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 Chavez 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 Francois 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 Desire 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, author 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 author (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 Kruger, 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 Caballe, 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 author (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, author 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 Ingolfsson, Icelandic writer
1956 - Andy Garcia, American actor
1956 - Herbert Gronemeyer, 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 - Elzear-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 author (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 - Andre 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