This Day in History April 7
over 3 years in Jamaica Observer
Today is the 97th day of 2021. There are 268 days left in the year.TODAY'S HIGHLIGHT1966: US hydrogen bomb lost from bomber is recovered in Mediterranean Sea off coast of Spain. OTHER EVENTS1509: France declares war on Venice.1897: Turkey declares war on Greece.1933: A purge of Jews, socialists and democrats in public office begins in Germany, with the Nazis coming to power a month earlier.1945: US aircraft carrier planes sink Japan's largest battleship, the Yamato, in World War II.1948: The United Nations World Health Organization is established to research and prevent disease and improve public health worldwide.1953: Dag Hammarskjold, Swedish diplomat, is elected secretary general of the United Nations.1957: New York City's last electric trolley completes its final run from Queens to Manhattan.1969: US Supreme Court unanimously strikes down laws prohibiting private possession of obscene material.1998: Indonesia and the International Monetary Fund agree on the third package of measures in six months to get a US$43-billion bailout package on track.1999: Yugoslav authorities seal off Kosovo's main border crossings, preventing ethnic Albanians from leaving as the wave of refugees approaches the half-million mark.2001: Armed police break up protests in several Turkish cities after the lira falls sharply and prices soar. Thousands of laid-off workers and citizens call for the resignation of Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit and his Government.2002: Costa Ricans in a run-off election choose Abel Pacheco of the ruling right-of-centre Social Christian Unity Party as their next president.2004: The French Government says that 550 new research posts will be created in France, easing tensions within the elite research community that took to the streets in angry demonstrations to denounce a lack of funding and posts.2003: An audio tape purportedly made by Osama bin Laden, the fugitive leader of the al-Qaeda terrorist organisation, is delivered to The Associated Press urging Islamic followers to devote themselves to "martyrdom" by engaging in suicide attacks against the US and Britain.2007: A Russian rocket carrying the US billionaire Charles Simonyi and two cosmonauts blasts off on a 13-day trip to the international space station. Simonyi, the fifth paying space tourist to make the trip, paid US$20 million.2008: A coroner's jury in London rules that Princess Diana and boyfriend Dodi Fayed were unlawfully killed through the reckless actions of their driver and paparazzi in 1997.2009: Israel successfully tests an anti-missile system designed to protect the country against Iranian attack, the Defence Ministry says, perfecting technology developed in response to failures of similar systems during the 1991 Gulf War.2014: Pro-Moscow activists barricaded inside government buildings in eastern Ukraine proclaim their region independent and call for a referendum on seceding from Ukraine.TODAY'S BIRTHDAYSSt Francis Xavier, Jesuit missionary (1506-1552); William Wordsworth, English poet (1770-1850); Sir David Low, New Zealand cartoonist (1891-1964); Billie Holiday, US jazz singer (1915-1957); Francis Ford Coppola, US director (1939- ); David Frost, British television personality (1939-2013); Jackie Chan, Hong Kong movie star (1954- ); Russell Crowe, Australian actor (1964- ) - AP