^{National Beer Day: Beer Prohibition in the US ended April 7, 1939}

Today in History

• Attila the Hun sacks Metz and attacks other cities in Gaul (451)
• The Empress Matilda becomes the first female ruler of England (1141)
• The first “friction match” goes on sale (1827)
• Joseph Smith, Jr., by his own account, begins translating the golden plates containing the “reformed Egyptian” Book of Mormon into English (1829)
• American Civil War: The Battle of Shiloh ends (1862)
• Mount Vesuvius erupts, devastating Naples (1906)
• The US Secretary of the Interior leases the “Teapot Dome” petroleum reserves in Wyoming (1922)
• The first public television broadcast over a distance (Washington, DC, to New York City) displays an image of Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover (1927)
• Prohibition in the US is repealed for beer up to 3.2% alcohol by weight, although the 21st Amendment will not be ratified for another eight months (1939)
• World War II: The largest battleship ever built, 大和 (Yamato) is sunk by American planes (1945)
• The World Health Organization is established (1948)
• President Dwight Eisenhower gives his “domino theory” speech (1954)
• Winston Churchill resigns as Prime Minister (1955)
• IBM announces the System/360 computer (1964)
• Roger Ebert publishes his first film review in the Chicago Sun-Times (1967)
• The first Space Shuttle spacewalk takes place during Mission STS-6 (Challenger) (1983)
• The Mars Odyssey is launched (2001)
• Iraq War: US troops capture Baghdad (2003)

Birthdays

• Francis Xavier, missionary and saint, co-founder of the Jesuits (1506)
• William Wordsworth, poet (1770)
• Charles Fourier, philosopher (1772)
• Walter Camp, “father of American football” (1859)
• Will Keith Kellogg, cereal magnate (1860)
• John McGraw, baseball player and manager (1873)
• Gabriel Mistral, poet, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature (1889)
• Ole Kirk Christiansen, founded Lego (1891)
• Allen Dulles, CIA director (1893)
• Walter Winchell, broadcast journalist (1897)
• Edwin T. Layton, cryptanalyst (1903)
• Percy Faith, composer and bandleader (1908)
• Stanley Adams, actor and screenwriter, “Cyrano Jones” on Star Trek (1915)
• Billie Holiday, singer-songwriter (1915)
• Henry Kuttner, science fiction writer (1915)
• Bobby Doerr, baseball player and coach (1918)
• রবি শংকর (Ravi Shankar), sitar player and composer (1920)
• James Garner, actor (1928)
• Alan J. Pakula, director, producer, screenwriter (1928)
• James White, science fiction writer (1928)
• Joe Gallo, gangster (1929 — died on the same day in 1972)
• Donald Barthelme, journalist (1931)
• Daniel Ellsberg, analyst and theorist, released the Pentagon Papers (1931)
• Wayne Rogers, actor (1933)
• Ian Richardson, actor (1934)
• Hodding Carter III, journalist and politician (1935)
• Jerry Brown, California governor (1938)
• Freddie Hubbard, trumpet player
• Frances Ford Coppola, film and wine maker (1939)
• David Frost, television journalist and game show host (1939)
• Julia Phillips, producer, wrote You’ll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again (1944)
• Stan Winston, special effects artist (1946)
• John Oates, singer-songwriter, half of Hall & Oates (1949)
• Janis Ian, singer-songwriter (1951)
• 陳港生 (Jackie Chan), actor and martial artist (1954)
• Christopher Darden, prosecutor in the O. J. Simpson trial (1956)
• Buster Douglas, boxer (1960)
• Hugh O’Connor, actor (1962)
• Russell Crowe, actor (1964)
• Rondé and Tiki Barber, football players (1975)
• Kevin Alejandro, actor (1976)

Deaths

• El Greco, painter (1614)
• Dick Turpin, criminal (1739)
• Thomas Bayes, mathematician (1761)
• Toussaint L’Ouverture, Haitian revolutionary (1803)
• William Godwin, utilitarian (1836)
• P. T. Barnum, showman (1891)
• Henry Ford, car manufacturer (1947)
• Walter Huston, actor (1950)
• Theda Barr, actress (1955)
• Joe Gallo, gangster (1972 — born on the same day in 1929)
• Frank Church, US senator (1984)
• Ronald Evans, astronaut (1990)
• Alex Schomburg, painter and comic book artist (1998)
• David Graf, actor (2001)
• John Agar, actor (2002)
• Cecile de Brunhoff, co-creator of Babar (2003)
• Johnny Hart, newspaper cartoonist (2007)
• Barry Nelson, first actor to play James Bond (2007)
• Dave Arneson, co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons (2009)
• Mike Wallace, television journalist (2012)
• Lily Pulitzer, fashion designer (2013)
• Carl Williams, boxer (2013)

Holidays