April 12 in Pop Culture History

April 12 Facts, Fun Trivia and History

April 12 History Highlights

  • 1961 – Aboard the spacecraft Vostok 1, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin became the first human being to travel into space.
  • If you were born on April 12th,
    You were likely conceived the week of… July 20th (prior year)

April 12 is…

Day of Human Space Flight Day
Drop Everything and Read Day
Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day
Licorice Day
Yuri’s Night

April 12 Birthday Quotes

“Of all the properties which belong to honorable men, not one is so highly prized as that of character.”
– Henry Clay

“The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense.”
– Tom Clancy

“I’d love to see Christ come back to crush the spirit of hate and make men put down their guns. I’d also like just one more hit single.”
– Tiny Tim

“The devaluation of music and what it’s now deemed to be worth is laughable to me. My single cost 99 cents. That’s what a single cost in 1960. On my phone, I can get an app for 99 cents that makes fart noises – the same price as the thing I create and speak to the world with. Some would say the fart app is more important. It’s an awkward time. Creative brains are being sorely mistreated.”
– Vince Gill

“Don’t be afraid to expand yourself, to step out of your comfort zone. That’s where the joy and the adventure lie.”
– Herbie Hancock

April 12 Birthdays

1777 – Henry Clay, American lawyer and politician, 9th United States Secretary of State (died in 1852)
1887 – Harold Lockwood, American actor and director (died in 1918)
1919 – Billy Vaughn, American musician and bandleader (died in 1991)
1923 – Ann Miller, American actress, singer, and dancer (died in 2004)
1932 – Tiny Tim, American singer and ukulele player (died in 1996)
1936 – Charles Napier, American character actor (died in 2011)
1940 – Herbie Hancock, American pianist and composer
1946 – Ed O’Neill, American comedic actor
1947 – Tom Clancy, American author (died in 2013)
1947 – David Letterman, American talk show host
1950 – David Cassidy, American singer-songwriter (died in 2017)
1954 – Pat Travers, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist
1956 – Andy Garcia, Cuban-American actor
1957 – Vince Gill, American singer-songwriter
1971 – Shannon Doherty, American actress
1971 – Nicholas Brendon, American actor
1973 – J. Scott Campbell, American comic book author and illustrator
1979 – Claire Danes, American actress
1979 – Jennifer Morrison, American actress
1987 – Brooklyn Decker, American model
1994 – Saoirse Ronan, American-born Irish actress

April 12 History

1606 – The Union Jack (the Union Flag) was adopted as the flag of English and Scottish ships.

1633 – Galileo was convicted of heresy, for announcing that the Earth revolved around the Sun.

1892 – The first US Patent (#472,692) for a portable typewriter, the Blickensderfer, was issued to George Blickensderfer of Stamford, Connecticut.

1914 – Mark Strand Theatre opened in New York City. It was the first official “movie theater.”

1934 – The strongest surface wind gust ever recorded on Earth, at 231 mph, was measured on the summit of Mount Washington, New Hampshire.

1945 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt died while in office and Vice President Harry Truman became President upon Roosevelt’s death.

1955 – The polio vaccine, developed by Dr. Jonas Salk, was declared safe and effective.

1969 – #1 Hit April 12, 1969 – May 23, 1969: The 5th Dimension – Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In

1974 – #1 Hit April 13, 1974 – April 19, 1974: Elton John – Bennie and the Jets

1975 – #1 Hit April 12, 1975 – April 25, 1975: Elton John – Philadelphia Freedom

1981 – The first launch of a Space Shuttle (Columbia), named NASA’s STS-1 mission.

1985 – Girls Just Want to Have Fun, Ladyhawke, and Cat’s Eye were released in theaters.

1987 – 21 Jump Street premiered on FOX.

1992 – The Euro Disney Resort officially opened with its theme park Euro Disneyland. It was later renamed Disneyland Paris.

1994 – Laurence Canter created a software program that flooded Usenet message boards with a notice for the ‘Green Card Lottery’ to solicit business for his law firm of Canter & Siegel, in an early instance of commercial spam.

1995 – Drew Barrymore appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman and, because it was his birthday, she danced on his desk and flashed him on the air.

1996 – James and the Giant Peach, Fear, and Jane Eyre debuted in theaters.

2008 – #1 Hit April 12, 2008 – May 2, 2008: Mariah Carey – Touch My Body

2013 – 42 and Scary Movie 5 were released in theaters.

Today’s Random Trivia and Shower Thoughts

I wonder if the reason aliens haven’t attacked us is that fiction is unique to human culture, and so they catch out movies floating around in space and think they’re seeing actual footage of us flying spaceships and wielding magic and all-around being unstoppable.

The formal name for the # symbol, commonly called the “hashtag” thanks to its widespread use in social media, is actually an “octothorpe.” #hashtag #octothorpe

The Capital of Nicaragua is Managua

The first victim of the Great Plague of London was Margaret Ponteous on April 12, 1665.

The Biggest film of 1956: The Ten Commandments (Drama) earned ~ $80,000,000

Boren’s Laws of the Bureaucracy: When in doubt, mumble. When in trouble, delegate. When in charge, ponder.

If you don’t want me stopping by for cake and ice cream, you probably shouldn’t advertise your birthday with balloons and a banner on your mailbox.

The ‘Happy Birthday’ song was placed into the public domain in September 2015.

“As for you, my galvanized friend, you want a heart. You don’t know how lucky you are not to have one. Hearts will never be practical until they can be made unbreakable.” – The Wizard

“Give a man a mask and he will show his true face” – Oscar Wilde

The Seven Virtues #2- Hope is taking a positive future view, that goodwill prevails.

The @ symbol dates back to 1345.

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