# What happened on April 7 in history?

**Date:** April 7  
**Events recorded:** 73  
**Years spanned:** 451 – 2022  
**Full page:** https://thisday.info/events/april/7/

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## Featured Event

**2020** — COVID-19 pandemic: China ends its lockdown in Wuhan.

[Read more on Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_pandemic)

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## Events on this date

- **451** — Attila the Hun captures Metz in France, killing most of its inhabitants and burning the town. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attila))
- **529** — First Corpus Juris Civilis, a fundamental work in jurisprudence, is issued by Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corpus_Juris_Civilis))
- **1141** — Empress Matilda becomes the first female ruler of England, adopting the title "Lady of the English". ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empress_Matilda))
- **1348** — Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV charters Prague University. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_IV%2C_Holy_Roman_Emperor))
- **1449** — Felix V abdicates his claim to the papacy, ending the reign of the final Antipope. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amadeus_VIII%2C_Duke_of_Savoy))
- **1521** — Ferdinand Magellan arrives at Cebu. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Magellan))
- **1541** — Francis Xavier leaves Lisbon on a mission to the Portuguese East Indies. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Xavier))
- **1724** — Premiere performance of Bach's St John Passion, BWV 245, at St. Nicholas Church, Leipzig. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_John_Passion_structure))
- **1767** — End of Burmese–Siamese War (1765–1767). ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burmese%E2%80%93Siamese_War_(1765%E2%80%931767)))
- **1788** — Settlers establish Marietta, Ohio, the first permanent settlement created by U.S. citizens in the recently organized Northwest Territory. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_early_settlers_of_Marietta%2C_Ohio))
- **1790** — Russo-Turkish war (1787–1792): Greek privateer Lambros Katsonis loses three of his ships in the Battle of Andros. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo-Turkish_War_(1787%E2%80%931792)))
- **1795** — The French First Republic adopts the kilogram and gram as its primary unit of mass. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_First_Republic))
- **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. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_Territory))
- **1805** — Lewis and Clark Expedition: The Corps of Discovery breaks camp among the Mandan tribe and resumes its journey West along the Missouri River. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_and_Clark_Expedition))
- **1805** — German composer Ludwig van Beethoven premieres his Third Symphony, at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_van_Beethoven))
- **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). ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanics'_institute))
- **1831** — Pedro II becomes emperor of the Empire of Brazil. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedro_II_of_Brazil))
- **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. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War))
- **1868** — Thomas D'Arcy McGee, one of the Canadian Fathers of Confederation, is assassinated by a Fenian activist. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_D'Arcy_McGee))
- **1906** — Mount Vesuvius erupts and devastates Naples. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Vesuvius))
- **1906** — The Algeciras Conference gives France and Spain control over Morocco. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algeciras_Conference))
- **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. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teapot_Dome_scandal))
- **1926** — Violet Gibson attempts to assassinate Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violet_Gibson))
- **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.) ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prohibition_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. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_Germany))
- **1939** — Benito Mussolini declares an Italian protectorate over Albania and forces King Zog I into exile. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benito_Mussolini))
- **1939** — Italy invades Albania. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_invasion_of_Albania))
- **1940** — Booker T. Washington becomes the first African American to be depicted on a United States postage stamp. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booker_T._Washington))
- **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. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Holocaust_in_Ukraine))
- **1943** — Ioannis Rallis becomes collaborationist Prime Minister of Greece during the Axis Occupation. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ioannis_Rallis))
- **1943** — The National Football League makes helmets mandatory. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Football_League))
- **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. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fragheto_massacre))
- **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. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II))
- **1946** — The Soviet Union annexes East Prussia as the Kaliningrad Oblast of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Union))
- **1948** — The World Health Organization is established by the United Nations. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Health_Organization))
- **1954** — United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower gives his "domino theory" speech during a news conference. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwight_D._Eisenhower))
- **1956** — Francoist Spain agrees to surrender its protectorate in Morocco. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francoist_Spain))
- **1964** — IBM announces the System/360. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM))
- **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. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Congress_of_American_Indians))
- **1968** — Two-time Formula One British World Champion Jim Clark dies in an accident during a Formula Two race in Hockenheim. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formula_One))
- **1969** — The Internet's symbolic birth date: Publication of RFC 1. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet))
- **1971** — Vietnam War: President Richard Nixon announces his decision to quicken the pace of Vietnamization. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War))
- **1972** — Vietnam War: Communist forces overrun the South Vietnamese town of Loc Ninh. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viet_Cong))
- **1976** — Member of Parliament and suspected spy John Stonehouse resigns from the Labour Party after being arrested for faking his own death. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stonehouse))
- **1977** — German Federal prosecutor Siegfried Buback and his driver are shot by two Red Army Faction members while waiting at a red light. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siegfried_Buback))
- **1978** — Development of the neutron bomb is canceled by President Jimmy Carter. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutron_bomb))
- **1980** — During the Iran hostage crisis, the United States severs relations with Iran. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_hostage_crisis))
- **1982** — Iranian Foreign Affairs Minister Sadegh Ghotbzadeh is arrested. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadegh_Ghotbzadeh))
- **1983** — During STS-6, astronauts Story Musgrave and Don Peterson perform the first Space Shuttle spacewalk. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-6))
- **1988** — Soviet Defense Minister Dmitry Yazov orders the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitry_Yazov))
- **1989** — Soviet submarine Komsomolets sinks in the Barents Sea off the coast of Norway, killing 42 sailors. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_submarine_K-278_Komsomolets))
- **1990** — A fire breaks out on the passenger ferry Scandinavian Star, killing 159 people. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferry))
- **1990** — John Poindexter is convicted for his role in the Iran–Contra affair. In 1991 the convictions are reversed on appeal. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Poindexter))
- **1994** — Rwandan genocide: Massacres of Tutsis begin in Kigali, Rwanda, and soldiers kill the civilian Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rwandan_genocide))
- **1994** — Auburn Calloway attempts to destroy Federal Express Flight 705 in order to allow his family to benefit from his life insurance policy. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Express_Flight_705))
- **1995** — First Chechen War: Russian paramilitary troops begin a massacre of civilians in Samashki, Chechnya. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Chechen_War))
- **1999** — Turkish Airlines Flight 5904 crashes near Ceyhan in southern Turkey, killing six people. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_Airlines_Flight_5904))
- **2001** — NASA launches the 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA))
- **2003** — Iraq War: U.S. troops capture Baghdad; Saddam Hussein's Ba'athist regime falls two days later. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_War))
- **2003** — Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide demands reparations of $21 billion from France for the Haitian independence debt. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Bertrand_Aristide))
- **2005** — First release of Git distributed version control system. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Git))
- **2009** — Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori is sentenced to 25 years in prison for ordering killings and kidnappings by security forces. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peru))
- **2009** — Mass protests begin across Moldova under the belief that results from the parliamentary election are fraudulent. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_2009_Moldovan_parliamentary_election_protests))
- **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. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Defense_Forces))
- **2011** — A gunman opens fire at an elementary school in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, killing twelve children and injuring 22 others before committing suicide. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rio_de_Janeiro_school_shooting))
- **2017** — A man deliberately drives a hijacked truck into a crowd of people in Stockholm, Sweden, killing five people and injuring fifteen others. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Stockholm_truck_attack))
- **2017** — U.S. President Donald Trump orders the 2017 Shayrat missile strike against Syria in retaliation for the Khan Shaykhun chemical attack. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump))
- **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. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazilians))
- **2018** — Syria launches the Douma chemical attack during the Eastern Ghouta offensive of the Syrian Civil War. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douma_chemical_attack))
- **2020** — COVID-19 pandemic: China ends its lockdown in Wuhan. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_pandemic))
- **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. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Modly))
- **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. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centers_for_Disease_Control_and_Prevention))
- **2022** — Ketanji Brown Jackson is confirmed for the Supreme Court of the United States, becoming the first black female justice. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketanji_Brown_Jackson))

