Nightly News   |  April 12, 2011

Day in history: April 12

On this day, April 12th, former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt died, the catcher’s mitt was introduced to baseball for the very first time, and Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space. Celebrity birthdays include the author Tom Clancy and talk show host David Letterman.

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This content comes from Closed Captioning that was broadcast along with this program.

>>> and now a word about today. this day, the 12th of april, in history. in the history business this is a big one, from small events to large. on this date the union jack was first flown in britain. in this country it is national grilled cheese day. celebrity birthdays include the author tom clancy , david letterman , joe louis died on this date in 1981 . also on this day in 1945 word arrived from warm springs , georgia that fdr had died. some people had thought he'd be president for life. harry truman took over the job at a dicey time for the u.s. and the world. we were at war, after all. yuri gagarin woke up the world on this day in 1961 as the first man in space. just 20 years later the first spishlt flew, the shuttle "columbia." and on this anniversary the remain shuttles were handed out by nasa as tourist attractions when the program is all over. l.a. will get the shuttle "endeavour." the kennedy space center will get "atlantis." "discovery" will go to the smithsonian aerospace collection just outside d.c. and the shuttle will finally land here in new york. we'll get the "enterprise." but in the life of the country this day will always mean just one thing, the start of the civil war . the first shot was fired 150 years ago today. the civil war killed 2% of the population of the united states . it tore our nation apart and reformed it later. and when we come back, we'll show you how it was remembered today where it