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April 12
1861The Civil War began when Fort Sumter was attacked. 1862James J. Andrews led the raiding party that stole the Confederate locomotive "The General," inspiring the 1926 Buster Keaton movie. 1945President Franklin Roosevelt died. 1955The polio vaccine of Dr. Jonas Salk was called "safe, effective, and potent." 1961Soviet cosmonaut Yuri A. Gagarin became the first human in space and also the first human to orbit the earth in a spacecraft. 1981The first space shuttle, Columbia, took its first test flight. 1983Harold Washington was elected Chicago’s first African-American mayor. 1999Arkansas federal judge Susan Webber Wright found President Clinton in contempt of court for lying about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky. 
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