April 12



Events

Up to 1900 
 238 - Gordian II loses the Battle of Carthage against Numidian forces loyal to Maximus Thrax and is killed. His father, Gordian I, commits suicide.
 240 - Shapur I is crowned as King of the Sasanian Empire.
 467 – Anthemius becomes Emperor of the West Roman Empire.
 627 - King Edwin of Northumbria is converted to Christianity by Bishop Paulinus of York.
 1204 - Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade breach the walls of Constantinople (present-day Istanbul) and enter the city, which they completely occupy the following day.
 1557 – The city of Cuenca, in Ecuador, is founded.
 1606 – The Union Flag is adopted as the flag of the two united Kingdoms of Scotland and England.
 1633 – Galileo Galilei's trial before the inquisition begins.
 1831 - Soldiers marching on the Broughton Suspension Bridge in Manchester cause it to collapse.
 1861 – The American Civil War begins when Fort Sumter, South Carolina, is attacked.
 1865 – American Civil War: Mobile, Alabama falls to the Union Army.
 1877 – The United Kingdom annexes Transvaal.

1901  2000 
 1917 - World War I: Canadian forces successfully complete the taking of Vimy Ridge from the Germans.
 1927 - Chiang Kai-shek orders Communist Party of China members to be executed in Shanghai, ending the First United Front.
 1928 - The Bremen, a German Junkers W33 type aircraft, takes off for the first successful transatlantic aeroplane flight from east to west.
 1934 – The strongest wind gust, outside of Antarctica or not within a tornado, is measured at Mt. Washington, New Hampshire, at 231 miles per hour (372 kilometres per hour).
 1935 - First flight of the Bristol Blenheim aircraft.
 1937 – Frank Whittle ground-tests the first jet engine to power an aircraft.
 1945 – US President Franklin Roosevelt dies. Harry S. Truman is sworn in as his successor.
 1946 - The last French troops leave Syria.
 1954 – Bill Haley and His Comets record their hit song Rock Around the Clock.
 1955 - The polio vaccine developed by Jonas Salk is declared safe and effective.
 1961 – Yuri Gagarin is the first cosmonaut in space, sent by the U.S.S.R on Vostok 1.
 1963 - Soviet nuclear-powered submarine K-33 collides with the Finnish merchant navy vessel M/S Finnclipper in the Danish straits.
 1968 - A day after the attack on student activist Rudi Dutschke, protests and riots erupt across several cities in West Germany.
 1970 - Soviet submarine K-8, carrying four nuclear torpedoes, sinks in the Bay of Biscay near France and Spain four days after a fire on board. 
 1980 – Terry Fox starts his Marathon of Hope across Canada in St. John's, Newfoundland.
 1980 – In Liberia, Samuel K. Doe takes power in a coup, in which President William Tolbert is killed.
 1981 – Space Shuttle Columbia is launched.
 1992 – Disneyland Paris opens, as Euro Disneyland.
 1998 – A magnitude 5.6 earthquake hits Slovenia.

From 2001 
 2002 - In a US-backed military coup in Venezuela, President Hugo Chávez is replaced as Head of State by Pedro Carmona. After 36 hours, Chavez is reinstated as president.
 2002 – A female suicide bomber detonates herself in Jerusalem, killing 7 people and injuring 104.
 2007 – A suicide bomber attacks the Iraqi parliament.
 2009 – Zimbabwe abandons the Zimbabwean dollar as its official currency, after a severe economic crisis in the country.
 2010 - A train crash near Merano, Italy, kills 9 people, after running into a landslide.
 2014 - A wildfire ravages the Chilean city of Valparaiso, killing 16 people, displacing nearly 10,000, and destroying over 2,000 homes.

