Today is Tuesday, April 12, the 102nd of 2011. 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
1896 ― Stamasia Portrisi is first woman to win a marathon (5:30 in Athens)
1919 ― British Parliament passes a 48-hour workweek with minimum wages
1961 ― Yuri Alexeyevich Gagarin becomes first person to orbit Earth (Vostok 1)
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)