Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19390412: President Roosevelt named Robert H. Hinckley of Utah, to be Chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Authority. He succeeded Edward J. Noble (see July 7, 1938), who resigned to become Executive Assistant to the Secretary of Commerce. Hinckley was serving as an original member of the Authority at the time of his appointment to the chairmanship. Previously, he had been Assistant Administrator of the Works Progress Administration and had been in charge of WPA activities in the West. Hinckley was Chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Authority at the time of the reorganization of June 30, 1940 (see that date). He became Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Air on July 8, 1940, and served in that post until July 1, 1942.
19450412: President Franklin D. Roosevelt died suddenly at Warm Springs, Ga. Vice President Harry S Truman took the oath as President.
19600412: FAA announced the start of a live test of the SAGE air defense system as a means of improving high-altitude air traffic control services. A part of a joint FAA-USAF project called Trailsmoke, the flight advisory service test (FAST) aimed essentially at evaluating the capability of the SAGE system to provide civil and military radar advisory information on potential air traffic conflicts. Specific operating positions would be occupied by FAA controllers at two SAGE direction centers of an Air Defense Division monitoring air activity in the Midwest section of the nation. (See September 21, 1959, and April 17, 1960.)
19600412: The Defense Department released a report recommending Air Force contracts with commercial airlines for most passenger and cargo flights being operated by the Military Air Transport Service. The report was prepared by a committee appointed by the Secretary of the Air Force.
19610412: Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space when he rode the Vostok I for a single orbit of earth before landing safely. Astronaut Alan B. Shepard became the first American in space with a May 5 suborbital flight. The following year, John H. Glenn, Jr., piloted the first U.S. manned orbital flight on February 20, 1962.
19810412: The United States launched space shuttle Columbia on the first shuttle orbital flight.
19960412: FAA commissioned the nation’s first ARSR-4 air route surveillance radar (see September 1986), and had commissioned a total of 12 by the end of calendar 1996.
19990412: FAA commissioned the National Airport Pavement Test Facility. (See April 1, 1997.)
20010412: FAA issued a rule, effective May 12, 2004, requiring air carrier operators to carry automated external defibrillators on large, passenger-carrying aircraft and augment currently required emergency medical kits. The new rule affected those air carrier operations for which at least one flight attendant was required and provided the option of treating serious medical events during flight time. (See May 24, 2000.)