Title: April 7 Content: == Events == === Up to 1900 === *451 - Attila the Hun sacks the town of Metz and attacks other cities in Gaul. *1141 - Empress Matilda becomes the first female ruler of England. *1348 - Charles University is founded in Prague. *1521 – Ferdinand Magellan reaches the island of Cebu. *1655 - Fabio Chigi is elected to become Pope Alexander VII. *1767 - End of two-year Burmese-Siamese War. *1782 – Thailand became a country. *1788 - American pioneers to the Northwest Territory arrive at the meeting point of the Ohio River and Muskingum River, opening the westward expansion of the United States. *1789 - Selim III becomes Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. *1798 - The Mississippi Territory is organized from disputed territory claimed by both the United States and Spain. *1805 - Ludwig van Beethoven premieres his Third Symphony in Vienna. *1827 - John Walker, an English chemist, sells the first friction match that he had invented the previous year. *1829 - Joseph Smith begins his translation of the Book of Mormon, with Oliver Cowdery as his scribe. *1831 - Pedro I of Brazil resigns to become King of Portugal. *1862 – American Civil War: The Battle of Shiloh ends in a Union victory. *1896 - Fridtjof Nansen reaches the point furthest North of any human being up until that point. === 1901 1950 === *1906 – Mount Vesuvius erupts. *1906 - The Algeciras Conference gives France and Spain control over Morocco. *1908 – H. H. Asquith becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. *1919 - The Federation Francais de Football is founded. *1927 - The first long-distance television broadcast is made from Washington, DC to New York City. *1933 - Prohibition in the United States is removed for beer of no more than 3.2% alcohol by weight. *1939 - World War II: Italy invades Albania. *1940 – Booker T. Washington becomes the first African American to be depicted on a US postage stamp. *1943 - Holocaust: In Trebovlia, Ukraine, Nazi troops order 1,100 Jews to undress to their underwear and march through the city to the village of Plebanivka, where they are shot dead. *1943 - Ioannis Rallis becomes collaborationist Prime Minister of Greece during the occupation by the Axis Powers. *1945 - World War II: Japanese battleship Yamato, the largest battleship ever constructed, is sunk by American planes 200 miles north of Okinawa while on the way to a suicide mission in Operation Ten-Go. *1946 – Syria's independence is recognised. *1948 – The United Nations created the World Health Organization. *1954 - Dwight D. Eisenhower gives his "Domino Theory" speech during a news conference. *1955 – Anthony Eden replaced Winston Churchill as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. *1956 - Spain relinquishes its protectorate in Morocco. *1964 - IBM announces the System/360. *1967 - Roger Ebert publishes his first movie review in the Chicago Sun-Times. *1968 - Scottish racing driver Jim Clark is killed in a crash at Hockenheim, Germany, aged 32. *1969 - The Internet's symbolic birth date. *1971 - Richard Nixon announces his decision to increase the rate of American troops withdrawals from Vietnam. *1977 – German federal prosecutor Siegfried Buback is shot dead, along with his driver, by two members of the Red Army Faction. *1978 - Development of the neutron bomb is cancelled by US President Jimmy Carter. *1980 - The United States severs diplomatic relations with Iran. *1983 - During STS-6 mission, astronauts Story Musgrave and Don Peterson perform the first space shuttle space walk. *1989 – Soviet submarine Komsomolets sinks in the Barents Sea, killing 42 people. *1990 - A fire breaks out on the passenger ferry M/S Scandinavian Star, killing 198 people. *1992 – Republika Srpska declares independence. *1994 – The Rwandan Genocide begins. One of the first victims is Rwandan Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana. *1995 - First Chechen War: Russian paramilitary troops begin a massacre of civilians in Samashki, Chechnya. *1999 - The World Trade Organization rules in favour of the United States in its long-running trade dispute with the European Union over bananas. === From 2001 === *2001 – The Mars Odyssey space probe is launched. *2003 – US troops capture Baghdad. *2009 – Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori is sentenced to 25 years in prison for ordering killings and kidnappings by security forces. *2010 – In Kyrgyzstan, President Kurmanbek Bakiyev flees the capital city Bishkek, after days of fierce rioting. Roza Otunbayeva is installed as Head of Government. *2017 - 2017 Stockholm attack: A beer lorry is driven into people in central Stockholm, killing 5 people. *2018 - A vehicle is driven into people in the city centre of Münster, North Rhine- Westphalia, Germany, killing 2 people. The driver then kills himself. == Births == === Up to 1850 === *1506 - Francis Xavier, Spanish Roman Catholic missionary (d. 1552) *1539 - Tobias Stimmer, Swiss painter (d. 1584) *1613 - Gerrit Dou, Dutch painter (d. 1675) *1629 - John of Austria the Younger, Spanish military leader and statesman (d. 1679) *1648 - John Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Normanby, English statesman and poet (d. 1721) *1652 – Pope Clement XII (d. 1740) *1713 - Nicola Sala, Italian composer and music theorist (d. 1801) *1718 - Hugh Blair, Scottish minister and author (d. 1800) *1742 - Gunning Bedford, Sr., Governor of Delaware (d. 1797) *1763 - Domenico Dragonetti, Italian double-bass virtuoso and composer (d. 1846) *1767 - Henry Bell, Scottish engineer (d. 1830) *1770 – William Wordsworth, English poet (d. 1850) *1772 - Charles Fourier, French philosopher (d. 1837) *1786 - William R. King, 13th Vice President of the United States (d. 1853) *1803 - James Curtiss, Mayor of Chicago (d. 1859) *1803 - Flora Tristan, French author (d. 1884) *1811 - Hasan Tahsini, Albanian astronomer, mathematician and philosopher (d. 1881) *1839 - Ida Ferenczy, Hungarian Lady-in-waiting to Elisabeth of Bavaria (d. 1928) *1847 – Jens Peder Jacobsen, Danish writer (d. 1885) *1848 - Randall Davidson, 1st Baron Davidson of Lambeth, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1930) === 1851 1900 === *1853 – Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany (d. 1884) *1857 - Nazrullah Khan, Emir of Afghanistan (d. 1920) *1859 - Walter Camp, American football player, coach and writer (d. 1925) *1860 - Will Keith Kellogg, American businessman and food manufacturer (d. 1951) *1867 – Holger Pedersen, Danish linguist (d. 1953) *1868 - José de Castro, Prime Minister of Portugal (d. 1929) *1870 – Gustav Landauer, German anarchist and revolutionary (d. 1919) *1871 - Epifanio de los Santos, Filipino jurist, historian and scholar (d. 1927) *1872 - William Monroe Trotter, American newspaper editor (d. 1934) *1873 - John McGraw, American baseball player and manager (d. 1934) *1874 - Frederick Carl Frieseke, German-American painter (d. 1939) *1876 - Fay Moulton, American sprinter, football player, coach and lawyer (d. 1945) *1882 – Kurt von Schleicher, German military officer and politician, Chancellor of Germany (d. 1934) *1883 – Gino Severini, Italian painter (d. 1966) *1884 - Clement Smoot, American golfer (d. 1963) *1886 - Emilio Pujols, Catalan guitarist and composer (d. 1980) *1887 - Joseph Stadler, American jumper (d. 1950) *1889 – Gabriela Mistral, Chilean writer (d. 1945) *1890 - Paul Berth, Danish footballer (d. 1969) *1890 - Marjory Stoneman Douglas, American journalist and activist (d. 1998) *1891 – Ole Kirk Christiansen, Danish inventor, of Lego (d. 1958) *1893 - Allen Dulles, American CIA director (d. 1969) *1896 - Frits Peutz, Dutch architect (d. 1974) *1897 - Walter Winchell, American broadcaster and journalist (d. 1972) *1899 - Robert Casadesus, French pianist (d. 1972) *1900 - Jebbs Lloyd Johnson, English race walker (d. 1984) === 1901 1950 === *1907 - Le Duan, Vietnamese politician (d. 1986) *1907 - John Burroughs, Governor of New Mexico (d. 1978) *1908 - Percy Faith, Canadian composer, conductor and bandleader (d. 1976) *1911 - Hervé Bazin, French author (d. 1996) *1913 - Louise Currie, American actress (d. 2013) *1913 - Charles Vanik, American politician (d. 2007) *1914 - Charles Flanagan, American bandleader, conductor, pianist, composer and arranger (d. 1995) *1915 – Stanley Adams, American actor (d. 1977) *1915 – Billie Holiday, American jazz singer (d. 1959) *1915 - Henry Kuttner, American writer (d. 1977) *1916 – Anthony Caruso, American actor (d. 2003) *1917 - R. G. Armstrong, American actor (d. 2012) *1918 - Bobby Doerr, American baseball player and coach *1919 - Edoardo Mangiarotti, Italian fencer (d. 2012) *1920 – Ravi Shankar, Indian sitar player (d. 2012) *1924 – Johannes Mario Simmel, Austrian writer (d. 2009) *1927 - Babatunde Olatunji, Nigerian drummer, educator and activist (d. 2003) *1927 - Leonid Shcherbakov, Russian high jumper *1928 – James Garner, American actor (d. 2014) *1928 - James White, Northern Irish author (d. 1999) *1928 - Alan J. Pakula, American movie maker (d. 1998) *1929 – Bob Denard, French mercenary (d. 2007) *1930 – Andrew Sachs, German-born British actor *1930 - Cliff Morgan, Welsh rugby player (d. 2013) *1930 - Roger Vergé, French chef and restaurateur (d. 2015) *1930 - Vilma Espin, Cuban revolutionary and politician (d. 2007) *1931 - Donald Barthelme, American writer (d. 1989) *1931 - Ted Kotcheff, Canadian director *1933 – Wayne Rogers, American actor (d. 2015) *1934 – Ian Richardson, Scottish actor (d. 2007) *1937 - Cynthia Lynn, Latvian-American actress (d. 2014) *1938 – Jerry Brown, American politician, former Governor of California *1938 – Freddie Hubbard, American jazz musician (d. 2008) *1938 - Spencer Dryden, American drummer (d. 2005) *1938 - Justin Lekhanya, former Prime Minister of Lesotho *1939 – David Frost, British broadcaster (d. 2013) *1939 – Francis Ford Coppola, American movie director *1941 – Gorden Kaye, British actor (d. 2017) *1943 - Mick Abrahams, English guitarist (Jethro Tull) *1944 - Makoto Kobayashi, Japanese physicist *1944 – Gerhard Schröder, former Chancellor of Germany *1944 - Bill Stoneman, American baseball player and manager *1945 - Megas, Icelandic singer-songwriter *1945 – Werner Schroeter, German movie movie director (d. 2010) *1945 - Robert S. Wistrich, Kazakh-born British-Israeli professor (d. 2015) *1946 - Colette Besson, French sprinter (d. 2005) *1946 - Stan Winston, American special effects expert (d. 2008) *1947 – Florian Schneider, German musician (Kraftwerk) *1947 - Patricia Bennett, American singer *1948 – Pietro Anastasi, Italian footballer *1949 - Valentina Matviyenko, Russian politician *1949 – Mitch Daniels, American politician, Governor of Indiana *1949 - Wells Kelly, American singer-songwriter and musician (Orleans) (d. 1984) === 1951 1975 === *1951 – Janis Ian, American singer and songwriter *1952 - Clarke Peters, American actor and singer *1954 – Jackie Chan, Chinese (Hong Kong) actor *1955 - Tim Cochran, American mathematician (d. 2014) *1955 - Werner Stocker, German actor (d. 1993) *1960 - Buster Douglas, American boxer *1961 – Luigi De Agostini, Italian footballer *1962 – Ram Gopal Varma, Indian director, producer and screenwriter *1962 - Jon Cruddas, English politician *1963 - Jaime de Marichalar, Spanish nobleman *1963 - Nick Herbert, English politician *1964 – Russell Crowe, New Zealand-Australian actor *1965 – Alison Lapper, British artist *1965 - Bill Bellamy, American comedian and actor *1966 - Gary Wilkinson, British snooker player *1967 - Bodo Illgner, German footballer *1968 – Jennifer Lynch, American director *1968 - Vasiliy Sokov, Russian triple jumper *1970 - Leif Ove Andsnes, Norwegian pianist *1971 – Guillaume