◆ On this day

April 12

4 sourced moments from April 12 in history: Fort Sumter's first Civil War shot wasn't Edmund Ruffin's (1861); The Salk polio vaccine was declared safe on April 12, 1955; Yuri Gagarin's 1961 flight nearly ended in a reentry spin, plus 1 more.

‹

›

T 9 F 10 S 11 S 12 M 13 T 14 W 15

4 things happened on April 12

newest first ↓

1981 Space · Space Exploration

Columbia flew the first shuttle mission on April 12, 1981

STS-1 lifted off on April 12, 1981, circled Earth 37 times and landed two days later, missing 16 heat-shield tiles.

Read →

1961 Space · Space Exploration

Yuri Gagarin's 1961 flight nearly ended in a reentry spin

Gagarin's 108-minute orbit made him the first human in space, but a stuck module sent his capsule spinning at 8 g on the way home.

Read →

1955 Human Body & Mind · Medicine & Disease

The Salk polio vaccine was declared safe on April 12, 1955

A double-blind trial of nearly 2 million children proved Salk's vaccine worked. Within weeks, a manufacturing failure nearly derailed it.

Read →

1861 History · War & Conflict

Fort Sumter's first Civil War shot wasn't Edmund Ruffin's

The Civil War opened at 4:30 a.m. on April 12, 1861 — with a signal shell legend credits to the wrong man.

Read →