Triangulum Australe and Triangulum are two small constellations, both named for the triangular pattern of their three brightest stars. The constellations are in the far southern and the northern celestial hemispheres respectively. Triangulum Australe was first depicted as Triangulus Antarcticus by Petrus Plancius in 1589 and was given its current name by Johann Bayer in 1603. Its brightest star is Alpha Trianguli Australis, the 42nd-brightest star in the night sky. At magnitude 1.91, it is an orange giant that is 5500 times more luminous than, and 130 times as wide as, our Sun. One star system in Triangulum Australe has a confirmed planet. Triangulum was known to the ancient Babylonians and Greeks, and was one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd-century astronomer Ptolemy. It contains several galaxies, the brightest and nearest of which is the Triangulum Galaxy (pictured)—a member of the Local Group. It also contains 3C 48, the first quasar ever observed. At magnitude 3.00, the white giant star Beta Trianguli is the brightest star in Triangulum. Three stars in the constellation have been found to have planets. (Full articles: Triangulum Australe – Triangulum)

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• ... that the green orchid bee (pictured), native to Central America, has taken up residence in Florida?
• ... that Hideki Shirakawa, Alan Heeger, and Alan MacDiarmid received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery and development of polyacetylene, an electronically conductive polymer?
• ... that Mick Parker climbed five 8,000 metre mountains without the assistance of Sherpa guides or bottled oxygen?
• ... that the stained glass windows of the Church of St Mary the Virgin, Fawsley, incorporate George Washington's family coat of arms?
• ... that when Michael Weiße published 157 songs in German for the Bohemian Brethren, it was the most extensive hymnal of his time, and the first organized by topic?
• ... that according to legend, William II de Soules's tenants expressed their opinion of his management by boiling him alive at the stone circle of Ninestane Rig?

• A critical bug in OpenSSL is estimated to have left 17% of the Internet's secure web servers vulnerable to data theft.
• In NCAA basketball, the Connecticut Huskies men defeat the Kentucky Wildcats to win the Men's Championship and the Connecticut Huskies women defeat the Notre Dame Fighting Irish to win the Women's Championship.
• Heavy rains from Cyclone Ita (pictured) trigger severe flooding in the Solomon Islands, killing more than 20 people.
• In rowing, Oxford defeat Cambridge in the 160th Boat Race.
• In cricket, Australia win the women's ICC World Twenty20 tournament and Sri Lanka win the men's tournament.

Recent deaths: Jim Flaherty – A. N. R. Robinson – The Ultimate Warrior

April 12: Yuri's Night; Cosmonautics Day in Russia

• 240 – Shapur I was crowned shahanshah ("king of kings") of the Sasanian Empire, the last Iranian empire before the rise of Islam.
• 1776 – The fourth North Carolina Provincial Congress passed the Halifax Resolves, the first official action in the American colonies calling for independence from Britain during the American Revolution.
• 1831 – The Broughton Suspension Bridge in Manchester, England, collapsed, reportedly owing to a mechanical resonance induced by troops marching over the bridge in step.
• 1961 – Aboard Vostok 3KA-3, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin (pictured) became the first man to enter outer space, completing one orbit in a time of 108 minutes.
• 1994 – Husband-and-wife law partners Laurence Canter and Martha Siegel posted the first massive commercial Usenet spam.

More anniversaries: April 11 – April 12 – April 13