April 7

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 Munster, 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 - Jose 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 - Herve 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 Verge, 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 Schroder, 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 Ribery, French footballer
1983 - Jon Stead, English footballer
1985 - Humza Yousaf, Scottish politician
1986 - Christian Fuchs, Austrian footballer
1987 - Martin Caceres, 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 Grunberg, 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