April 7

Historic Events

2022

Ketanji Brown Jackson is confirmed for the Supreme Court of the United States, becoming the first black female justice. ›

2021

COVID-19 pandemic: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announces that the SARS-CoV-2 Alpha variant has become the dominant strain of COVID-19 in the United States. ›

2020

COVID-19 pandemic: China ends its lockdown in Wuhan. ›

2020

COVID-19 pandemic: Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly resigns for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic on USS Theodore Roosevelt and the dismissal of Brett Crozier. ›

2018

Former Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, is arrested for corruption by determination of Judge Sérgio Moro, from the "Car-Wash Operation". Lula stayed imprisoned for 580 days, before being released by the Brazilian Supreme Court. ›

2018

Syria launches the Douma chemical attack during the Eastern Ghouta offensive of the Syrian Civil War. ›

2017

A man deliberately drives a hijacked truck into a crowd of people in Stockholm, Sweden, killing five people and injuring fifteen others. ›

2017

U.S. President Donald Trump orders the 2017 Shayrat missile strike against Syria in retaliation for the Khan Shaykhun chemical attack. ›

2011

The Israel Defense Forces use their Iron Dome missile system to successfully intercept a BM-21 Grad launched from Gaza, marking the first short-range missile intercept ever. ›

2011

A gunman opens fire at an elementary school in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, killing twelve children and injuring 22 others before committing suicide. ›

2009

Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori is sentenced to 25 years in prison for ordering killings and kidnappings by security forces. ›

2009

Mass protests begin across Moldova under the belief that results from the parliamentary election are fraudulent. ›

2005

First release of Git distributed version control system. ›

2003

Iraq War: U.S. troops capture Baghdad; Saddam Hussein's Ba'athist regime falls two days later. ›

2003

Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide demands reparations of $21 billion from France for the Haitian independence debt. ›

1999

Turkish Airlines Flight 5904 crashes near Ceyhan in southern Turkey, killing six people. ›

1995

First Chechen War: Russian paramilitary troops begin a massacre of civilians in Samashki, Chechnya. ›

1994

Rwandan genocide: Massacres of Tutsis begin in Kigali, Rwanda, and soldiers kill the civilian Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana. ›

1994

Auburn Calloway attempts to destroy Federal Express Flight 705 in order to allow his family to benefit from his life insurance policy. ›

1990

A fire breaks out on the passenger ferry Scandinavian Star, killing 159 people. ›

1990

John Poindexter is convicted for his role in the Iran–Contra affair. In 1991 the convictions are reversed on appeal. ›

1989

Soviet submarine Komsomolets sinks in the Barents Sea off the coast of Norway, killing 42 sailors. ›

1988

Soviet Defense Minister Dmitry Yazov orders the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan. ›

1983

During STS-6, astronauts Story Musgrave and Don Peterson perform the first Space Shuttle spacewalk. ›

1982

Iranian Foreign Affairs Minister Sadegh Ghotbzadeh is arrested. ›

1980

During the Iran hostage crisis, the United States severs relations with Iran. ›

1978

Development of the neutron bomb is canceled by President Jimmy Carter. ›

1977

German Federal prosecutor Siegfried Buback and his driver are shot by two Red Army Faction members while waiting at a red light. ›

1976

Member of Parliament and suspected spy John Stonehouse resigns from the Labour Party after being arrested for faking his own death. ›

1972

Vietnam War: Communist forces overrun the South Vietnamese town of Loc Ninh. ›

1971

Vietnam War: President Richard Nixon announces his decision to quicken the pace of Vietnamization. ›

1969

The Internet's symbolic birth date: Publication of RFC 1. ›

1968

Two-time Formula One British World Champion Jim Clark dies in an accident during a Formula Two race in Hockenheim. ›

1965

Representatives of the National Congress of American Indians testify before members of the US Senate in Washington, D.C., against the termination of the Colville tribe. ›

