Back in Time – This Day in History – April 12
1961: Yuri Gagarin
By Mick Ferris, Press Association, AP, UPI, calendar.songfacts.com, classicbands.com and thisdayinmusic.com
1204: The 4th Crusade occupies and plunders Constantinople.
1654: Ordinance of Union between England and Scotland passed by the Council of State.
1776: North Carolina’s Fourth Provincial Congress authorized the colony’s delegates to the Continental Congress to support independence from Britain.
1782: British fleet under Admiral George Rodney defeats the French fleet under Comte de Grasse off Dominica in the West Indies. Prevents a planned French and Spanish invasion of Jamaica.
1857: Gustave Flaubert’s novel “Madame Bovary” is published.
1861: Fort Sumter in South Carolina is attacked by the Confederacy, beginning the American Civil War.
1862: Union volunteers stole a Confederate locomotive near Marietta, Georgia, and headed toward Chattanooga, Tennessee, on a mission to sabotage as much of the rail line as they could; the raiders were caught.
1877: British annex Transvaal, South Africa. The catcher’s mask was first used in a baseball game by James Tyng of Harvard in a game against the Lynn Live Oaks.
1896: Stamasia Portrisi becomes the first woman to win a marathon at the inaugural modern Olympiad in Athens.
1911: The first non-stop flight from London to Paris takes 3hrs 56min.
1919: Parliament passes a 48-hour work week with minimum wage.
1924: In the first ever international match at Wembley England draw 1-1 with Scotland in front of a disappointingly low crowd of 37,250.
1927: Kuomintang leader Chiang Kai-shek begins a counter revolution in Shanghai.
1931: Spanish voters reject the monarchy.
1934: “Tender Is the Night,” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, was first published in book form after being serialized in Scribner’s Magazine.
1937: Sir Frank Whittle ground-tests the first jet engine designed to power an aircraft at Rugby.
1940: Italy annexes Albania.
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.
1946: Syria gains independence from France.
1953: Ben Hogan shatters the US Masters scoring record by five strokes with a 274 (−14).
1954: Bill Haley and his Comets record 'Rock Around the Clock' at Pythian Temple studios in New York City. Considered by many to be the song that put rock and roll on the map around the world. The song was used over the opening titles for the film 'Blackboard Jungle', and went on to be a world-wide No.1 and the biggest selling pop single with sales over 25 million. Written by Max C. Freedman and James E. Myers, 'Rock Around The Clock' was first recorded by Italian-American band Sonny Dae and His Knights.
1954: Big Joe Turner releases "Shake, Rattle And Roll."
1955: U.S. health officials announced that the polio vaccine developed by Dr. Jonas Salk was "safe, potent and effective."
1957: The 'King of Skiffle' Lonnie Donegan was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'Cumberland Gap.' The Scottish musician was a former member of Chris Barber's Jazz Band.
1957: UK TOP 20 : Singles chart:
1. Lonnie Donegan - Cumberland Gap
2. Tab Hunter - Young Love
3. Harry Belafonte - The Banana Boat Song
4. Little Richard - Long Tall Sally
5. Pat Boone - Don't Forbid Me
6. Guy Mitchell - Knee Deep In The Blues
7. Lonnie Donegan - Don't You Rock Me Daddy-O
8. Johnnie Ray - Look Homeward, Angel
9. Little Richard - The Girl Can't Help It
10. Vipers Skiffle Group - Cumberland Gap
11. Bing Crosby - And Grace Kelly True Love
12. Johnnie Ray - You Don't Owe Me A Thing/Look Homeward Angel
13. Guy Mitchell - Singing The Blues
14. Max Bygraves - Heart
15. Little Richard - She's Got It
16. Frankie Lymon And The Teenagers - I'm Not A Juvenile Delinquent
17. Tab Hunter - 99 Ways
18. Frankie Lymon And The Teenagers - Baby Baby
19. Shirley Bassey - The Banana Boat Song
20. Pat Boone - Friendly Persuasion
***
1961: Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man to fly in space, orbiting the earth once before making a safe landing. Ray Charles is the big winner at the third annual Grammy Awards, winning four trophies, including the award for Best Male Vocal for "Georgia On My Mind."
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. (During his time behind bars, King wrote his “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”)
1964: Arnold Palmer becomes the first four-times winner of the US Masters. Chubby Checker marries Miss World 1962, Catharina Johanna Lodders, of the Netherlands.
1966: Jan Berry of surf pop duo is almost killed when he crashed his car into a parked truck a short distance from Dead Man’s Curve in Los Angeles. Berry is partially paralysed and suffers brain damage.
1967: Mick Jagger is punched in the face by an airport official during a row at Le Bourget Airport in France.
1969: Wales beats England, 30-9 at the National Stadium, Cardiff to clinch their 16th Five Nations Rugby Championship and 11th Triple Crown.
1973: France recognizes North Vietnam.
1975: The U.S. military evacuated Americans from the U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, as part of Operation Eagle Pull. The evacuation came as the communist Khmer Rouge seized the capital city to end a five-year war. On the same day, Six Catholic civilians are killed in a Ulster Volunteer Force gun and grenade attack on Strand Bar in Belfast. Josephine Baker dies at 68 of a cerebral hemorrhage in Paris, France. Baker, who was born and raised in America, became one of the most popular entertainers in France after moving there in the 1920s.
1. Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti
2. John Denver - An Evening With John Denver
3. Olivia Newton-John - Have You Never Been Mellow
4. Bob Dylan - Blood On The Tracks
5. Robin Trower - For Earth Below
6. Minnie Riperton - Perfect Angel
7. John Lennon - Rock 'N' Roll
8. Kraftwerk - Autobahn
9. David Bowie - Young Americans
10. Earth, Wind & Fire - That's The Way Of The World (Soundtrack)
11. Gordon Lightfoot - Cold On The Shoulder
12. Jimi Hendrix - Crash Landing
13. Phoebe Snow - Phoebe Snow
14. Chicago - Chicago VIII
15. Patti LaBelle - Nightbirds
16. The Temptations - A Song For You
17. Yes - Yesterdays
18. Barbra Streisand - Funny Lady
19. Al Green - Al Green/Greatest Hits
20. Carole King - Really Rosie
***
1976: Knopf published Anne Rice's debut novel, Interview with a Vampire, the first of a series of several books. The book was adapted into a movie starring Tom Cruise in 1994.
1980: The US Olympic Committee endorses a boycott of the Moscow Olympic games. On the same day, Samuel Doe takes control of Liberia in a coup d’etat, ending over 130 years of national democratic presidential succession.
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. Tom Watson wins his second US Masters title. On the same day, boxing legend Joe Louis dies aged 66.
1984: Arthur Scargill, leader of the NUM, vetoes a national ballot on whether to stop the miners’ strike.
1987: Texaco files for bankruptcy.
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. Singer-songwriter Sonny Bono is elected mayor of Palm Springs, California.
1989: Former boxing champion Sugar Ray Robinson died in Culver City, California, at age 67; radical activist Abbie Hoffman was found dead at his home in New Hope, Pennsylvania, at age 52.
1990: The first meeting of a democratically elected East German parliament, acknowledges responsibility for the Holocaust and asks for forgiveness. The Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center in Arizona announces that four newly discovered asteroids, 4147-4150, will be named Lennon, McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr.
1992: Euro Disney opens in Marne-la-Vallee, France.
1997: Police in Sarajevo discover mines under a bridge just hours before the arrival of the Pope.
1999: US President Bill Clinton is cited for contempt of court for giving “intentionally false statements” in a sexual harassment civil lawsuit.
2000: The Queen presents the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) with the George Cross, the highest civilian award for bravery.
2002: Pedro Carmona becomes interim President of Venezuela during the military coup against Hugo Chavez.
2006: Jurors in the Zacarias Moussaoui trial listened to a recording of shouts and cries in the cockpit as desperate passengers twice charged hijackers during the final half hour of doomed United Flight 93 on 9/11.
2007: Kurt Vonnegut Jr., whose novels such as Slaughterhouse-Five resonated with a generation, died in New York at the age of 84.
2009: American cargo ship captain Richard Phillips was rescued from Somali pirates by U.S. Navy snipers who shot and killed three of the hostage-takers. Angel Cabrera became the first Argentine to win the Masters. Actress Marilyn Chambers, who’d starred in the 1972 adult film “Behind the Green Door,” was found dead at her home in Canyon Country, California, 10 days before her 57th birthday.
2010: The Vatican's official newspaper L'Osservatore Ramano published a story praising The Beatles and saying that it forgave John Lennon for his 1966 comment that the group was 'bigger than Jesus.' Lennon told a British newspaper in 1966 - at the height of Beatlemania - that he did not know which would die out first, Christianity or rock and roll.
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. Saxophone player Andrew Love of the Memphis Horns dies aged 70. On the same day, civilian rule in Mali is returned after Dioncounda Traore is sworn in as interim president.
2013: A man-made 32-foot and 60 tonne monument dated around 2000 BC is discovered in the Sea of Galilee.
2014: The policy-setting panel of the 188-nation International Monetary Fund concluded a meeting in Washington by expressing confidence that the global economy finally had turned the corner to stronger growth. Devastating wildfires erupted in the hills of Valparaiso, Chile, killing 15 people and destroying nearly 3,000 homes. Once Upon A Time actress Ginnifer Goodwin marries co-star Josh Dallas in Los Angeles.
2015: Hilary Clinton announces she will run for the Democratic nominee for US President for the second time.
2016: Death of television producer and personality David Gest.
2018: Police in Philadelphia arrested two black men at a Starbucks; the men had been asked to leave after one of them was denied access to the restroom. (Starbucks apologized and, weeks later, closed thousands of stores for part of the day to conduct anti-bias training.) Carl Ferrer, the chief executive of Backpage.com, which authorities described as an “online brothel,” pleaded guilty to California and federal charges including conspiracy and money laundering, and agreed to testify against others at the website. Schoolteachers in Oklahoma ended two weeks of walkouts, shifting their focus to electing pro-education candidates. The Screen Actors Guild issued new guidelines calling for an end to auditions and professional meetings in private hotel rooms and residences in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal.
BIRTHDAYS:
Alan Aykbourn, playwright, 82;
Herbie Hancock, keyboards/composer, 81;
Jacob Zuma, South African politician, 79;
Ed O’Neill, actor, 75;
David Letterman, TV host, 74;
Andy Garcia (Andrés Arturo García Menéndez) actor/director, 65;
Vince Gill, country artist, 64;
Will Sergeant, guitarist (Echo and the Bunnymen) 63;
Sarah Cracknell, singer-songwriter (St Etienne) 54;
Shannen Doherty, actress, 50;
Guy Berryman, bassist (Coldplay) 43;
Jennifer Morrison, actress, 42;
Claire Danes, actress, 42;
Bryan McFadden, singer, 41;
Alessandro Venturella, bassist (Slipknot) 37;
Brendon Urie, singer (Panic At The Disco), 34;
Mark Hoyle (LadBaby) social media star, 34;
Saoirse Ronan, actress, 27;
Eric Bailly, footballer, 27.
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