April 12: What Happened on This Day in History (High_school Level)?

(Page last edited 10/12/2017)

1. 1606 - The Union Flag is adopted as the flag of Englishand Scottish ships.
2. 1776 - American Revolution: With the Halifax Resolves, the North Carolina Provincial Congress authorizes its Congressional delegation to vote for independence from Britain.
3. 1831 - Soldiers marching on the Broughton Suspension Bridge in Manchester, England cause it to collapse.
4. 1861 - American Civil War: The war begins with Confederate forces firing on Fort Sumter, in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina.
5. 1937 - Sir Frank Whittle ground-tests the first jet engine designed to power an aircraft, at Rugby, England.
6. 1945 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies while in office; vice-presidentHarry Truman is sworn in as the 33rd President.
7. 1955 - The polio vaccine, developed by Dr. Jonas Salk, is declared safe and effective.
8. 1961 - The Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human to travel into outer space and perform the first manned orbital flight, in Vostok 3KA-2 (Vostok 1).
9. 1990 - Jim Gary's "Twentieth Century Dinosaurs" exhibition opens at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.
10. 2009 - Zimbabwe officially abandons the Zimbabwe Dollar as its official currency.
11. Famous Birthdays: Antonio da Sangallo the Younger (Italian architect, designed the Apostolic Palace and St. Peter's Basilica), William Cookworthy (English minister and pharmacist), Edward Walter Maunder (English astronomer), Otto Meyerhof (German physician and biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate), Beverly Cleary (American author)

For famous birthdays and other daily events in history, visit our Daily Dose Activities.

Click Here for Yesterday in History: April 11

Click Here for Tomorrow in History: April 13

For more history resources on Internet 4 Classrooms, visit our Social Studies and History index. For Pre K-8th Grade Level History and Social Studies Resources, visit our Grade Level Index.