1861: Confederates attack Fort Sumter, beginning the American Civil War
1919: Workers at the Lansdowne plant of the Condensed Milk Company in Limerick, Ireland, put down their tools, leading the way for the general strike known as the Limerick Soviet
1932: Tiny Tim is born [TV: 1991]
1954: Bill Haley and His Comets record “Rock Around the Clock” for Decca Records,
one, two, three o’clock, four o’clock, rock
1961: Yuri Alexeyevich Gagarin becomes the first person to orbit the Earth
1983: Harold Washington is elected the first black mayor of Chicago