1964

IBM announces the System/360. ›

1956

Francoist Spain agrees to surrender its protectorate in Morocco. ›

1954

United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower gives his "domino theory" speech during a news conference. ›

1948

The World Health Organization is established by the United Nations. ›

1946

The Soviet Union annexes East Prussia as the Kaliningrad Oblast of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. ›

1945

World War II: The Imperial Japanese Navy battleship Yamato, one of the two largest ever constructed, is sunk by United States Navy aircraft during Operation Ten-Go. ›

1944

In the Fragheto massacre, soldiers belonging to the German 356th Infantry Division kill 30 Italian civilians and 15 partisans near Casteldelci in central-northern Italy. ›

1943

The Holocaust in Ukraine: In Terebovlia, Germans order 1,100 Jews to undress and march through the city to the nearby village of Plebanivka, where they are shot and buried in ditches. ›

1943

Ioannis Rallis becomes collaborationist Prime Minister of Greece during the Axis Occupation. ›

1943

The National Football League makes helmets mandatory. ›

1940

Booker T. Washington becomes the first African American to be depicted on a United States postage stamp. ›

1939

Benito Mussolini declares an Italian protectorate over Albania and forces King Zog I into exile. ›

1939

Italy invades Albania. ›

1933

Prohibition in the United States is repealed for beer of no more than 3.2% alcohol by weight, eight months before the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution. (Now celebrated as National Beer Day in the United States.) ›

1933

Nazi Germany issues the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service banning Jews and political dissidents from civil service posts. ›

1926

Violet Gibson attempts to assassinate Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini. ›

1922

Teapot Dome scandal: United States Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall leases federal petroleum reserves to private oil companies on excessively generous terms. ›

1906

Mount Vesuvius erupts and devastates Naples. ›

1906

The Algeciras Conference gives France and Spain control over Morocco. ›

1868

Thomas D'Arcy McGee, one of the Canadian Fathers of Confederation, is assassinated by a Fenian activist. ›

1862

American Civil War: The Union's Army of the Tennessee and the Army of the Ohio defeat the Confederate Army of Mississippi near Shiloh, Tennessee. ›

1831

Pedro II becomes emperor of the Empire of Brazil. ›

1824

The Mechanics' Institution is established in Manchester, England at the Bridgewater Arms hotel, as part of a national movement for the education of working men. The institute is the precursor to three Universities in the city: the University of Manchester, UMIST and the Metropolitan University of Manchester (MMU). ›

1805

Lewis and Clark Expedition: The Corps of Discovery breaks camp among the Mandan tribe and resumes its journey West along the Missouri River. ›

1805

German composer Ludwig van Beethoven premieres his Third Symphony, at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna. ›

1798

The Mississippi Territory is organized from disputed territory claimed by both the United States and the Spanish Empire. It is expanded in 1804 and again in 1812. ›

1795

The French First Republic adopts the kilogram and gram as its primary unit of mass. ›

1790

Russo-Turkish war (1787–1792): Greek privateer Lambros Katsonis loses three of his ships in the Battle of Andros. ›

1788

Settlers establish Marietta, Ohio, the first permanent settlement created by U.S. citizens in the recently organized Northwest Territory. ›

1767

End of Burmese–Siamese War (1765–1767). ›

1724

Premiere performance of Bach's St John Passion, BWV 245, at St. Nicholas Church, Leipzig. ›

1541

Francis Xavier leaves Lisbon on a mission to the Portuguese East Indies. ›

1521

Ferdinand Magellan arrives at Cebu. ›

1449

Felix V abdicates his claim to the papacy, ending the reign of the final Antipope. ›

1348

Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV charters Prague University. ›

1141

Empress Matilda becomes the first female ruler of England, adopting the title "Lady of the English". ›

529

First Corpus Juris Civilis, a fundamental work in jurisprudence, is issued by Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I. ›

451

Attila the Hun captures Metz in France, killing most of its inhabitants and burning the town. ›