On this day, April 12 …
1945: President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies of a cerebral hemorrhage in Warm Springs, Ga., at age 63; he is succeeded by Vice President Harry S. Truman.
Also on this day:
- 1861: The Civil War begins as Confederate forces open fire on Fort Sumter in South Carolina.
- 1877: The catcher’s mask is first used in a baseball game by James Tyng of Harvard in a game against the Lynn Live Oaks.
- 1934: “Tender Is the Night,” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is first published in book form after being serialized in Scribner’s Magazine.
FILE – In this April 8, 1955 file photo, Dr. Jonas Salk, developer of the polio vaccine, describes how the vaccine is made and tested in his laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh. (AP Photo)
- 1955: The Salk vaccine against polio is declared safe and effective.
- 1961: Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first man to fly in space, orbiting the earth once before making a safe landing.
- 1963: Martin Luther King Jr. is arrested and jailed…