Today in History -- 12 April 2005

1204 - Constantinople is sacked in the Fourth Crusade.
1606 - England adopts the Union Jack as its flag.
1770 - The Townsend Acts are repealed by the British Parliament.
1782 - The British navy wins its sole naval engagement against the American colonists at the Battle of Saints, off Dominica.
1811 - The first colonists arrive at Cape Disappointment, Washington.
1861 - Confederates shell Fort Sumter, starting America's Civil War.
1864 - In Tennessee, Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest captures Fort Pillow. Black Federal soldiers there are massacred.
1916 - The US Cavalry and Mexican bandits clash at Parrel, Mexico.
1927 - The British Cabinet comes out in favor of voting rights for women.
1944 - The U.S. Twentieth Air Force is activated to begin the strategic bombing of Japan.
1945 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies at Warm Spring, Georgia. Harry S. Truman becomes president.
1955 - Dr. Jonas Salk's discovery of a vaccine for polio is announced.
1963 - Police use dogs and cattle prods on peaceful civil rights demonstrators in Birmingham, Alabama.
1975 - The US Embassy in Cambodia is evacuated.
1983 - Harold Washington becomes the first black mayor elected in Chicago.

Birthdays
1777 - Henry Clay, the "Great Compromiser", American politician and statesman who ran unsuccessfully for president three times.
1838 - John Shaw Billings, American librarian, Army physician.

Signing Off. Until next time, I'll see ya on the Blog! drh.