07 April History
- 1652 - The Dutch establish a settlement at Cape Town, South Africa.
- 1712 - A slave revolt breaks out in New York City.
- 1798 - The territory of Mississippi is organized.
- 1862 - General Ulysses S. Grant defeats Confederates at Battle of Shiloh, Tenn.
- 1914 - The British House of Commons passes the Irish Home Rule Bill.
- 1922 - U.S. Secretary of Interior leases the Teapot Dome naval oil reserves in Wyoming.
- 1933 - President Franklin Roosevelt signs legislation ending Prohibition in the United States.
- 1943 - British and American armies link up between Wadi Akarit and El Guettar in North Africa, forming a solid line against the German army.
- 1945 - The Japanese battleship Yamato, the world's largest battleship, is sunk during the battle for Okinawa.
- 1963 - Yugoslavia proclaims itself a Socialist republic.
- 1971 - President Nixon pledges a withdrawal of 100,000 more men from Vietnam by December.
- 1980 - The United States breaks relations with Iran.
- 1983 - Specialist Story Musgrave and Don Peterson make first Space Shuttle spacewalk.
- 1990 - John Poindexter is found guilty in the Iran-Contra scandal.
07 April Birthdays
- 1770 - William Wordsworth, English poet laureate ("The Prelude," "Lyrical Ballards").
- 1837 - John Pierpoint Morgan, U.S. industrialist.
- 1859 - Walter Camp, father of American football.
- 1860 - W.K. Kellogg, cereal magnate and health guru.
- 1897 - Walter Winchell, American newscaster and columnist.
- 1915 - Billie Holliday (Eleanora Fagan), jazz and blues singer.
- 1931 - Donald Barthelme, writer.
- 1931 - Daniel Ellsberg, anti-war activist, released the Pentagon Papers.