Depardieu, French actor (d. 2008) *1971 – Victor Kraatz, Canadian figure skater *1971 - Jennifer Schwalbach Smith, American journalist and actress *1972 - Tim Peake, English astronaut *1973 - Marco Delvecchio, Italian footballer *1973 - Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, Dutch politician *1975 - Karin Dreijer Andersson, Swedish singer === From 1976 === *1976 - Kevin Alejandro, American actor *1977 - Jenni Haukio, Finnish writer and First Lady of Finland *1979 – Pascal Dupuis, Canadian ice hockey player *1979 – Duncan James, British singer *1979 - Danny Sandoval, Venezuelan baseball player *1980 - Dragan Bogavac, Montenegrin footballer *1980 – Carl Fletcher, Welsh footballer *1981 - Kelli Young, English singer (Liberty X) *1982 - Silvana Arias, Peruvian actress *1983 - Franck Ribéry, French footballer *1983 - Jon Stead, English footballer *1985 - Humza Yousaf, Scottish politician *1986 - Christian Fuchs, Austrian footballer *1987 - Martín Cáceres, Uruguayan footballer *1989 - Alexa Demara, American actress, model, writer and martial artist *1989 – Franco Di Santo, Argentine footballer *1989 - Sylwia Grzeszczak, Polish singer *1989 - Yulia Samoylova, Russian singer *1991 - Anne-Marie, English singer and songwriter *1992 - William Carvalho, Angolan-born Portuguese footballer *1992 – Alexis Jordan, American singer *1992 - Jessica Sara, American actress *1993 - Irina Shtork, Estonian ice dancer *1994 - Johanna Allik, Estonian figure skater *1997 - Oliver Burke, Scottish footballer == Deaths == === Up to 1900 === *924 - Berengar I of Italy (b. 845) *1498 – King Charles VIII of France (b. 1470) *1614 – El Greco, Greek-born Spanish painter (b. 1541) *1638 - Shimazu Tadatsune, Japanese ruler of Satsuma (b. 1576) *1651 – Lennart Torstensson, Swedish Governor-General (b. 1603) *1658 - Juan Eusebio Nieremberg, Spanish mystic (b. 1595) *1719 - Jean-Baptiste de La Salle, French saint (b. 1651) *1739 – Dick Turpin, English outlaw (b. 1705) *1762 – Pietro Guarneri, Italian violin maker (b. 1695) *1789 – Abdul Hamid I, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1725) *1789 - Petrus Camper, Dutch anatomist (b. 1722) *1801 - Noel Francois de Wailly, French lexicographer (b. 1724) *1804 – Toussaint Louverture, Haitian revolutionary (b. 1743) *1811 – Garsevan Chavchavadze, Georgian diplomat and politician (b. 1757) *1823 - Jacques Charles, French physicist and mathematician (b. 1746) *1833 – Antoni Radziwill, Polish politician (b. 1775) *1836 - William Godwin, English journalist and author (b. 1756) *1849 - Pedro Ignacio de Castro Barros, Argentine priest and politician (b. 1777) *1868 – Thomas D'Arcy McGee, Canadian journalist and Father of the Confederation (b. 1825) *1871 - Alexander Loyd, Mayor of Chicago (b. 1805) *1885 – Karl Theodor Ernst von Siebold, German physiologist (b. 1804) *1889 - Youssef Karam, Lebanese nationalist leader (b. 1823) *1891 – P. T. Barnum, American circus impresario (b. 1810) *1900 - Frederic Edwin Church, American painter (b. 1826) === 1901 2000 === *1914 - Mohammad Ayub Khan, interim regent of Afghanistan (b. 1857) *1917 - Spyridon Samaras, Greek composer (b. 1861) *1918 - David Kolehmainen, Finnish wrestler (b. 1885) *1920 - Karl Binding, German jurist (b. 1841) *1928 - Alexander Bogdanov, Russian physician and philosopher (b. 1873) *1930 - Octaviano Ambrosio Larrazolo, 4th Governor of New Mexico (b. 1859) *1932 - Grigore Constantinescu, Romanian priest and journalist (b. 1875) *1934 - William Monroe Trotter, American newspaper editor (b. 1872) *1938 - Suzanne Valadon, French painter (b. 1865) *1939 – Joseph Lyons, Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1879) *1943 – Alexandre Millerand, President of France (b. 1859) *1944 - Johann Gruber, Austrian priest (b. 1889) *1947 – Henry Ford, American business person (b. 1863) *1950 – Walter Huston, Canadian-born actor (b. 1884) *1955 - Theda Bara, American