Almanac April 7 :: Billie Holiday

Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Harris April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959)
American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing. Her vocal style, strongly inspired by jazz instrumentalists, pioneered a new way of manipulating phrasing and tempo.

Events

• 451 – Attila the Hun sack the town of Metz and attack other cities in Gaul.
• 529 – First draft of the Corpus Juris Civilis (a fundamental work in jurisprudence) is issued by Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I.
• 1348 – Charles University is founded in Prague.
• 1521 – Ferdinand Magellan arrives at Cebu.
• 1541 – Francis Xavier leaves Lisbon on a mission to the Portuguese East Indies.
• 1724 – Premiere performance of Johann Sebastian Bach's St John Passion BWV 245 at St. Nicholas Church, Leipzig.
• 1767 – End of Burmese–Siamese War (1765–1767)
• 1776 – Captain John Barry and the USS Lexington captures the Edward.
• 1788 – American Pioneers to the Northwest Territory arrive at the confluence of the Ohio and Muskingum rivers, establishing Marietta, Ohio, as the first permanent American settlement of the new United States in the Northwest Territory, and opening the westward expansion of the new country.
• 1798 – The Mississippi Territory is organized from disputed territory claimed by both the United States and Spain. It is expanded in 1804 and again in 1812.
• 1805 – Lewis and Clark Expedition: The Corps of Discovery breaks camp among the Mandan tribe and resumes its journey West along the Missouri River.
• 1827 – John Walker, an English chemist, sells the first friction match that he had invented the previous year.
• 1829 – Joseph Smith, Jr., founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, commences translation of the Book of Mormon, with Oliver Cowdery as his scribe.
• 1831 – D. Pedro I, Emperor of Brazil, resigns. He goes to his native Portugal to become King D. Pedro IV.
• 1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Shiloh ends – the Union Army under General Ulysses S. Grant defeats the Confederates near Shiloh, Tennessee.
• 1868 – Thomas D'Arcy McGee, one of the Canadian Fathers of Confederation is assassinated by the Irish, in one of the few Canadian political assassinations, and the only one of a federal politician.
• 1890 – Completion of the first Lake Biwa Canal.
• 1906 – Mount Vesuvius erupts and devastates Naples.
• 1906 – The Algeciras Conference gives France and Spain control over Morocco.
• 1908 – H. H. Asquith of the Liberal Party takes office as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, succeeding Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman
• 1922 – Teapot Dome scandal: United States Secretary of the Interior leases Teapot Dome petroleum reserves in Wyoming.
• 1927 – First distance public television broadcast (from Washington, D.C., to New York City, displaying the image of Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover).
• 1933 – Prohibition is repealed for beer of no more than 3.2% alcohol by weight, eight months before the ratification of the XXI amendment.
• 1939 – World War II: Italy invades Albania.
• 1940 – Booker T. Washington becomes the first African American to be depicted on a United States postage stamp.
• 1943 – Holocaust: In Terebovlia, Ukraine, Germans order 1,100 Jews to undress to their underwear and march through the city of Terebovlia to the nearby village of Plebanivka where they are shot dead and buried in ditches.
• 1943 – Ioannis Rallis becomes collaborationist Prime Minister of Greece during the WWII Axis Occupation.
• 1945 – World War II: The Japanese battleship Yamato, the largest battleship ever constructed, is sunk by American planes 200 miles north of Okinawa while en-route to a suicide mission in Operation Ten-Go.
• 1945 – World War II: Visoko is liberated by the 7th, 9th, and 17th Krajina brigades from the Tenth division of Yugoslav Partisan forces.
• 1946 – Syria's independence from France is officially recognised.
• 1948 – The World Health Organization is established by the United Nations.
• 1948 – A Buddhist monastery burns in Shanghai, China, leaving twenty monks dead.
• 1954 – President Dwight D. Eisenhower gives his "domino theory" speech during a news conference.
• 1956 – Spain relinquishes its protectorate in Morocco.
• 1964 – IBM announces the System/360.
• 1967 – Film critic Roger Ebert published his very first film review in the Chicago Sun Times.
• 1969 – The Internet's symbolic birth date: publication of RFC 1.
• 1971 – President Richard Nixon announces his decision to increase the rate of American troop withdrawals from Vietnam.
• 1976 – Former British Cabinet Minister John Stonehouse resigns from the Labour Party.
• 1977 – German Federal prosecutor Siegfried Buback and his driver are shot by two Red Army Faction members while waiting at a red light.
• 1978 – Development of the neutron bomb is canceled by President Jimmy Carter.
• 1983 – During STS-6, astronauts Story Musgrave and Don Peterson perform the first space shuttle spacewalk.
• 1985 – Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev declares a moratorium on the deployment of middle-range missiles in Europe.
• 1989 – Soviet submarine Komsomolets sinks in the Barents Sea off the coast of Norway killing 42 sailors.
• 1990 – Iran Contra Affair: John Poindexter is found guilty of five charges for his part in the scandal (the conviction is later reversed on appeal).
• 1990 – A fire breaks out on the passenger ferry M/S Scandinavian Star, killing 158 people.
• 1992 – Republika Srpska announces its independence.
• 1994 – Rwandan Genocide: Massacres of Tutsis begin in Kigali, Rwanda.
• 1994 – Auburn Calloway attempts to hijack FedEx Express Flight 705 and crash it to insure his family with his life insurance policy. The crew subdues him and lands the aircraft safely.
• 1995 – First Chechen War: Russian paramilitary troops begin a massacre of civilians in Samashki, Chechnya.
• 1999 – The World Trade Organization rules in favor of the United States in its long-running trade dispute with the European Union over bananas.
• 2001 – Mars Odyssey is launched.
• 2003 – U.S. troops capture Baghdad; Saddam Hussein's regime falls two days later.
• 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.

