On This Day NYT & The Learning Channel
on April 12, 1945, Franklin D. Roosevelt, the 32nd president of the United States, died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Warm Springs, Ga., at age 63. Vice President Harry S Truman became president.
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On April 12, 1903, Jan Tinbergen, the Dutch economist who won the Nobel Prize in 1969 for his work with econometric models, was born. Following his death on June 9, 1994, his obituary appeared in The Times.
Go to obituary » | Other birthdays »
On This Date
| 1606 | England adopted the Union Jack as its flag. |
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| 1861 | The Civil War began as Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter in South Carolina. |
| 1877 | The catcher for Harvard’s baseball team, James Tyng, wore a modified fencing mask behind the plate. It is believed to be the first time a catcher’s mask was used during a game. |
| 1955 | The Salk vaccine against polio was declared safe and effective. |
| 1961 | Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man to fly in space, orbiting the Earth once before making a safe landing. |
| 1981 | The space shuttle Columbia blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on its first test flight. |
| 1983 | Harold Washington was elected Chicago’s first African-American mayor. |
| 1999 | U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright found President Bill Clinton in contempt of court for giving “intentionally false” testimony in a lawsuit filed by Paula Jones about his relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky. |
| 2002 | Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez resigned under pressure from the country’s divided military. (He was returned to office two days later.) |
| 2004 | Barry Bonds hit his 660th home run to tie Willie Mays for third on baseball’s career list. (Bonds is now the career leader in home runs.) |
| 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. |
Current Birthdays
Jazz musician Herbie Hancock turns 71 years old today.
AP Photo/Dan Steinberg
Actress Claire Danes turns 32 years old today.
AP Photo/Evan Agostini
| 1933 | Montserrat Caballe, Opera singer, turns 78 |
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| 1942 | Frank Bank, Actor (“Leave it to Beaver”), turns 69 |
| 1944 | John Kay, Rock singer (Steppenwolf), turns 67 |
| 1946 | Ed O’Neill, Actor (“Married … With Children”), turns 65 |
| 1947 | Tom Clancy, Author, turns 64 |
| 1947 | Dan Lauria, Actor (“The Wonder Years”), turns 64 |
| 1947 | David Letterman, Talk show host, turns 64 |
| 1949 | Scott Turow, Author, turns 62 |
| 1950 | David Cassidy, Actor, singer (“The Partridge Family”), turns 61 |
| 1956 | Andy Garcia, Actor, turns 55 |
| 1957 | Vince Gill, Country musician, turns 54 |
| 1964 | Amy Ray, Folk singer, musician (Indigo Girls), turns 47 |
| 1971 | Nicholas Brendon, Actor (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer”), turns 40 |
| 1971 | Shannen Doherty, Actress, turns 40 |
| 1979 | Jennifer Morrison, Actress (“House M.D.”), turns 32 |
| 1987 | Brendon Urie, Rock musician (Panic at the Disco), turns 24 |
| 1994 | Saoirse Ronan, Actress (“Atonement,” “The Lovely Bones”), turns 17 |
Historic Birthdays
Jan Tinbergen4/12/1903 – 6/9/1994Dutch Nobel Prize-winning economist (1969).Go to obituary »| 74 | Joachim Camerarius 4/12/1500 – 4/17/1574 German Lutheran theologian |
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| 54 | Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford 4/12/1550 – 6/24/1604 English poet and patron of the Oxford’s Men acting company |
| 75 | Henry Clay 4/12/1777 – 6/29/1852 American politician; U.S. congressman and senator (1806-52) |
| 89 | John Strachan 4/12/1778 – 11/1/1867 Scottish-born Canadian educator and first Anglican bishop of Toronto |
| 85 | Grenville Dodge 4/12/1831 – 1/3/1916 American engineer; chief engineer of Union Pacific Railroad (1866-70) |
| 72 | Sir James Mackenzie 4/12/1853 – 1/26/1925 Scottish cardiologist; pioneer in the study of cardiac arrhythmia |
| 93 | Imogen Cunningham 4/12/1883 – 6/24/1976 American photographer of plants and portraits |
| 78 | Lily Pons 4/12/1898 – 2/13/1976 French coloratura soprano |
| 78 | Pete Desjardins 4/12/1907 – 5/6/1985 American diver; 1928 Olympic medallist |
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
