Techie Manager

I’m still not sure how I feel about turning 40. Hell, it’s better than turning 50, right?

Stuff that happened on April 12th (from Wikipedia):

* 467 - Anthemius is elevated to Emperor of the Western Roman Empire
* 1606 - The Union Jack is adopted as the national flag of Great Britain.
* 1633 - The formal interrogation by the Inquisition of Galileo Galilei begins.
* 1776 - North Carolina’s Provincial Congress authorized its delegates to the Second Continental Congress to vote for independence by issuing the Halifax Resolves.
* 1861 - American Civil War: The war begins with Confederate forces firing on Fort Sumter, in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina.
* 1864 - American Civil War: Fort Pillow massacre — Confederate forces under General Nathan Bedford Forrest kill most of the African American soldiers who had surrendered at Fort Pillow, Tennessee.
* 1865 - American Civil War: Mobile, Alabama, falls to the Union Army.
* 1877 - The United Kingdom annexes the Transvaal.
* 1937 - Sir Frank Whittle ground-tests the first jet engine designed to power an aircraft, at the British Thomson-Houston factory in Rugby, England.
* 1945 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies, and Harry S. Truman is inaugurated as the 33rd President of the United States.
* 1946 - Syria gains independence from France.
* 1954 - Bill Haley and His Comets record “Rock Around the Clock” in New York City. Initially unsuccessful, the recording would help launch the rock and roll revolution a year later.
* 1955 - The polio vaccine, developed by Dr. Jonas Salk, is declared safe and effective.
* 1961 - Yuri Gagarin becomes the first man to fly in space.
* 1968 - Nerve gas accident at Skull Valley, Utah.
* 1975 - Khmer Rouge troops capture Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
* 1980 - Samuel Doe takes control of Liberia in a coup d’etat, ending over 130 years of democratic presidential succession in that country.
* 1980 - Terry Fox begins his “Marathon of Hope” by dipping his artificial leg into the Atlantic at St. John’s, Newfoundland.
* 1981 - The first launch of a Space Shuttle: Columbia launches on the STS-1 mission.
* 1990 - Christian Bernard, F.R.C., becomes Imperator of AMORC.
* 1994 - Canter & Siegel post the first commercial mass Usenet spam.
* 1996 - Yahoo! had its initial public offering, selling 2.6 million shares at $13 each.
* 1998 - Catastrophical earthquake in Slovenia in Posočje 5,6 on the Richter scale.
* 2002 - Pedro Carmona becomes interim President of Venezuela during the Venezuelan coup attempt of 2002, a military coup against Hugo Chávez.

Birthdays:

