Updated April 6, 2012, 2:28 pm
On April 7, 1862, Union forces led by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant defeated the Confederates at the battle of Shiloh in Tennessee.
On April 7, 1915, Billie Holiday, who is considered to have been one of the great American jazz singers, was born. Following her death on July 17, 1959, her obituary appeared in The Times.
Go to obituary » | Other birthdays »
On This Date
By The Associated Press
1862 Union forces led by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant defeated the Confederates at the battle of Shiloh in Tennessee. 1927 the image and voice of Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover were transmitted live from Washington to New York in the first successful long-distance demonstration of television. 1939 Italy invaded Albania. 1947 Auto pioneer Henry Ford died at age 83. 1949 The Rodgers and Hammerstein musical “South Pacific” opened on Broadway. 1953 The U.N. General Assembly elected Dag Hammarskjold of Sweden to be secretary-general. 1969 The Supreme Court unanimously struck down laws prohibiting private possession of obscene material. 1976 China’s leadership deposed Deputy Prime Minister Deng Xiaoping. 1990 Former national security adviser John M. Poindexter was convicted of five counts at his Iran-Contra trial. (A federal appeals court later reversed the convictions.) 1990 A display of Robert Mapplethorpe photographs opened at Cincinnati’s Contemporary Arts Center; the center and its director were indicted on obscenity charges. 2001 NASA’s Mars Odyssey spacecraft took off on a six-month, 286-million-mile journey to the red planet. 2001 An unarmed black man wanted on 14 misdemeanor warrants was fatally shot by a white police officer in Cincinnati, sparking three days of riots. 2003 U.S. troops in more than 100 U.S. armored vehicles rumbled through downtown Baghdad and seized one of Saddam Hussein’s opulent palaces. 2009 Vermont became the fourth state to legalize gay marriage. Current Birthdays
By The Associated Press
Actor Russell Crowe turns 48 years old today.
AP Photo/Peter Kramer
Actor Jackie Chan turn years old today.
AP Photo/Chris Pizzello
1920 Ravi Shankar, Musician, turns 92 1928 James Garner, Actor, turns 84 1933 Wayne Rogers, Actor (“M*A*S*H”), turns 79 1938 Jerry Brown, Governor of California, turns 74 1939 Francis Ford Coppola, Director, turns 73 1939 David Frost, TV journalist, turns 73 1949 Mitch Daniels, Governor of Indiana, turns 63 1949 John Oates, Rock singer (Hall and Oates), turns 63 1951 Janis Ian, Singer, turns 61 1954 Tony Dorsett, Football Hall of Famer, turns 58 1965 Bill Bellamy, Actor, turns 47 1975 Ronde Barber, Football player, turns 37 1975 Tiki Barber, Football player, sportscaster, turns 37
Historic Birthdays
Billie Holiday 4/7/1915 – 7/17/1959 American jazz singer from the 1930’s to the 1950’s.Go to obituary »
46 St. Francis Xavier 4/7/1506 – 12/3/1552
Spanish Roman Catholic missionary80 William Wordsworth 4/7/1770 – 4/23/1850
English Romantic poet; poet laureate of England (1843-50)38 Jens Peter Jacobsen 4/7/1847 – 4/30/1885
Danish novelist82 Randall Davidson 4/7/1848 – 5/25/1930
English religious leader91 W. K. Kellogg 4/7/1860 – 10/6/1951
American industrialist and founder of the W.K. Kellogg Company61 John McGraw 4/7/1873 – 2/25/1934
American baseball player and manager of the New York Giants (1902-1932)72 Sir David Low 4/7/1891 – 9/19/1963
New Zealand-born English journalist, political cartoonist and caricaturist76 Allen Dulles 4/7/1893 – 1/29/1969
American diplomat and director of the C.I.A. (1953-61)51 Benny Leonard 4/7/1896 – 4/18/1947
American lightweight boxing champion (1917-1925)75 Walter Winchell 4/7/1897 – 2/20/1972
American journalist and broadcaster
