In 1606, England adopted as its flag the original version of the Union Jack.
In 1861, the Civil War began as Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter in South Carolina.
In 1877, the catcher's mask was first used in a baseball game.
In 1945, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd president of the United States, died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Warm Springs, Ga., at age 63 - just three months after beginning an unprecedented fourth term in office. Vice President Harry S. Truman became the nation's 33rd chief executive.
In 1955, the Salk vaccine against polio was declared safe and effective.
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"Remember, remember always that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists."
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Franklin D. Roosevelt, in a 1938 address to the Daughters of the American Revolution.