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 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 writer (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 writer (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 writer (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 writer (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 writer (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