Births

• 1506 – Saint Francis Xavier, Spanish co-founder of the Society of Jesus (d. 1552)
• 1539 – Tobias Stimmer, Swiss painter (d. 1584)
• 1613 – Gerhard Douw, Dutch painter (d. 1675)
• 1644 – François de Neufville, duc de Villeroi, French soldier (d. 1730)
• 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 preacher and man of letters (d. 1800)
• 1727 – Michel Adanson, French botanist (d. 1806)
• 1763 – Domenico Dragonetti, Italian double bass virtuoso and composer (d. 1846)
• 1770 – William Wordsworth, English poet (d. 1850)
• 1772 – Charles Fourier, French philosopher (d. 1837)
• 1780 – William Ellery Channing, Unitarian theologian (d. 1842)
• 1803 – James Curtiss, Mayor of Chicago (d. 1859)
• 1803 – Flora Tristan, French feminist and socialist philosopher (d. 1844)
• 1848 – Randall Thomas Davidson, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1930)
• 1853 – Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, son of Queen Victoria (d. 1884)
• 1859 – Walter Camp, sports authority known as the "Father of American Football" (d. 1925)
• 1860 – Will Keith Kellogg, American cereal manufacturer (d. 1951)
• 1867 – Holger Pedersen, Danish linguist (d. 1953)
• 1870 – Gustav Landauer, German anarchist and revolutionary (d. 1919)
• 1871 – Epifanio de los Santos, Filipino historian, scholar and lawyer (d. 1927)
• 1873 – John McGraw, American baseball player and manager (d. 1934)
• 1882 – Kurt von Schleicher, German general and politician (d. 1934)
• 1883 – Gino Severini, Italian painter (d. 1966)
• 1886 – Ed Lafitte, American baseball player (d. 1971)
• 1889 – Gabriela Mistral, Chilean writer, Nobel laureate (d. 1957)
• 1890 – Marjory Stoneman Douglas, American conservationist and writer (d. 1998)
• 1890 – Paul Berth, Danish amateur football player (d. 1969)
• 1891 – Ole Kirk Christiansen, Danish inventor (d. 1958)
• 1893 – Allen Dulles, American Central Intelligence Agency director (d. 1969)
• 1895 – Margarete Schön, German actress (d. 1985)
• 1897 – Erich Loewenhardt, German flying ace of World War I (d. 1918)
• 1897 – Walter Winchell, American broadcaster and journalist (d. 1972)
• 1899 – Robert Casadesus, French pianist (d. 1972)
• 1903 – Edwin T. Layton, American Naval officer (d. 1984)
• 1908 – Percy Faith, Canadian composer and musician (d. 1976)
• 1909 – Robert Charroux, French writer (d. 1978)
• 1911 – Hervé Bazin, French writer (d. 1996)
• 1913 – Charles Vanik, American politician (d. 2007)
• 1914 – Ralph Flanagan, American big band leader (d. 1995)
• 1915 – Stanley Adams, American actor (d. 1977)
• 1915 – Billie Holiday, American singer (d. 1959)
• 1915 – Henry Kuttner, American writer (d. 1958)
• 1916 – Anthony Caruso, American actor (d. 2003)
• 1917 – R. G. Armstrong, American actor
• 1918 – Bobby Doerr, American baseball player
• 1919 – Roger Lemelin, Quebec novelist and television writer (d. 1992)
• 1919 – Edoardo Mangiarotti, Italian fencer
• 1920 – Ravi Shankar, Indian sitar player
• 1922 – Mongo Santamaria, Cuban musician (d. 2003)
• 1924 – Johannes Mario Simmel, Austrian writer (d. 2009)
• 1927 – Babatunde Olatunji, Nigerian drummer (d. 2003)
• 1928 – James Garner, American actor
• 1928 – Alan J. Pakula, American film producer and director (d. 1998)
• 1928 – James White, Northern Irish science fiction writer (d. 1999)
• 1929 – Bob Denard, French mercenary (d. 2007)
• 1929 – Joe Gallo, American gangster (d. 1972)
• 1930 – Yves Rocher, French businessman, founder of the cosmetics brand Yves Rocher (d. 2009)
• 1930 – Andrew Sachs, English actor
• 1931 – Donald Barthelme, American author (d. 1989)
• 1931 – Daniel Ellsberg, American military analyst
• 1933 – Wayne Rogers, American actor
• 1934 – Ian Richardson, Scottish actor (d. 2007)
• 1935 – Bobby Bare, American musician
• 1935 – Hodding Carter III, American journalist and politician
• 1936 – Jean-Pierre Changeux, French neuroscientist
• 1938 – Jerry Brown, American politician
• 1938 – Spencer Dryden, American drummer (Jefferson Airplane) (d. 2005)
• 1938 – Freddie Hubbard, American jazz trumpeter (d. 2008)
• 1939 – Francis Ford Coppola, American film director
• 1939 – Sir David Frost, English broadcaster and TV host
• 1939 – Gary Kellgren, American audio engineer, co-founder of the Record Plant recording studios
