If you think your birthday has no significance....

... Google it. I guarantee you'll get giggles, food for thought, and maybe a little sentimental (yes, I know that last part isn't grammatically corect. but hey, work with me here). I also guarantee your ego will inflate just a tiny bit. And yes, I know you're about to open that new tab and go do it. But read this post first .... please?

April 12th is the 102nd day of the year (103rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 263 days remaining until the end of the year.

Today in history: 

467: Anthemius is elevated to Emperor of the Western Roman Empire.

1204: The Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade breach the walls of Constantinople and enter the city, which they completely occupy the following day.

1606: The Union Flag is adopted as the flag of Great Britain.

1861: The Civil War begins as Confederate forces fire on Fort Sumter in South Carolina.
1934: The strongest surface wind gust in the world at 231 mph, is measured on the summit of Mount Washington, New Hampshire.

1945: Franklin D. Roosevelt, the 32nd president of the United States, dies of a cerebral hemorrhage in Warm Springs, Georgia, at age 63. Vice President Harry S. Truman becomes president.  

1961: Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first man to fly in space, orbiting the Earth once before he makes a safe landing.

1975: The U.S. admits defeat in Cambodia and removes its remaining embassy personnel from the capital, Phnom Penh.

1981: The space shuttle Columbia blasts off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on its first test flight.

1983: Harold Washington is elected Chicago's first African-American mayor. 

1990: Jim Gary's "Twentieth Century Dinosaurs" exhibition opens at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.

1997: Police in Sarajevo discover mines under a bridge just hours before the arrival of the Pope.

2009: American cargo ship captain Richard Phillips is rescued from Somali pirates by U.S. Navy snipers who shoot and kill three of the hostage-takers. 

This day is also celebrated as:

Halifax Day (North Carolina)

Cosmonautics Day (Russia)

Birthdays:

1777: Henry Clay, American politician; U.S. congressman and senator.

1903: Jan Tinbergen, Dutch Nobel Prize-winning economist.

1916: Beverly Clearly, author

1947: David Letterman, talk show host

          Tom Clancy, author

1956: Andy Garcia, actor

1990: Kirsten Irish, English student

Ha! so that was the ulterior motive here. And now everything becomes clear ;-)