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Today in History: April 12

1204 The Fourth Crusade sacks Constantinople.

1606 England adopts the Union Jack as its flag.

1811 1st US colonists on Pacific coast arrive at Cape Disappointment, Washington

1872 Jesse James' gang robs a bank of $1,500 in Columbia, Kentucky, 1 dead

1861 Fort Sumter is shelled by the Confederacy, starting America's Civil War.

1864 Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest captures Fort Pillow, in Tennessee.

1954 Bill Haley records "Rock Around the Clock."

1961 Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first person to orbit Earth (Vostok 1)

1990 1st meeting of East German democratically elected parliament, acknowledges responsibility for the Holocaust and asks for forgiveness

2021 Great Britain loosens its COVID-19 restrictions, opening pubs and shops after 175 days, the world's longest period of restrictions

2022 UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson apologies and is fined for attending parties during COVID-19 lockdown - first premier to be sanctioned for breaking the law

2023 New York City appoints it first-ever rat czar as Kathleen Corradi becomes the city's first-ever director of rat mitigation

Born on April 12

1777 Henry Clay, the "Great Compromiser", American politician and statesman who ran unsuccessfully for president three times.

1838 John Shaw Billings, American librarian, army physician.

1979 Claire Danes, American actress (Angela-My So Called Life, Romeo & Juliet), born in NYC, New York

JOTD
A man walks out to the street and catches a taxi just as it's going by. As he gets into the taxi, and the cabbie says, "Impeccable timing. You're just like Frank."

Passenger: "Who?"
Cabbie: "Frank Feldman. He's a guy who did everything right all the time. Like my coming along when you needed a cab, things happened like that to Frank Feldman every single time."
Passenger: "There are always a few clouds over everybody."
Cabbie: "Not Frank Feldman. He was a terrific athlete. He could have won the Grand-Slam at tennis. He could golf with the pros. He sang like an opera baritone and danced like a Broadway star and you should have heard him play the piano. He was an amazing guy."
Passenger: "Sounds like he was really something special."
Cabbie: "There's more. He had a memory like a computer. He remembered everybody's birthday. He knew all about wine, which foods to order and which fork to eat them with. He could fix anything. Not like me. I change a fuse, and the whole street blacks out. But Frank Feldman could do everything right.”
Passenger: "Wow, what a guy!"
Cabbie: "He always knew the quickest way to go in traffic and avoid traffic jams. Not like me, I always seem to get stuck in them. But Frank, he never made a mistake, and he really knew how to treat a woman and make her feel good. He would never answer her back even if she was in the wrong; and his clothing was always immaculate, shoes highly polished too. He was the perfect man! He never made a mistake. No one could ever measure up to Frank Feldman."
Passenger: "How did you meet him?"
Cabbie: "I never actually met Frank. He died and I married his wife."