Another April 12th has come and gone, and for most Americans the date holds no special significance-- if nothing else, it might remind some that the dreaded April 15th tax deadline is not far away; for others, they might be reminded that Spring is well underway, and if we haven't observed Easter yet, it won't be long before we do.
But for those who remember the history of this nation, especially of the last one hundred and fifty years, April 12th is significant, and arguably, quite important. Three prominent events happened on April 12th that affected American history, and perhaps heralded-in new eras.
On April 12, 1945, the United States and the Free World lost Franklin Delano Roosevelt to a cerebral hemorrhage in the closing months of the Second World War. The responsibilities of presidential leadership fell on the shoulders of Harry Truman.
The world entered the age of manned space flight on April 12, 1961, as the now-former Soviet Union launched Vostok I with Yuri Gagarin aboard. Gagarin would complete one orbit on his mission, making exploration history. Alan Shepard would become America's first man into space three weeks later.
Perhaps the most famous (or infamous) April 12th occurred in 1861,( marking the beginning of the American Civil War) with rebel Confederate artillery forces shelling Fort Sumter, a federal island fortress in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. The artillery barrage began at 4:30 a.m., and continued for thirty-four hours, until the Union forces under the command of Robert Anderson surrendered.
Neither the Union nor the Confederacy suffered casualties that day, but the Civil War had indeed begun, and before it concluded, over half a million men would die. What began as a war for states' rights would become a war to define what "freedom" actually meant.
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