April 12th, 1945 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies of a cerebral hemorrhage in Warm Springs, Georgia, at age 63. “Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Roosevelt who led America through the Great Depression and most of World War II served a record of 12 years in office. Vice President Harry Truman succeeds Roosevelt in the White House.

1861 - start of the American Civil War. Confederate forces fire on the Union garrison at Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, fighting between the North and South lasts 4 years with more than half a million deaths.

1961 - Soviet cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin becomes the first man to fly in space, orbiting the Earth once before making a safe landing. And 1981 - America's first space shuttle, named Columbia, blasts off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on its maiden flight. More than two decades later, Columbia meets a tragic end; it disintegrates on reentry killing its 7-passenger crew. And 1947 -“my name is Dave Letterman and I am the host of late show, America’s most successful C student.”

David Letterman, the late night TV talk show host is born in Indianapolis.

Today In History, April 12th, Mike Gracia, the Associated Press.