Today is Thursday, April 12, the 103rd day of 2012. There are 263 days left in the year.

1204 ― Fourth Crusade occupies and plunders Constantinople

1654 ― England, Ireland and Scotland unite

1857 ― Gustave Flaubert's ``Madame Bovary" published

1892 ― George C. Blickensderfer patents portable typewriter

1911 ― First non-stop London-Paris flight (Pierre Prier in 3 hours 56 minutes)

1919 ― British Parliament passes a 48-hour work week with minimum wages

1927 ― General Chiang Kai-shek begins counter revolution in Shanghai

1969 ― Simon & Garfunkel releases ``The Boxer"

1980 ― U.S. Olympic Committee endorses a boycott of the Moscow games

1988 ― Harvard University patents genetically engineered mouse (first for animal life)