.
46. 12th April 1954: The Van Houtte government of Belgium resigns.
47. 12th April 1955: It was announced today by the Michigan Polio Vaccine Evaluation Center that the polio vaccine of Dr. Jonas Salk was “safe, effective, and potent”.
48. 12th April 1956: Bandaranaike forms her government in Ceylon.
49. 12th April 1957: USSR performs an atmospheric nuclear test.
50. 12th April 1961: Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Alexeyevich Gagarin became the first man to orbit the Earth.
51. 12th April 1963: Police today used dogs and cattle prods on peaceful civil rights demonstrators in Birmingham.
52. 12th April 1966: The first B-52 bombing on North Vietnam.
53. 12th April 1973: Switzerland today suspended its constitution.
54. 12th April 1973: Sudan adopts its constitution.
55. 12th April 1973: France today recognized North Vietnam.
56. 12th April 1975: The Ulster Volunteer Force attacked Strand Bar in Belfast, North Ireland with guns and grenades, killing six catholic civilians.
57. 12th April 1979: Soyuz 33 returns to Earth.
58. 12th April 1980: Samuel Doe took control of Liberia in a coup d’etat, ending over 130 years of national democratic presidential succession.
59. 12 April 1980: The US Olympic Committee today endorses a boycott of the Moscow Olympic games.
60. 12th April 1981: Space shuttle Columbia today blasted off from Cape Canaveral in Florida on its first test flight.
61. 12th April 1982: The British Navy today began enforcing a blockade around the Falkland Islands.
62. 12th April 1982: In a New York City parking lot, three CBS employees were shot to death.
63. 12th April 1983: Harold Washington was elected mayor of Chicago. The was the first black to be elected mayor of the city.
64. 12th April 1983: USSR today performed a nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR.
65. 12th April 1984: Israeli troops today stormed a bus that had been hijacked the previous evening by four Arab terrorists. They killed 2 terrorists and rescued all the passengers.
66. 12 April 1985: Federal inspectors today declared that four animals of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus were not unicorns, but were goats with surgically implanted horns.
67. 12th April 1985: Senator Jack Garn of Utah became the first U.S. Senator to fly in space as the space shuttle Discovery lifted off from Cape Canaveral in Florida.
68. 12th April 1985: There was an explosion in a restaurant which was located near a U.S. base. It killed about 17 people.
69. 12th April 1986: 20,000 miners protest the closing of Hasselt Belgium mines.
70. 12th April 1987: Texaco failed to settle a legal dispute with Pennzoil Co. and filed Chapter 11 for bankruptcy.
71. 12th April 1988: The Chinese government named a new array of younger leaders to ensure economic reform.
72. 12th April 1988: Sonny Bono was elected mayor of Palm Springs, California.
73. 12th April 1988: Harvard University got the first ever patent for a life form when it won the patent for genetically altered mice today.
74. 12th April 1989: Sugar shortage in the USSR prompted the USSR to issue ration cards. This was the first time ration cards were issued after World War II.
75. 12th April 1990: The 1st meeting of East German democratically elected parliament, acknowledges responsibility for Nazi holocaust and asks for forgiveness.
76. 12 April 1990: Greyhound Bus hires new drivers to replace strikers.
77. 12th April 1991: The US today announces the closing of 31 major military bases.
78. 12th April 1991: Nepalese Congress party wins general elections in Nepal.
79. 12th April 1992: Trump Shuttle becomes US Air Shuttle.
80. 12th April 1992: Earthquake rocks Germany.
81. 12th April 1992: Disneyland Paris was opened in Maine-La-Vallee in France.
82. 12th April 1993: NATO began the enforcement of a no-fly zone over Bosnia and Herzegovina.
83. 12th April 1998: An earthquake of magnitude 5.6 on the Richter scale strikes near the town of Bovec in Slovenia.
84. 12th April 1999: US President Bill Clinton is cited for contempt of court for giving intentionally false statements in a sexual harassment civil lawsuit.
21st Century – April 12 This Day In History – The 2000s
85. 12th April 2000: Israel’s High Court today ordered the release of eight Lebanese detainees who were in detention for years without a trial.
86. 12th April 2000: Robert Cleaves, 71, who had repeatedly run over Arnold Guerreiro with his car after the two argued, was convicted of second-degree murder and was sentenced to 16 years in prison.2000: More than 1,500 anti-drug agents in four cities in Colombia arrested 46 members of the “most powerful” heroin ring.
87. 12th April 2002: A female Palestinian suicide bomber blew herself up at the Mahane Yehuda Market in Jerusalem, killing 7 and injuring 104. Nine among them were Arabs.
88. 12th April 2002: JC Penny Chairman Allen Questrom rang the opening bell to start the business day at the New York Stock Exchange as part of the company’s centennial celebrations. JC Penny (James Cash Penny) opened his first retail store on 14th April 1902.
89. 12th April 2002: During the military coup against Hugo Chavez, Pedro Carmona became interim President of Venezuela.
90. 12th April 2009: President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian National Authority makes a courtesy phone call to Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel, restarting the Palestinian-Israeli dialogue.
91. 12th April 2009: US Navy rescues Captain Richard Phillips by killing three pirates and capturing the fourth.
92. 12th April 2010: A train ran into a landslide and derailed near Merano in Italy. Nine people were killed and 28 others were injured.
93. 12th April 2012: With the swearing of Dioncounda Traore as its interim president, civilian rule returned to Mali.
94. 12th April 2012: The game Candy Crush Saga was released on Facebook.
95. 12th April 2012: Bodleian, Oxford University and Vatican libraries announce that over 1.5 million pages of ancient texts will be made available across the internet.
96. 12th April 2012: A ceasefire in the 2011-2012 Syrian uprising comes into effect today
97. 12th April 2013: Mosques were attacked across Iraq killing 11 people and injuring 30 others.
98. 12th April 2013: A man-made 32-foot monument weighing 60 tons that dates back to 2000 BC is discovered in the Sea of Galilee.
99. 12th April 2014: The new drug, ABT-450 for treating Hepatitis C with a success rate of 90-95% was announced today.
100. 12th April 2015: Hillary Clinton today announced that she will run for the Democratic nominee for US President for the 2nd time.
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