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Digital Library of PM Shri KV Adoor

On This Day

12 April

🇮🇳 In India
1801 Sikh chieftain Ranjit Singh was crowned the Maharaja of the Punjab.
1873 Mahakavi Kumaran Asan, poet of Malayalam literature, Indian social reformer and philosopher, was born in Kayikkara, Thiruvananthapuram. He is known to have initiated a revolution in Malayalam poetry during the first quarter of the 20th century.
🌎 Elsewhere
1916 Beverly Cleary, writer of children's and young adult fiction, was born. One of America's most successful authors, 91 million copies of her books have been sold worldwide since her first book was published in 1950.
1947 Tom Clancy, American novelist known for his technically detailed espionage and military-science storylines set during and after the Cold War, was born.
1955 Dr Jonas Salk announced that the polio vaccine developed by him was "safe, effective and potent".
1961 Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space. The Soviet Cosmonaut orbited the Earth aboard the Vostok-3KA spacecraft (Vostok 1 mission). The first human spaceflight took 108 minutes from launch to landing.
1988 Alan Paton, South African author and anti-apartheid activist, died. His works include the novels Cry, the Beloved Country and Too Late the Phalarope.
⭐ Significance
International Day of Human Space Flight is the annual celebration of the anniversary of the first human space flight by Yuri Gagarin. It was proclaimed at the 65th session of the United Nations General Assembly on 7 April 2011, a few days before the 50th anniversary of the flight.


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