actress (b. 1885) *1956 - Fred Appleby, English long-distance runner (b. 1879) *1957 - John Hart, Irish-Canadian politician, Premier of British Columbia (b. 1879) *1960 - Henri Guisan, Swiss army officer (b. 1874) *1965 - Roger Leger, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1919) *1966 - Fred G. Aandahl, American politician, Governor of North Dakota (b. 1897) *1968 – Jim Clark, Scottish racing driver (b. 1936) *1972 – Abeid Karume, President of Zanzibar (b. 1905) *1977 – Siegfried Buback, German federal prosecutor (b. 1920) *1981 - Norman Taurog, American movie director (b. 1899) *1982 – Harald Ertl, Austrian racing driver (b. 1948) *1984 - Frank Church, American politician (b. 1924) *1985 - Carl Schmitt, German philosopher and theorist (b. 1888) *1986 - Leonid Kantorovich, Soviet- Russian mathematician and economist (b. 1912) *1990 - Ronald Evans, American astronaut (b. 1933) *1992 – Ace Bailey, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1903) *1994 – Albert Gudmundsson, Icelandic footballer and politician (b. 1923) *1994 – Agathe Uwilingiyimana, Prime Minister of Rwanda (b. 1953) *1994 - Golo Mann, German historian (b. 1909) *1997 - Georgi Shonin, Soviet cosmonaut (b. 1935) *1997 – Tomoyuki Tanaka, Japanese movie producer (b. 1910) *2000 - Moacir Barbosa Nascimento, Brazilian footballer (b. 1921) === From 2001 === *2003 - David Greene, British director (b. 1921) *2004 - Victor Argo, American actor (b. 1934) *2005 - Cliff Allison, Britsh racing driver (b. 1932) *2007 – Barry Nelson, American actor (b. 1917) *2008 - Mark Speight, English television presenter (b. 1965) *2009 – Dave Arneson, American creator of the game Dungeons and Dragons (b. 1947) *2010 – Christopher Cazenove, British actor (b. 1945) *2012 - Mike Wallace, American journalist (b. 1918) *2012 - Ignatius Moses I Daoud, Syrian Catholic patriarch (b. 1930) *2013 - Lilly Pulitzer, American socialite and fashion designer (b. 1931) *2013 - Les Blank, American director and producer (b. 1935) *2014 - George Dureau, American artist (b. 1930) *2014 - Frans van der Lugt, Dutch priest (b. 1938) *2014 - Josep Maria Subirachs, Catalan sculptor and painter (b. 1927) *2014 - John Shirley-Quirk, English opera singer (b. 1931) *2014 - Peaches Geldof, English model and television host (b. 1989) *2014 - Zeituni Onyango, Kenyan-American computer programmer (b. 1952) *2014 - George Shuffler, American musician (b. 1925) *2015 - Jean Germain, French politician, Mayor of Tours (b. 1947) *2015 - Richard Henyekane, South African footballer (b. 1983) *2015 - Kardam, Prince of Turnovo, Bulgarian-Spanish nobleman (b. 1962) *2015 - Stan Freberg, American writer, actor and comedian (b. 1926) *2015 - Tim Babcock, American politician, Governor of Montana (b. 1919) *2015 - Geoffrey Lewis, American actor (b. 1935) *2015 - James B. Rhoads, American public servant (b. 1928) *2016 - Frank E. Denholm, American politician (b. 1923) *2016 - Carlo Monti, Italian athlete (b. 1920) *2017 - Marthe Gosteli, Swiss women's rights activist (b. 1917) *2017 - Peter Isaacson, Australian media publisher (b. 1920) *2017 - Christopher Morahan, English stage and television director (b. 1929) *2017 - Glenn O'Brien, American journalist, editor and television presenter (b. 1947) *2017 - Tim Pigott-Smith, English actor (b. 1946) *2018 - Petr Braiko, Soviet-Russian World War II soldier (b. 1919) *2018 - Peter Grünberg, German physicist (b. 1939) *2019 - Hugo Ballesteros Reyes, Chilean politician and diplomat (b. 1931) *2019 - Michael E. Busch, American politician (b. 1947) *2019 - Seymour Cassel, American actor (b. 1935) *2019 - Cho Yang-ho, South Korean businessman (b. 1949) *2019 - Arie Irawan, Malaysian golfer (b. 1990) *2019 - Mya-Lecia Naylor, English actress (b. 2002) == Holidays == * Day of Maternity and Beauty in Armenia * Genocide Memorial Day (Rwanda) * World Health Day (WHO) * Women's Day (Mozambique) April 07