History of 7 April
1922 – U.S. Secretary of Interior leased Teapot Dome naval oil reserves in Wyoming.
1927 – The first long-distance TV transmission was sent from Washington, DC, to New York City. The audience saw an image of Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover.
1930 – The first steel columns were set for the Empire State Building.
1933 – Prohibition ended in the United States.
1940 – Booker T. Washington became the first black to be pictured on a U.S. postage stamp.
1943 – British and American armies linked up between Wadi Akarit and El Guettar in North Africa to form a solid line against the German army.
1945 – The Japanese battleship Yamato, the world’s largest battleship, was sunk during the battle for Okinawa. The fleet was headed for a suicide mission.
1948 – The musical “South Pacific” by Rogers and Hammerstein debuted on Broadway.
1948 – The United Nations’ World Health Organization began operations.
1953 – The Big Four met for the first time in 2 years to seek an end to their air conflicts.
1953 – IBM unveiled the IBM 701 Electronic Data Processing Machine. It was IBM’s first commercially available scientific computer.
1957 – The last of New York City’s electric trolleys completed its final run from Queens to Manhattan.
1963 – At the age of 23, Jack Nicklaus became the youngest golfer to win the Green Jacket at the Masters Tournament.
1963 – Yugoslavia proclaimed itself the Socialist Republic.
1963 – Josip Broz Tito was proclaimed to be the leader of Yugoslavia for life.
1966 – The U.S. recovered a hydrogen bomb it had lost off the coast of Spain.
1967 – Israel reported that they had shot down six Syrian MIGs.
1969 – The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously struck down laws prohibiting private possession of obscene material.
1970 – John Wayne won his first and only Oscar for his role in “True Grit.” He had been in over 200 films.
1971 – U.S. President Nixon pledged to withdraw 100,000 more men from Vietnam by December.
1980 – The U.S. broke diplomatic relations with Iran and imposed economic sanctions in response to the taking of hostages on November 4, 1979.
1983 – Specialist Story Musgrave and Don Peterson made the first Space Shuttle spacewalk.
1983 – The Chinese government canceled all remaining sports and cultural exchanges with the U.S. for 1983.
1985 – In Goteborg, Sweden, China swept all of the world table tennis titles except for men’s doubles.
1985 – In Sudan, Gen. Swar el-Dahab took over the Presidency while President Gaafar el-Nimeiry was visiting the U.S. and Egypt.
1985 – The Soviet Union announced a unilateral freeze on medium-range nuclear missiles.
1987 – In Oklahoma, a 16-month-old baby was killed by a pit bull. On the same day, a 67-year-old man was killed by another pit bull in Dayton, OH.
1988 – Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev agreed to final terms of a Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan. Soviet troops began leaving on May 16, 1988.
1988 – In Fort Smith, AR, 13 white supremacists were acquitted on charges for plotting to overthrow the U.S. federal government.
1989 – A Soviet submarine carrying nuclear weapons sank in the Norwegian Sea.
1990 – In the U.S., John Poindexter was found guilty of five counts at his Iran-Contra trial. The convictions were later reversed on appeal.
1990 – At Cincinnati’s Contemporary Arts Center a display of Robert Mapplethorpe’s photographs went on display. On the same day, the center and its director were indicted on obscenity charges. The charges resulted in acquittal.
1994 – Civil war erupted in Rwanda between the Patriotic Front rebel group and government soldiers. Hundreds of thousands were slaughtered in the months that followed.
1998 – Mary Bono, the widow of Sonny Bono, won a special election to serve out the remainder of her husband’s congressional term.
1999 – Yugoslav authorities sealed off Kosovo’s main border crossings to prevent ethnic Albanians from leaving.
2000 – U.S. President Clinton signed the Senior Citizens Freedom to Work Act of 2000. The bill reversed a Depression-era law and allows senior citizens to earn money without losing Social Security retirement benefits.
2002 – The Roman Catholic archdiocese announced that six priests from the Archdiocese of New York were suspended over allegations of sexual misconduct.
2006 – The Boeing X-37 conducted its first flight as a test drop at Edwards Air Force Base, CA.
2009 – Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori was sentenced to 25 years in prison for ordering killings and kidnappings by security forces.
2017 – The 2017 Stockholm attack kills five and injures fifteen others.
Celebrating Birthday Today
- 1981 – Hitoe Arakaki, Japanese singer
- 1981 – Kazuki Watanabe, Japanese songwriter, and guitarist (d. 2000)
- 1981 – Vanessa Olivarez, American singer-songwriter, and actress
- 1981 – Suzann Pettersen, Norwegian golfer
- 1982 – Silvana Arias, Peruvian actress
- 1982 – Sonjay Dutt, American wrestler
- 1982 – Kelli Young, English singer
- 1983 – Hamish Davidson, Australian musician
- 1983 – Franck Ribéry, French footballer
- 1983 – Jon Stead, English footballer
- 1983 – Jakub Smrž, Czech motorcycle rider
- 1983 – Janar Talts, Estonian basketball player
- 1984 – Hiroko Shimabukuro, Japanese singer
- 1985 – KC Concepcion, Filipino actress, and singer
- 1985 – Humza Yousaf, Scottish politician
- 1986 – Brooke Brodack, American comedian
- 1986 – Jack Duarte, Mexican actor, singer, and guitarist
- 1986 – Andi Fraggs, English singer-songwriter, and producer
- 1986 – Christian Fuchs, Austrian footballer
- 1987 – Martín Cáceres, Uruguayan footballer
- 1987 – Eelco Sintnicolaas, Dutch decathlete
- 1987 – Jamar Smith, American football player
- 1988 – Antonio Piccolo, Italian footballer
- 1988 – Ed Speleers, English actor and producer
- 1989 – Franco Di Santo, the Argentinian footballer
- 1989 – Mitchell Pearce, Australian rugby league player
- 1989 – Teddy Riner, French judoka
- 1990 – Anna Bogomazova, Russian-American kick-boxer, martial artist, and wrestler
- 1990 – Sorana Cîrstea, a Romanian tennis player
- 1990 – Trent Cotchin, Australian footballer
- 1991 – Luka Milivojević, Serbian footballer
- 1991 – Anne-Marie, English singer-songwriter
- 1992 – Andreea Acatrinei, Romanian gymnast
- 1992 – Guilherme Negueba, Brazilian footballer
- 1993 – Ichinojō Takashi, Mongolian sumo wrestler
- 1994 – Johanna Allik, Estonian figure skater
- 1994 – Aaron Gray, Australian rugby league player
- 1997 – Rafaela Gómez, an Ecuadorian tennis player