• 1941 – Cornelia Frances, Australian actress
• 1941 – Gorden Kaye, British actor
• 1941 – James Di Pasquale, American composer
• 1942 – Jeetendra, Indian actor
• 1942 – Nam Gi-nam, South Korean director of movies
• 1944 – Julia Phillips, American film producer and writer (d. 2002)
• 1944 – Gerhard Schröder, German politician
• 1944 – Bill Stoneman, American baseball player and manager
• 1945 – Martyn Lewis, British newsreader
• 1945 – Megas, Icelandic singer, songwriter, and writer
• 1945 – Joël Robuchon, French chef
• 1945 – Werner Schroeter, German film director
• 1946 – Zaid Abdul-Aziz, American basketball player
• 1946 – Colette Besson, French runner (d. 2005)
• 1946 – Herménégilde Chiasson, Acadian poet and playwright
• 1946 – Stan Winston, American special effects artist, makeup artist, and film director (d. 2008)
• 1947 – Patricia Bennett, American singer (The Chiffons)
• 1947 – Florian Schneider, German musician (Kraftwerk)
• 1947 – Eliseo Soriano, Philippine evangelist
• 1947 – Michèle Torr, French singer
• 1948 – Carol Douglas, American singer
• 1949 – Mitch Daniels, American politician, governor of Indiana
• 1949 – John Oates, American rock guitarist and lyricst (Hall & Oates)
• 1950 – Brian J. Doyle, former Deputy Press Secretary in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security
• 1951 – Janis Ian, American singer and songwriter
• 1952 – Clarke Peters, American actor
• 1952 – Gilles Valiquette, Canadian singer and songwriter
• 1954 – Jackie Chan, Chinese actor, director, producer, and martial artist
• 1954 – Tony Dorsett, American football player
• 1955 – Gregg Jarrett, American lawyer and television news journalist
• 1955 – Werner Stocker, German actor (d. 1993)
• 1956 – Annika Billström, Swedish politician
• 1956 – Christopher Darden, prosecutor in O. J. Simpson murder case
• 1957 – Kim Kap-su, South Korean actor
• 1960 – Buster Douglas, American boxer
• 1961 – Thurl Bailey, American basketball player
• 1961 – Pascal Olmeta, French footballer
• 1962 – Andrew "Andy" Hampsten, American cyclist
• 1962 – Hugh O'Connor, American actor (d. 1995)
• 1962 – Ram Gopal Varma, Indian film director & producer
• 1963 – Jaime de Marichalar, Duke of Lugo, Spanish royalty
• 1963 – Paul Michael Robinson, American actor and erotic actor
• 1964 – Jace Alexander, American television director
• 1964 – Russell Crowe, Australian actor
• 1964 – Steve Graves, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1965 – Bill Bellamy, American actor and comedian
• 1965 – Alison Lapper, British artist
• 1966 – Gary Wilkinson, English snooker player
• 1967 – Artemis Gounaki, composer, writer and music producer
• 1968 – Duncan Armstrong, Australian swimmer
• 1968 – Jennifer Lynch, American director
• 1969 – Ricky Watters, American football player
• 1970 – Leif Ove Andsnes, Norwegian pianist
• 1971 – Guillaume Depardieu, French actor (d. 2008)
• 1971 – Victor Kraatz, Canadian figure skater
• 1971 – Jennifer Schwalbach Smith, American actress
• 1973 – Carole Montillet, French skier
• 1973 – Ève Salvail, Canadian model
• 1973 – Brett Tomko, American baseball player
• 1975 – Ronde Barber, American football player
• 1975 – Tiki Barber, American football player
• 1975 – Ronnie Belliard, American baseball player
• 1975 – Karin Dreijer Andersson, Swedish singer
• 1976 – Kevin Alejandro, American actor
• 1977 – Silvana Arias, Peruvian actress
• 1979 – Adrián Beltré, Dominican baseball player
• 1979 – Patrick Crayton, American football player
• 1979 – Pascal Dupuis, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1979 – Danny Sandoval, Venezuelan baseball player
• 1980 – Dragan Bogavac, Montenegrin footballer
• 1981 – Suzann Pettersen, Norwegian golfer
• 1982 – Sonjay Dutt, American professional wrestler
• 1983 – Franck Ribéry, French footballer
• 1983 – Jon Stead, British footballer
• 1986 – Brooke Brodack, American internet celebrity
• 1987 – Martín Cáceres, Uruguayan footballer
• 1988 – Antonio Piccolo, Italian footballer
• 1988 – Edward Speleers, British model and actor
• 1989 – Alexa Demara, American model
• 1989 – Franco Di Santo, Argentine footballer
• 1990 – Trent Cotchin, Australian rules footballer
• 1991 – Luka Milivojevic, Serbian footballer
• 1992 – Alexis Jordan, American singer

