April 12 in Pop Culture 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.
1961 – Aboard the spacecraft Vostok 1, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin became the first human being to travel into space.
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 board’s 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.