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## Notable births on April 7

- **1997** — **Rafaela Gómez** — Ecuadorian tennis player ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafaela_G%C3%B3mez))
- **1996** — **Emerson Hyndman** — American international soccer player ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerson_Hyndman))
- **1994** — **Johanna Allik** — Estonian figure skater ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johanna_Allik))
- **1994** — **Aaron Gray** — Australian rugby league player ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Gray_(rugby_league)))
- **1994** — **Josh Hader** — American baseball player ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josh_Hader))
- **1993** — **Ichinojō Takashi** — Mongolian sumo wrestler ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ichinoj%C5%8D_Takashi))
- **1992** — **Andreea Acatrinei** — Romanian gymnast ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andreea_Acatrinei))
- **1992** — **Guilherme Negueba** — Brazilian footballer ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negueba))
- **1991** — **Luka Milivojević** — Serbian footballer ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luka_Milivojevi%C4%87))
- **1991** — **Anne-Marie** — English singer-songwriter ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne-Marie))

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## Notable deaths on April 7

- **2026** — **Mircea Lucescu** — Romanian football player and manager (born 1945) ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mircea_Lucescu))
- **2025** — **William Finn** — American composer and lyricist (born 1952) ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Finn))
- **2025** — **Greg Millen** — Canadian ice hockey player and sportscaster (born 1957) ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Millen))
- **2024** — **Jerry Grote** — American baseball player (born 1942) ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Grote))
- **2024** — **Joe Kinnear** — Irish football player and manager (born 1946) ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Kinnear))
- **2023** — **Ben Ferencz** — American lawyer (born 1920) ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Ferencz))
- **2023** — **Philippe Bouvatier** — French cyclist (born 1964) ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippe_Bouvatier))
- **2021** — **Tommy Raudonikis** — Australian rugby league player and coach (born 1950) ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Raudonikis))
- **2020** — **John Prine** — American country folk singer-songwriter (born 1946) ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Prine))
- **2020** — **Herb Stempel** — American television personality (born 1926) ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herb_Stempel))

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## About this page

This is a machine-readable Markdown summary of [thisday.info/events/april/7/](https://thisday.info/events/april/7/).  
Historical data is sourced from [Wikipedia/Wikimedia](https://www.wikipedia.org) under [CC BY-SA](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/).  
Editorial framing and site content © thisday.info.