For some reason, Very Important Things seem to happen on April 12.
1633 Galileo goes on trial for heresy
1861 the Civil War begins
1945 FDR dies
1954 Bill Haley and the Comets record “Rock Around the Clock”
1961 Yuri Gagarin becomes the first man in space
1981 the first launch of the space shuttle
If you count the name of Haley’s band, that’s four out of six space-themed events.