Births

Up to 1800 
 599 BC – Mahavira, Indian founder of Jainism (d. 527 BC)
 812 – Muhammad at-Taqi, Arabian Shia Imam (d. 835)
 1116 - Richeza of Poland, Queen of Sweden (d. 1156 or after)
 1432 - Anne of Austria, Landgravine of Thuringia (d. 1462)
 1484 – Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, Italian architect (d. 1546)
 1500 – Joachim Camerarius, German classical scholar (d. 1574)
 1526 – Muretus, French humanist (d. 1585)
 1550 – Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, English politician (d. 1604)
 1577 – King Christian IV of Denmark (d. 1648)
 1710 - Caffarelli, Italian opera singer (d. 1783)
 1713 – Guillaume Thomas François Raynal, French writer (d. 1796)
 1716 - Felice Giardini, Italian composer and violinist (d. 1796)
 1722 – Pietro Nardini, Italian composer (d. 1793)
 1724 – Lyman Hall, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (d. 1790)
 1726 – Charles Burney, English music historian (d. 1814)
 1748 – Antoine Laurent de Jussieu, French botanist (d. 1836)
 1760 - Juan Manuel Olivares, Venezuelan composer (d. 1797)
 1777 – Henry Clay, American statesman and five-time Presidential candidate (d. 1852)
 1792 - John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham, English statesman (d. 1840)
 1794 - Germinal Pierre Dandelin, Belgian mathematician (d. 1847).
 1796 - George N. Briggs, 19th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1861)
 1799 – Henri Druey, Swiss Federal Councilor (d. 1855)

1801  1900 
 1801 - Joseph Lanner, Austrian composer and conductor (d. 1843)
 1823 – Alexandr Ostrovsky, Russian dramatist (d. 1886)
 1828 - Charles Foster, Governor of Ohio and United States Secretary of the Treasury (d. 1904)
 1839 – Nikolai Przhevalsky, Russian explorer (d. 1888)
 1851 - Edward Walter Maunder, English astronomer (d. 1928)
 1852 - Ferdinand von Lindemann, German mathematician (d. 1939)
 1856 – William Martin Conway, English art critic and mountaineer (d. 1937)
 1866 - Princess Viktoria of Prussia (d. 1929)
 1869 – Henri Désiré Landru, French serial killer (d. 1922)
 1871 – Ioannis Metaxas, Greek general and dictator (d. 1941)
 1874 - William B. Bankhead, American politician (d. 1940)
 1879 - Fred H. Brown, Governor of New Hampshire (d. 1955)
 1883 - Imogen Cunningham, American photographer (d. 1976)
 1883 - Dally Messenger, Australian rugby player (d. 1959)
 1884 – Otto Fritz Meyerhof, German doctor, won the 1922 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1951)
 1884 - Tenby Davies, Welsh runner (d. 1932)
 1885 - Robert Delaunay, French artist (d. 1941)
 1887 – Harold Lockwood, American silent movie actor (d. 1918)
 1888 – Heinrich Neuhaus, Soviet pianist (d. 1964)
 1892 – Johnny Dodds, American jazz clarinetist (d. 1940)
 1893 – Robert Harron, American actor (d. 1920)
 1894 – Francisco Craveiro Lopes, President of Portugal (d. 1964)
 1898 – Lily Pons, American soprano (d. 1976)

