Skip to content
Wellsprings
On this day in history

April 12

JewishScience
YahrzeitHebrew-calendar remembrance

The Hebrew anniversary of a passing drifts against the civil calendar; these fall on April 12 this year.

  • R. Chaim Halberstam of Sanz (Divrei Chaim)d. 1876 CE

    Founding rebbe of the Sanz dynasty; halachic authority

    Trace this life →
  1. 1997 CEJewish · died

    Nechama Leibowitz, the Israel Prize–winning teacher who revived close, question-driven study of the weekly Torah portion, died in Jerusalem.

  2. 1955 CEScience

    Field-trial results announced at the University of Michigan declared the poliomyelitis vaccine developed by Jonas Salk safe and effective, a milestone against a widely feared disease.

    Trace this life →
  3. 1961 CEScience

    Yuri Gagarin became the first person to travel into space, completing a single orbit of the Earth aboard Vostok 1 in a flight lasting about 108 minutes.

Explore The Great Spring →