* 599 BC - Mahavira, Indian founder of Jainism (d. 527 BC)
* 812 - Muhammad at-Taqi, Arabian Shia Imam (d. 835)
* 1484 - Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, Italian architect (d. 1546)
* 1500 - Joachim Camerarius, German classical scholar (d. 1574)
* 1526 - Muretus, French humanist (d. 1585)
* 1550 - Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, English politician (d. 1604)
* 1577 - King Christian IV of Denmark (d. 1648)
* 1713 - Guillaume Thomas François Raynal, French writer (d. 1796)
* 1722 - Pietro Nardini, Italian composer (d. 1793)
* 1724 - Dr. Lyman Hall, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (d. 1790)
* 1726 - Charles Burney, English music historian (d. 1814)
* 1748 - Antoine Laurent de Jussieu, French botanist (d. 1836)
* 1777 - Henry Clay, American statesman and five-time Presidential candidate (d. 1852)
* 1794 - Germinal Pierre Dandelin, Belgian mathematician (d. 1847)
* 1799 - Henri Druey, Swiss Federal Councilor (d. 1855)
* 1823 - Alexandr Ostrovsky, Russian dramatist (d. 1886)
* 1839 - Nikolai Przhevalsky, Russian explorer (d. 1888)
* 1848 - José Gautier Benítez, Puerto Rican poet
* 1856 - William Martin Conway, English art critic and mountaineer (d. 1937)
* 1868 - Akiyama Saneyuki, Japanese naval commander (d. 1918)
* 1869 - Henri Désiré Landru, French serial killer (d. 1922)
* 1884 - Otto Meyerhof, German-born biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1951)
* 1887 - Harold Lockwood, American silent film actor (d. 1918)
* 1888 - Heinrich Neuhaus, Soviet pianist (d. 1964)
* 1892 - Johnny Dodds, American jazz clarinetist (d. 1940)
* 1893 - Robert Harron, American actor (d. 1920)
* 1898 - Lily Pons, American soprano (d. 1976)
* 1902 - Louis Beel, Prime Minister of the Netherlands (d. 1977)
* 1903 - Sally Rand, American dancer and actress (d. 1979)
* 1903 - Jan Tinbergen, Dutch economist, Bank of Sweden Prize winner (d. 1994)
* 1907 - Felix de Weldon, Austrian-born sculptor (d. 2003)
* 1912 - Walt Gorney, American actor (d. 2004)
* 1916 - Beverly Cleary, American writer
* 1917 - Helen Forrest, American singer (d. 1999)
* 1922 - Tiny Tim, American musician (d. 1996)
* 1923 - Ann Miller, American actress and dancer (d. 2004)
* 1928 - Hardy Krüger, German actor
* 1928 - Jean-François Paillard, French conductor
* 1932 - Dennis Banks, American activist
* 1932 - Lakshman Kadirgamar, Sri Lankan Politician (assassinated) (d. 2005)
* 1933 - Montserrat Caballé, Catalan soprano
* 1935 - Johnny Bucyk, Canadian ice hockey player
* 1939 - Alan Ayckbourn, English writer
* 1940 - Herbie Hancock, American pianist and composer
* 1941 - Bobby Moore, English footballer (d. 1993)
* 1944 - John Kay, German-born musician (Steppenwolf)
* 1946 - Ed O’Neill, American actor
* 1947 - Tom Clancy, American author
* 1947 - David Letterman, American talk show host
* 1948 - Jeremy Beadle, British television presenter
* 1948 - Joschka Fischer, Foreign Minister of Germany
* 1948 - Sandra “Lois” Reeves, American singer (Martha & the Vandellas)
* 1949 - Scott Turow, American writer
* 1950 - David Cassidy, American singer and actor
* 1950 - Kari Palaste, Finnish architect
* 1952 - Ralph Wiley, American sports journalist (d. 2004)
* 1954 - Pat Travers, Canadian musician
* 1956 - Andy Garcia, Cuban-born actor
* 1956 - Herbert Grönemeyer, German singer, pianist, and actor
* 1957 - Vince Gill, American musician
* 1961 - Lisa Gerrard, Australian singer and film composer
* 1961 - D D Verni, American musician , (Overkill)
* 1962 - Art Alexakis, American musician (Everclear)
* 1962 - Takada Nobuhiko, Japanese professional wrestler
* 1964 - Amy Ray, American musician (Indigo Girls)
* 1970 - Nick Hexum, American musician (311)
* 1971 - Nicholas Brendon, actor
* 1971 - Shannen Doherty, American actress
* 1974 - Marley Shelton, American actress
* 1976 - Brad Miller, American Basketball player
* 1978 - Guy Berryman, British musician (Coldplay)
* 1978 - Riley Smith, American actor
* 1979 - Claire Danes, American actress
* 1979 - Mateja Kežman, Serbian footballer
* 1982 - Deen, Bosnian singer
* 1985 - Hitomi Yoshizawa, Japanese singer (Morning Musume)
* 1993 - Calvin Dewayne Birdlong Jr.,Jasper homeland

Deaths:

* 65 - Seneca the Younger, Roman philosopher, statesman and dramatist
* 238 - Gordian I, Roman Emperor (suicide)
* 238 - Gordian II, heir to the Roman Empire (killed in battle)
* 352 - St. Julius I, 35th Pope of the Catholic Church
* 1443 - Henry Chichele, Archbishop of Canterbury
* 1550 - Claude, Duke of Guise, French soldier (b. 1496)
* 1555 - Juana of Castile, queen of Philip I of Castile (b. 1479)
* 1687 - Ambrose Dixon, Virginia Colony pioneer
* 1704 - Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet, French bishop and writer (b. 1627)
* 1748 - William Kent, English architect
* 1782 - Metastasio, Italian poet and librettist (b. 1698)
* 1788 - Carlo Antonio Campioni, French-born composer (b. 1719)
* 1795 - Johann Kaspar Basselet von La Rosée, Bavarian general (b. 1710)
* 1814 - Charles Burney, English music historian (b. 1726)
* 1850 - Adoniram Judson, American Baptist missionary (b. 1788)
* 1878 - William Marcy Tweed, aka Boss Tweed, American politician (b. 1823)
* 1902 - Marie Alfred Cornu, French physicist (b. 1842)
* 1912 - Clara Barton, American nurse and Red Cross advocate (b. 1821)
* 1938 - Feodor Chaliapin, Russian bass (b. 1873)
* 1945 - Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States (b. 1882)
* 1962 - Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya, Indian politician and engineer (b. 1861)
* 1971 - Igor Tamm, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1895)
* 1971 - Ed Lafitte, American baseball player (b. 1871)
* 1975 - Josephine Baker, American dancer (b. 1906)
* 1980 - Clark McConachy, New Zealand billiards and snooker player (b. 1895)
* 1980 - William R. Tolbert, Jr., President of Liberia (b. 1913)
* 1981 - Joe Louis, American boxer (b. 1914)
* 1986 - Valentin Kataev, Russian writer (b. 1897)
* 1988 - Alan Paton, South African novelist (b. 1903)
* 1989 - Gerald Flood, British actor (b. 1927)
* 1989 - Abbie Hoffman, American radical leader (b. 1936)
* 1989 - Sugar Ray Robinson, American boxer (b. 1921)
* 1997 - George Wald, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1903)
* 1999 - Boxcar Willie, American singer (b. 1931)
* 2003 - Cecil H. Green, American manufacturer (b. 1900)