April 7th Major News Events

1948 Switzerland World Health Organization

1948 : The World Health Organization (WHO) established as a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) that acts as a coordinating authority on international public health.

1954 U.S.A. Cold War "Domino Theory"

1954 : President Dwight D. Eisenhower coins the Cold War phrase when he suggests the fall of French Indochina to the communists could create a "domino" effect in Southeast Asia. The so-called "domino theory" dominated U.S. thinking about Vietnam for the next decade.

1957 U.S.A. End of Electric Trolley New York

1957 : New York City's last electric trolley completed its final run from Queens to Manhattan.

1963 Yugoslavia President Tito

1963 : Tito is named as the president for life of the newly named Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

1968 Germany Jim Clark

1968 : Motor racing world champion Jim Clark is killed in a car crash during a Formula Two race at Hockenheim.

1969 U.S.A. Stanley v. Georgia

1969 : The US Supreme Court rules on Stanley v. Georgia " 394 U.S. 557 (1969) " on the grounds of the 1st and 14th Amendments declaring "The State may not prohibit mere possession of obscene materials for personal use" and helping to define personal "right to privacy" in U.S. law.

1978 U.S.A. Neutron Bomb Production Put On Hold

1978 : President Carter delays Neutron Bomb production. The Neutron Bomb is designed to kill people while minimizing damage to property unlike a conventional nuclear missile which destroys everything in it's path, this is achieved by producing a small blast but massive amounts of lethal radiation.

1986 England Sinclair ZX Spectrum

1986 : Sir Clive Sinclair has sold the marketing and merchandising rights to his inventions which include the ZX Spectrum for £5m to computing rival Amstrad. Sir Clive Sinclair a brilliant inventor who introduced miniature televisions, pocket calculators and digital watches to Britain in the 1960s and 1970s, and the ZX80, a home computer priced at less than £100 in 1980, following on was the Sinclair ZX Spectrum which was the most popular home computer sold in England and was sold in the US as the TS2068 from Timex.

1990 U.S.A. John M. Poindexter Convicted

1990 : Former national security adviser John M. Poindexter is convicted on multiple felony counts for conspiracy, obstruction of justice, defrauding the government, and the alteration and destruction of evidence pertaining to the Iran-Contra Affair . ( The convictions were reversed in 1991 )

1990 Myanmar Ferry Sinks

1990 : A ferry sinks in a violent storm and strong winds in the Gyaing River in Myanmar and 215 of the ferry’s 240 passengers drowned.

1990 Norway Ferry Sinks

1990 : The Scandinavian Star, a Danish-owned ferry, carrying 493 passengers and their cars and trucks from Oslo, Norway, to Frederikshaven, Denmark is engulfed in a fire. Most passengers make it to lifeboats, but due to panic and problems with most of the crew only speaking Portuguese 110 died, mainly from smoke inhalation.

1990 U.S.A. Robert Mapplethorpe Photographs

1990 : A display of Robert Mapplethorpe photographs "The Perfect Moment" a traveling exhibition of his work opened at Cincinnati's Contemporary Arts Center, the center and its director were indicted on "pandering obscenity". The area of his work that caused the controversy was his frank, erotic photography of male nudes.

1994 Rwanda Civil War

1994 : Civil War breaks out in Rwanda when Hutu extremists murder an estimated 800,000 innocent civilian Tutsis in the worst episode of genocide since World War II, Earlier in the day Rwandan armed forces killed 10 Belgian peacekeeping officers to discourage the International Community from intervening in the forthcoming Genocide

2001 U.S.A. Cincinnati Riots

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.A. Ku Klux Klan

2003 : The Supreme Court voted 6-3 to uphold a 50-year-old Virginia law making it a crime to burn a cross as an act of intimidation, The practice of "Burning A Cross" is widely associated with the Ku Klux Klan. The United States Supreme Court ruled that burning a cross at a Klan rally is protected by the First Amendment, but could not be burned as a form of intimidation.

2006 U.S.A. More storms in the Midwest

2006 : At least eleven tornadoes have hit ten Tennessee counties, and an F3 tornado (with winds of 158-206 mph) killed seven people in Gallatin. Other tornadoes have killed three people in Warren County. A number of homes and businesses have been destroyed, and heavy rainfall and hail has fallen in some areas. Above average temperatures and the low level moisture in the boundary layer have coupled with upper level dynamics to form the severe weather. This is the second wave of deadly storms to hit Tennessee in less than a week.

2007 U.S.A. Protests for Undocumented Immigrants

2007 : Thousands of people have marched in Los Angeles to demand citizenship rights for the illegal immigrants there. A 15,000-strong crowd that carried American flags and signs saying "Amnesty Now" have paraded through the streets in the direction of City Hall. Many people were protesting against the leaked White House plan by which illegal migrants would be charged considerable sums for work visas and residency.

2010 Egypt to ask for the return of ancient artifacts

2010 : Antiquarians have gathered in Cairo to plan for the recovery of ancient artifacts they say were stolen from their countries. The two-day conference will be attended by delegates, deputy culture ministers and museum directors from sixteen countries. Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities (S.C.A.) has said that the forum will discuss 'the protection and restitution of cultural heritage.' Delegates have been asked to draw up lists of missing artifacts. The S.C.A. has asked for these to be returned to their country of origin. The conference will be calling on the United Nations cultural body, U.N.E.S.C.O., to amend its convention on the banning of export or ownership of the stolen antiquities that were acquired after 1970. The delegates include Libya, Greece, Italy, China and Peru. The artifacts in question will include the British Museum’s Rosetta Stone and Berlin’s bust of Queen Nefertiti.

2010 Kyrgyzstan Protests

2010 : Protesters take control of a government office in Talas on April 6, and on April 7 clashes between protesters and police in the capital Bishkek turned violent. President Kurmanbek Bakiyev reportedly flees the country, as the government steps down and a new provisional government headed by Roza Otunbayeva is formed. Protests began following rising energy prices, sluggish economy, and follow the government's closure of several media outlets.

2011 United Kingdom British Man Sails Across Atlantic on Raft

2011 : Former BBC presenter, Anthony Smith, sailed across the Atlantic Ocean with a crew of three on a twelve meter long raft made of pipes. The eighty-five year old made the sixty-six day journey from England to the Caribbean in hopes of raising awareness of the lack of clean water much of the world faces as well as money for the charity WaterAid. By the time the crew landed at St. Maarten, an island in the Caribbean Sea, they were able to raise over fifty thousands pounds for their charity.

2012 United States Painter Thomas Kinkade Dies

2012 : Famous US painter Thomas Kinkade died at the age of fifty-four of natural causes. Kinkade was well-known for his paintings of landscapes, churches, cottages and other idyllic scenes.

2014 Costa Rica Solis Wins Costa Rica Presidential Election

2014 : Luis Guillermo Solis won the presidential election in Costa Rica. Solis is a member of the Citzen Action Party, a leftist third party, and had seventy-eight percent of the vote in an overwhelming victory. The election of Solis was somewhat notable in that Costa Rica had a traditional two-party political system and Solis won the election from a third party. It is also important to note that up to forty-three percent of the voting population abstained.