Following are some of the major events to have occurred on April 12:
\n1945 \u2013 Franklin Roosevelt, U.S. president for a record four terms, died in office. Vice President Harry Truman took over and completed his term of office.
\n1954 \u2013 Bill Haley and the Comets recorded the song \u201cRock Around the Clock\u201d. It sold an estimated 25 million copies worldwide, at the time the second biggest-selling single behind Bing Crosby\u2019s \u201cWhite Christmas\u201d.
\n1955 \u2013 Polio vaccine announced as safe and effective.
\n1981 \u2013 Joe Louis, heavyweight boxing champion, died aged 66. He held the world title for a record 12 years and won 68 of his 71 professional fights.
\n1989 \u2013 U.S. boxer Sugar Ray Robinson, five-time winner of the world middleweight crown and unbeaten welterweight champion, died.
\n1997 \u2013 Albania\u2019s King Leka I returned home after 58 years in exile.
\n1999 \u2013 Fourteen people were killed when a NATO missile hit a train on a bridge over the Grdelica ravine in southeast Serbia during the conflict over Kosovo.
\n2001 \u2013 China released all 24 crew of a U.S. spy plane after Washington apologised for the aircraft\u2019s entry into Chinese airspace and for the death of a Chinese pilot.
\n2002 \u2013 Yadollah Sahabi, veteran Iranian opposition leader, died aged 96. He fought against U.S. and British domination and later against Islamic extremism.
\n2003 \u2013 Hungarian vote on EU membership.
\n2017 \u2013 Opposition protesters in South Africa hold \u201cZuma Must Fall\u201d demonstrations.
\n(Reuters)vaccination. Franklin Roosevelt, Bill Haley and the Comets, polio vaccine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On April 12, 1945, Franklin Roosevelt, the U.S. president for four terms, died in office, and Vice President Harry Truman took over.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":7865,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[589,3492,6079,1044,4368,461,486,174,2692,5752,379,3343,1937,2024,6078,660,3143,658,466,292,4593,659,6080,4843,4725,317,4792,3523,1774,3519,457,18,3137],"class_list":["post-7864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-other","tag-africa","tag-bill","tag-bill-haley-and-the-comets","tag-boxing","tag-bridge","tag-british","tag-china","tag-christmas","tag-death","tag-demonstrations","tag-eu","tag-events","tag-extremism","tag-fights","tag-franklin-roosevelt","tag-haley","tag-harry","tag-history","tag-missile","tag-nato","tag-office","tag-on-this-day","tag-polio-vaccine","tag-president","tag-ravine","tag-south-africa","tag-truman","tag-u-s-president","tag-vote","tag-washington","tag-white","tag-world","tag-world-title"],"acf":{"keyphrase":"","keywords":"","sourceimg":"","country-category":""},"yoast_head":"\n