1633 – Inquisition of Galileo begins for holding the belief that the earth revolves around the sun. He is convicted of heresy.
1858 – Alfred Cummings becomes Utah’s first non-Mormon governor, signaling the end of the so-called “Utah War.”
1861 – The bloodiest four years in American history begins when Confederate shore batteries open fire on Union-held Fort Sumter in South Carolina’s Charleston Bay. Two days later, Pres. Lincoln issues a proclamation calling on soldiers to quell the Southern “insurrection.”
1945 – Pres. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the longest serving president in American history, dies of a cerebral hemorrhage three months into his fourth term.
1954 – Bill Haley and the Comets record “Rock Around the Clock.”
1961 – Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human being to travel into space.