1901  1925 
 1902 – Louis Beel, Prime Minister of the Netherlands (d. 1977)
 1903 – Jan Tinbergen, Dutch economist (d. 1994)
 1907 - Zawgyi, Burmese poet, writer and academic (d. 1990)
 1908 - Ida Pollock, British writer (d. 2013)
 1910 - Gillo Dorfles, Italian art critic, painter and philosopher (d. 2018)
 1911 - Mahmoud Younis, Egyptian engineer (d. 1976)
 1912 - Hamengkubuwono IX, 2nd Vice president of Indonesia (d. 1988)
 1912 - Hound Dog Taylor, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1975)
 1913 - Keiko Fukuda, Japanese judoka (d. 2013)
 1914 – Adriaan Blaauw, Dutch astronomer (d. 2010)
 1914 - Armen Alchian, American economist (d. 2013)
 1914 - Gretel Bergmann, German athlete (d. 2017)
 1916 - Movita Castaneda, American actress and singer (d. 2015)
 1916 - Beverly Cleary, American writer (d. 2021)
 1917 - Robert Manzon, French racing driver (d. 2015)
 1917 - Vinoo Mankad, Indian cricketer (d. 1978)
 1919 - Billy Vaughn, American musician and bandleader (d. 1991)
 1922 - Simon Kapwepwe, 2nd Vice president of Zambia (d. 1980)
 1923 – Ann Miller, American actress and dancer (d. 2004)
 1923 - Eddie Turnbull, Scottish footballer (d. 2011)
 1924 – Raymond Barre, Prime Minister of France (d. 2007)
 1925 – Oliver Postgate, British animator, puppetteer and writer (d. 2008)

1926  1950 
 1926 - Jane Withers, American actress (d. 2021)
 1927 - Alvin Sargent, American screenwriter (d. 2019)
 1928 – Hardy Krüger, German actor
 1928 - Elspet Gray, Scottish actress (d. 2013)
 1929 – Luis Vigoreaux, Puerto Rican TV and radio personality (d. 1983)
 1930 - John Landy, Australian athlete and politician, 26th Governor of Victoria (d. 2022)
 1930 - Bryan Magee, British philosopher
 1931 - Chico Anysio, Brazilian actor, comedian, writer and composer (d. 2012)
 1932 – Tiny Tim, American musician (d. 1996)
 1932 - Jean-Pierre Marielle, French actor (d. 2019)
 1933 – Montserrat Caballé, Catalan-Spanish operatic soprano (d. 2018)
 1934 - Michael Grzimek, German moviemaker and zoologist (d. 1959)
 1936 – Charles Napier, American actor (d. 2011)
 1936 - Tony Earl, 41st Governor of Wisconsin
 1936 - Kennedy Simmonds, 1st Prime Minister of Saint Kitts and Nevis
 1937 - Dennis Banks, American teacher, activist and writer (d. 2017)
 1937 - Igor Volk, Soviet-Ukrainian cosmonaut (d. 2017)
 1940 – Enayat Michael Ali, Trinidadian professional cricketer
 1940 - John Hagee, American pastor and theologian
 1940 – Herbie Hancock, American musician
 1941 – Bobby Moore, English footballer (d. 1993)
 1942 – Jacob Zuma, former President of South Africa
 1942 - Carlos Reutemann, Argentine racing driver and politician (d. 2021)
 1943 - Sumitra Mahajan, Indian politician
 1944 - Lisa Jardine, English historian, writer and academic (d. 2015)
 1944 - John Kay, German-Canadian singer-songwriter, guitarist and producer
 1945 – Lee Jong-Wook, South Korean Director-General of the WHO (d. 2006)
 1946 – George Robertson, Baron Robertson of Port Ellen, former Secretary-General of NATO
 1946 – Ed O'Neill, American actor
 1947 - Martin Brasier, English palaeobiologist and astrobiologist (d. 2014)
 1947 - Alex Briley, American singer (Village People)
 1947 - Woody Johnson, American businessman and philanthropist
 1947 - Dan Lauria, American actor
 1947 – David Letterman, American comedian and TV host
 1947 – Tom Clancy, American writer (d. 2013)
 1948 – Joschka Fischer, German politician
 1948 – Marcello Lippi, Italian football manager
 1948 – Jeremy Beadle, British television presenter (d. 2008)
 1948 - Lois Reeves, American singer
 1949 - Scott Turow, American writer
 1950 – Joyce Banda, former President of Malawi
 1950 – David Cassidy, American singer and actor (d. 2017)
 1950 – Maia Danziger, American actress
 1950 - Flavio Briatore, Italian businessman
 1950 - Larry Kemp, Film editor

