Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/April 12
On April 12:
- 1633 - The formal interrogation by the Inquisition of Galileo Galilei began.
- 1815 - The most violent volcanic eruption in recorded history, Mount Tambora in Indonesia killed 92,000 and caused the Year Without a Summer, 1816.
- 1961 - Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man to enter outer space.
- 1981 - The first launch of a Space Shuttle: Columbia launched on the STS-1 mission.