Local Look Back

PUBLISHED IN THE OELWEIN DAILY REGISTER THURSDAY, APRIL 12, 2013: Pictured above, left to right: Nancy Yelden, Director of the Clayton County VNA, and Darla Butikofer, Child Care Nurse Consultant, both from the Clayton County Visiting Nurse Association in Elkader, and Teri Orr, Child Care Resource and Referral Consultant and Supervisor, displaying the materials received through the Love Our Kids Grant.

Today is Saturday, April 12, the 102nd day of 2025. There are 263 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History

On April 12, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space, orbiting the earth once before landing safely via parachute after a planned ejection from his space capsule.

Also on this date

In 1861, the U.S. Civil War began as Confederate forces opened fire on Fort Sumter in South Carolina.

In 1945, President Franklin D. Roosevelt died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Warm Springs, Georgia, at age 63; he was succeeded by Vice President Harry S. Truman.

In 1954, Bill Haley and His Comets recorded “Rock Around the Clock,†a song often cited as bringing rock ‘n’ roll music into the mainstream when it was popularized in the film “The Blackboard Jungle†the following year.

In 1955, the polio vaccine developed by Jonas Salk was declared safe and effective following nearly a year of field trials undertaken by about 1.8 million American child volunteers dubbed “polio pioneers.â€

In 1963, civil rights leader the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested and jailed in Birmingham, Alabama, charged with contempt of court and parading without a permit. (During his time behind bars, King wrote his “Letter from Birmingham Jail.â€)

In 1981, the NASA Space Shuttle program began as Space Shuttle Columbia, the world’s first reusable spacecraft, lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center.