^B{^#!16!12 April^N! Feast day of St Zeno of Verona, St Julius I, pope, St Sabas the Goth and Others, and St Alferius.
^B{1204^B} Soldiers taking part in the Fourth Crusade under the direction of the Doge of Venice, captured the Byzantine city of Constantinople. ^B{1606^B} The Union Jack was adopted as the official flag of England. ^B{1782^B} The British fleet under Admiral Rodney defeated the French fleet in the Battle of the Saints in the West Indies. ^B{1861^B} The American Civil War began when Confederate troops fired on the Federal garrison at Fort Sumter. ^B{1961^B} Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person to orbit the Earth. ^B{1981^B} The US space shuttle Columbia was launched from Cape Canaveral.
^B{^I{^#!14!Born ^N}Henry Clay, American politician, ^B{1777^B}; Lionel Hampton, US bandleader, ^B{1913^B}; Raymond Barre, French politician, ^B{1924^B}; Alan Ayckbourn, English playwright, ^B{1939^B}; Bobby Moore, English footballer, ^B{1941^B}.
^B{^I{^#!14!Died ^N}William Kent, English architect and landscape gardener, ^B{1748^B}; Fyodor Chaliapin, Russian operatic bass, ^B{1938^B}; Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd president of the US, ^B{1945^B}; Josephine Baker, US-born French singer and dancer, ^B{1975^B}; Alan Paton, South African novelist and politician, ^B{1988^B}.
