12 April 2025 (MIA)

1917 – President Wilson asked Congress to declare war against Germany, saying, “The world must be made safe for democracy.”

1513 – Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon landed in Florida.

1792 – Congress passed the Coinage Act, which authorized establishment of the U.S. Mint.

1805 – Storyteller Hans Christian Andersen was born in Odense, Denmark.

1860 – The first Italian Parliament met at Turin.

1865 – Confederate President Jefferson Davis and most of his Cabinet fled the Confederate capital of Richmond, Va.

1872 – Samuel F.B. Morse, developer of the electric telegraph, died in New York.

1932 – Aviator Charles A. Lindbergh and Dr. John F. Condon turned over $50,000 in ransom to an unidentified man in a Bronx, N.Y., cemetery in exchange for Lindbergh’s kidnapped son. (The child, however, was not returned, and was found dead the following month.)

1942 – Glenn Miller and his orchestra recorded “American Patrol” at the RCA Victor studios in Hollywood.

1974 – French President Georges Pompidou died in Paris.

1982 – Several thousand troops from Argentina seized the disputed Falkland Islands, located in the south Atlantic, from Britain. (Britain seized the islands back the following June.)

1992 – Mob boss John Gotti was convicted in New York of murder and racketeering; he was later sentenced to life in prison. French Premier Edith Cresson, who had served 10 turbulent months as France’s first woman prime minister, resigned after election setbacks for the ruling Socialists. The space shuttle Atlantis returned from a nine-day mission.

1997 – The White House released documents showing how eager it had been to exploit the money-drawing powers of President Clinton and Vice President Gore during the 1996 campaign while coordinating with the Democratic Party’s fund-raising machine.

2001 – President Bush demanded that China promptly return a U.S. spy plane and its crew members.

2002 – A first edition version of Beatrix Potter’s “Peter Rabbit” sold for $64,780 at Sotheby’s. A signed first edition of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” sold for $66,630. A copy of “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone,” signed by J.K. Rowling sold for $16,660. A 250-piece collection of rare works by Charles Dickens sold for $512,650.

2002 – It was announced that the South African version of “Sesame Street” would be introducing a character that was HIV-positive.

2002 – JCPenney Chairman Allen Questrom rang the opening bell to start the business day at the New York Stock Exchange as part of the company’s centennial celebrations. James Cash (J.C.) Penney opened his first retail store on April 14, 1902.

2012 – The game Candy Crush Saga was released on Facebook.

2012 – The Smilkovci Lake killings took place on 12 April 2012. Five ethnic-Macedonian boys Filip Slavkovski, Aleksandar Nakjevski, Cvetancho Acevskia and Kire Trichkovski as well as 45-year-old man Borche Stevkovski were shot and killed at a man-made lake near the village of Smilkovci, outside the Macedonian capital Skopje.