1951  1975 
 1954 - John Faulkner, Australian politician
 1954 – Jon Krakauer, American writer and mountaineer
 1955 – Viktor Arnar Ingólfsson, Icelandic writer
 1956 – Andy Garcia, American actor
 1956 – Herbert Grönemeyer, German singer and actor
 1956 – Walter Salles, Brazilian movie director
 1957 – Vince Gill, American Country singer
 1957 - Adam Parfrey, American novelist, editor and publisher (d. 2018)
 1958 - Ginka Zagorcheva, Bulgarian hurdler
 1958 - J. Alexander, American television personality
 1959 - Jackson Carlaw, Scottish politician
 1960 - Dennis Bateman, American voice actor
 1961 – Lisa Gerrard, Australian musician
 1965 - Kim Bodnia, Danish actor
 1967 - Mellow Man Ace, American rapper
 1968 – Adam Graves, Canadian ice hockey player
 1968 - Alicia Coppola, American actress
 1970 – Nick Hexum, singer and guitarist
 1971 – Nicholas Brendon, actor
 1971 – Shannen Doherty, American actress
 1973 – Christian Panucci, Italian footballer
 1974 – Sylvinho, Brazilian footballer
 1974 - Marley Shelton, American actress

From 1976 
 1976 - Olga Kotlyarova, Russian runner
 1977 – Giovanny Espinoza, Ecuadorean footballer
 1978 – Guy Berryman, British musician (Coldplay)
 1979 – Claire Danes, American actress
 1979 – Mateja Kezman, Serbian footballer
 1979 - Jennifer Morrison, American actress
 1980 – Brian McFadden, Irish singer (Westlife)
 1981 - Nicolas Burdisso, Argentine footballer
 1981 - Grant Holt, English footballer
 1982 - Gary Caldwell, Scottish footballer
 1982 – Riley Smith, model and actor
 1983 - Jelena Dokic, Serbian-Australian tennis player
 1985 - James Alexandrou, British actor
 1985 - Olga Seryabkina, Russian singer-songwriter
 1986 - Lorena, Spanish singer
 1986 - Marcel Granollers, Spanish tennis player
 1987 - Brooklyn Decker, American model and actress
 1987 – Brendon Urie, American singer of Panic! at the Disco
 1988 - Ricardo Gabriel Alvarez, Argentine footballer
 1989 - Miguel Angel Ponce, Mexican footballer
 1989 - Travis Tatum Mill, American singer
 1990 - Francesca Halsall, British swimmer
 1994 – Saoirse Ronan, Irish actress
 1994 - Airi Suzuki, Japanese actress and singer
 1996 - Elizaveta Kulichkova, Russian tennis player
 1997 - Katelyn Dhashi, American gymnast
 2000 – Suzanna von Nathusius, Polish actress

Deaths

Up to 1900 
 45 BC – Gnaeus Pompeius, Roman general
 65 – Seneca the Younger, Roman philosopher, statesman and dramatist
 238 – Gordian I, Roman Emperor
 238 – Gordian II, Roman heir
 352 - Pope Julius I
 434 - Archbishop Maximianus of Constantinople
 1125 - Vladislaus I of Bohemia (b. 1065)
 1550 - Claude, Duke of Guise (b. 1496)
 1555 – Juana of Castile, wife of Philip I of Castile (b. 1479)
 1675 - Richard Bennett, British Governor of Virginia (b. 1609)
 1684 - Nicola Amati, Italian instrument maker (b. 1596)
 1782 – Metastasio, Italian poet and librettist (b. 1698)
 1788 - Carlo Antonio Campioni, French composer (b. 1719)
 1817 – Charles Messier, French astronomer (b. 1730)
 1872 - Nikolaos Mantzaros, Greek composer (b. 1795)
 1878 - William H. Tweed, American politician (b. 1823)
 1898 - Elzéar-Alexandre Taschereau, Canadian cardinal (b. 1820)