Deaths

• 1498 – King Charles VIII of France (b. 1470)
• 1614 – El Greco, Greek-born artist (b. 1541)
• 1638 – Shimazu Tadatsune, Japanese ruler of Satsuma (b. 1576)
• 1651 – Lennart Torstenson, Swedish soldier and engineer (b. 1603)
• 1658 – Juan Eusebio Nieremberg, Spanish mystic (b. 1595)
• 1661 – Sir William Brereton, 1st Baronet, English soldier and politician (b. 1604)
• 1663 – Francis Cooke, Mayflower pilgrim (b. c.1583)
• 1668 – William Davenant, English poet (b. 1606)
• 1719 – Jean-Baptiste de La Salle, French saint (b. 1651)
• 1739 – Dick Turpin, English highwayman (b. 1705)
• 1747 – Leopold I, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau, Prussian field marshal (b. 1676)
• 1766 – Tiberius Hemsterhuis, Dutch philologist and critic (b. 1685)
• 1767 – Franz Sparry, Austrian composer (b. 1715)
• 1782 – Taksin, King of Thailand (b. 1734)
• 1789 – Abdul Hamid I, Ottoman sultan (b. 1725)
• 1789 – Petrus Camper, Dutch anatomist (b. 1722)
• 1801 – Noël François 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 chemist (b. 1746)
• 1833 – Antoni Radziwill, Polish politician (b. 1775)
• 1836 – William Godwin, English political writer (b. 1756)
• 1850 – William Lisle Bowles, English poet and critic (b. 1762)
• 1858 – Anton Diabelli, Austrian music publisher, editor, and composer (b. 1781)
• 1868 – Thomas D'Arcy McGee, Canadian journalist and Father of Confederation (b. 1825)
• 1871 – Alexander Loyd, Mayor of Chicago (b. 1805)
• 1871 – Prince Alexander John of Wales (b. 1871)
• 1885 – Karl Theodor Ernst von Siebold, German physiologist (b. 1804)
• 1891 – P. T. Barnum, American circus impresario (b. 1810)
• 1920 – Karl Binding, German jurist (b. 1841)
• 1928 – Alexander Bogdanov, Russian physician and philosopher (b. 1873)
• 1932 – Grigore Constantinescu, Romanian priest and journalist (b. 1875)
• 1939 – Joseph Lyons, tenth Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1879)
• 1943 – Jovan Ducic, Serbian poet (b. 1871)
• 1943 – Alexandre Millerand, President of France (b. 1859)
• 1947 – Henry Ford, American automobile manufacturer and industrialist (b. 1863)
• 1948 – Saint Savvas of Kalymnos, Priest of the Greek Orthodox Church (b. 1862)
• 1950 – Walter Huston, Canadian-born actor (b. 1884)
• 1955 – Theda Bara, American film actress (b. 1885)
• 1960 – Henri Guisan, General of the Swiss Army during World War II (b. 1874)
• 1965 – Roger Leger, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1919)
• 1968 – Jim Clark, OBE, Scottish race car driver and two-time F1 world champion (b. 1936)
• 1972 – Joe Gallo, American gangster (b. 1929)
• 1972 – Abeid Karume, first president of Zanzibar (b. 1905)
