MONDAY, APRIL 12, 2010

Today is Monday, April 12, the 102nd day of 2010. There are 263 days left in the year.

1204 _ 4th Crusade occupies and plunders Constantinople

1654 _ England, Ireland and Scotland unite

1826 _ Weber's opera ``Oberon", premieres in London

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

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

1942 _ Japan kills about 400 Filipino officers in Bataan

1961 _ Douglas MacArthur declines offer to become baseball commissioner

1966 _ First B-52 bombing on North Vietnam

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

1990 _ First meeting of East German democratically elected parliament, acknowledges responsibility for Nazi holocaust and asks for forgiveness