Tuesday, April 12

This Day In History

• 1606   England adopted the original version of the Union Jack as its flag.
• 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.
• 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.
• 1969   Lucy and Snoopy of the comic strip "Peanuts" made the cover of "Saturday Review".
• 1981   The space shuttle Columbia blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on its first test flight.
• 1983   Harold Washington was elected Chicago's first black mayor.
• 1984   Challenger astronauts made the first satellite repair in orbit by returning a healthy Solar Max satellite to space. The orbiting sun watcher had been circling the Earth for three years with all circuits dead before repairs were made.
• 1985   Sen. Jake Garn of Utah became the first senator to fly in space as the shuttle Discovery lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla.
• 1989   Radical activist Abbie Hoffman was found dead in his home at age 52.
• 1989   Former middleweight boxing champion Sugar Ray Robinson died at age 67.
• 1992   Euro Disneyland, a $4 billion theme park, opened in Marne-La-Vallee, France.
• 1999   U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright found President Clinton in contempt of court for giving ''intentionally false'' testimony in a lawsuit filed by Paula Jones about his relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
• 2001   Cincinnati Mayor Charles Luken declared a state of emergency amid the worst outbreak of racial violence in the city since 1968.
• 2002   Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez resigned under pressure from the country's divided military. (He was returned to office two days later).
• 2003   Rescued POW Jessica Lynch returned to the United States after treatment at a U.S. military hospital in Germany.

Happy Birthday To

• 1947   David Letterman (TV host & comedian: Late Night with David Letterman)
• 1950   David Cassidy (actor: The Partridge Family, Spirit of ?76, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat; singer: Cherish, I Think I Love You; son of actors: Jack Cassidy, Evelyn Ward)
• 1971   Shannen Doherty (actress: Beverly Hills 90210, Our House, Little House on the Prairie, Night Shift, Heathers)