• 1981 – Kit Lambert, British record producer and manager (The Who) (b. 1935)
• 1981 – Norman Taurog, American film director (b. 1899)
• 1982 – Brenda Benet, American actress (b. 1945)
• 1982 – Harald Ertl, Austrian racing driver (b. 1948)
• 1984 – Frank Church, U.S. Senator from Idaho (b. 1924)
• 1985 – Carl Schmitt, German philosopher and political theorist (b. 1888)
• 1990 – Ronald Evans, American astronaut (b. 1933)
• 1992 – Ace Bailey, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1903)
• 1992 – Antonis Tritsis, Greek politician (b. 1937)
• 1994 – Albert Guðmundsson, Icelandic footballer and politician (b. 1923)
• 1994 – Golo Mann, German historian (b. 1909)
• 1994 – Agathe Uwilingiyimana, Prime Minister of Rwanda (b. 1953)
• 1997 – Luis Aloma, Cuban baseball player (b. 1923)
• 1997 – Georgi Shonin, Soviet cosmonaut (b. 1935)
• 1997 – Tomoyuki Tanaka, Japanese film producer (Godzilla series) (b. 1910)
• 1999 – Heinz Lehmann, Canadian psychiatrist (b. 1911)
• 2000 – Broery Marantika, Indonesian singer (b. 1944)
• 2001 – David Graf, American actor (b. 1950)
• 2001 – Beatrice Straight, American actress (b. 1914)
• 2002 – John Agar, American actor (b. 1921)
• 2003 – Cecile de Brunhoff, French storyteller (b. 1903)
• 2003 – David Greene, British television director (b. 1921)
• 2004 – Victor Argo, American actor (b. 1934)
• 2004 – Konstantinos Kallias, Greek politician (b. 1901)
• 2005 – Grigoris Bithikotsis, Greek singer (b. 1922)
• 2005 – Bob Kennedy, American baseball player and manager (b. 1920)
• 2005 – Cliff Allison, British racing driver (b. 1932)
• 2007 – Johnny Hart, American cartoonist (b. 1931)
• 2007 – Barry Nelson, American actor (b. 1917)
• 2008 – Mark Speight, English television presenter (b. 1965)
• 2008 – Ludu Daw Amar, Burmese dissident writer (b. 1915)
• 2009 – Dave Arneson, co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons (b. 1947)
• 2010 – Jean-Paul Proust, French-born Minister of State of Monaco (b. 1940)
• 2011 – Pierre Gauvreau, painter and television producer, director and author (b. 1922)

Holidays and observances

• Christian Feast Day:
  • April 7 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
  • Blessed Alexander Rawlins
  • Blessed Edward Oldcorne and Blessed Ralph Ashley
  • Blessed Notker the Stammerer
  • Saint Aibert of Crespin
  • Saint Brynach
  • Saint Hegesippus
  • Saint Henry Walpole
  • Saint Jean-Baptiste de La Salle
• Day of Maternity and Beauty (Armenia)
• Genocide Memorial Day (Rwanda)
• Sheikh Abeid Amani Karume Day (Tanzania)
• Women's Day (Mozambique)
• World Health Day (International)