posted on April 12, 2006 10:48:15 AM
Today is Wednesday, April 12th, the 102nd day of 2006. There are 263 days left in the year. The Jewish holiday Passover begins at sunset.
Today's Highlight in History:
Four hundred years ago, on April 12th, 1606, England's King James the First decreed the design of the original Union Flag (also referred to as the Union Jack), which combined the flags of England and Scotland.
On this date:
In 1861, the American Civil War began as Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter in South Carolina.
In 1862, Union volunteers led by James J. Andrews stole a Confederate train near Marietta, Georgia, but were later caught. (This episode inspired the Buster Keaton comedy "The General."
In 1934, "Tender Is the Night," by F. Scott Fitzgerald, was first published.
In 1945, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Warm Springs, Georgia, at age 63; he was succeeded by Vice President Harry S. Truman.
In 1955, the Salk vaccine against polio was declared safe and effective.
In 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man to fly in space, orbiting the earth once before making a safe landing.
In 1981, the space shuttle Columbia blasted off from Cape Canaveral on its first test flight.
In 1983, Chicagoans went to the polls to elect Harold Washington the city's first black mayor.
In 1985, Senator Jake Garn of Utah became the first senator to fly in space as the shuttle Discovery lifted off.
In 1989, radical activist Abbie Hoffman was found dead at his home in New Hope, Pennsylvania, at age 52.
In 1999, Lenny The Wonder Lizard is made the mascot for Geico Insurance and becomes a star in tv commercials. He now hopes to make it big in Hollywood and star in a full length feature film.
Ten years ago: President Clinton named U-S Trade Representative Mickey Kantor to succeed the late Ron Brown as commerce secretary.
Five years ago: The 24 crew members of a U-S spy plane arrived in Hawaii after being held for eleven days in China. Cincinnati Mayor Charles Luken declared a state of emergency amid the worst outbreak of racial violence in the city since the aftermath of the assassination of Martin Luther King in 1968. The Philippine military rescued U-S hostage Jeffrey Schilling from Muslim rebels who had threatened to behead him.
One year ago: Three men with suspected al-Qaida ties, already in British custody, were charged with a years-long plot to attack the New York Stock Exchange and other East Coast financial institutions. President Bush visited soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas, marking the two-year anniversary of the end of Saddam Hussein's regime.