1901  2000 
 1912 – Clara Barton, American nurse (b. 1821)
 1933 - Adelbert Ames, American general and politician (b. 1835)
 1938 - Feodor Chaliapin, Russian opera singer (b. 1873)
 1945 – Franklin Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States (b. 1882)
 1968 – Heinrich Nordhoff, German automobile engineer (b. 1899)
 1971 – Igor Tamm, Russian physicist (b. 1895)
 1975 - Josephine Baker, American dancer, singer and actress (b. 1906)
 1980 – William Tolbert, President of Liberia (b. 1913)
 1981 – Joe Louis, American boxer (b. 1914)
 1981 - Prince Yasuhiko Asaka, of Japan (b. 1887)
 1988 - Alan Paton, South African writer (b. 1903)
 1989 - Abbie Hoffman, American activist (b. 1936)
 1989 – Sugar Ray Robinson, American boxer (b. 1921)
 1997 - George Wald, American neurologist (b. 1906)
 1999 – Boxcar Willie, American musician (b. 1931)
 1999 - Marion Pruett, American spree killer (b. 1949)

From 2001 
 2001 - Harvey Ball, American illustrator (b. 1921)
 2006 – Rajkumar, Indian movie actor and singer (b. 1929)
 2008 – Patrick Hillery, President of Ireland (b. 1923)
 2008 - Jerry Zucker, Israeli-American businessman and philanthropist (b. 1949)
 2009 - Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, American academic scholar (b. 1950)
 2009 – Marilyn Chambers, American pornographic actress (b. 1952)
 2010 – Werner Schroeter, German movie director (b. 1945)
 2014 - Brita Koivunen, Finnish singer (b. 1931)
 2014 - Fred Ho, American musician, composer, playwright, writer and activist (b. 1957)
 2014 - Hal Smith, American baseball player (b. 1931)
 2015 - André Mba Obame, Gabonese politician (b. 1957)
 2015 - Patrice Dominguez, French tennis player (b. 1950) 
 2015 - Alfred Eick, German U-boat commander (b. 1916)
 2016 - Hector A. Cafferata, Jr., American soldier (b. 1929)
 2016 - Paul Carey, American radio broadcaster (b. 1928)
 2016 - Gianroberto Casaleggio, Italian entrepreneur (b. 1954)
 2016 - Pedro de Felipe, Spanish footballer (b. 1944)
 2016 - David Gest, American television personality (b. 1953)
 2016 - Anne Jackson, American actress (b. 1925)
 2016 - Balls Mahoney, American professional wrestler (b. 1972)
 2016 - Arnold Wesker, English playwright (b. 1932)
 2017 - Akhilesh Das, Indian politician, Mayor of Lucknow (b. 1961)
 2017 - Michael Ballhaus, German cinematographer (b. 1935)
 2017 - Charlie Murphy, American comedian (b. 1959)
 2017 - Sheila Abdus-Salaam, American judge (b. 1952)
 2017 - Tom Coyne, American music engineer (b. 1954)
 2017 - Wayne Hardin, American football player (b. 1926)
 2017 - Toby Smith, British keyboardist (b. 1970)
 2018 - Brij Bhushan Kabra, Indian musician (b. 1937)
 2018 - John Melcher, American politician (b. 1924)
 2018 - Sergio Pitol, Mexican novelist and politician (b. 1933)
 2018 - Deborah Coleman, American blues singer-songwriter (b. 1956)
 2018 - Bob Pickens, American wrestler and football player (b. 1943)
 2019 - Ivor Broadis, English footballer (b. 1922)
 2019 - Dina, Portuguese singer (b. 1956)
 2019 - Forrest Gregg, American football player (b. 1933)
 2019 - Tommy Smith, English footballer (b. 1945)
 2019 - Georgia Engel, American actress (b. 1948)

Observances 
 Cosmonauts' Day (Russia), celebrating Yuri Gagarin's space flight in 1961

Days of the year