On April 12, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man to fly in space, orbiting the earth once before making a safe landing.

Ten years ago

Jurors in the Zacarias Moussaoui trial listened to a recording of shouts and cries in the cockpit as desperate passengers twice charged hijackers during the final half hour of doomed United Flight 93 on 9/11. The Rev. William Sloane Coffin, a former Yale chaplain known for Vietnam-era peace activism, died in Strafford, Vermont, at age 81. Indian movie star Rajkumar died in Bangalore at age 77.

Five years ago

Japan ranked its nuclear crisis at the highest possible severity on an international scale — the same level as the 1986 Chernobyl disaster — even as it insisted radiation leaks were declining at its tsunami-crippled nuclear plant. The state of Ohio executed two-time murderer Clarence Carter for beating and stomping to death a fellow jail inmate.

One year ago

Hillary Rodham Clinton jumped back into presidential politics, announcing in a video her much-awaited second campaign for the White House. Pope Francis marked the 100th anniversary of the slaughter of Armenians by Ottoman Turks, calling it “the first genocide of the 20th century,” a politically explosive declaration that provoked a furious reaction from Turkey.

— By The Associated Press

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