历史上的今天:04月07日

Today's Highlight in History:
On April seventh, 1927, an audience in New York saw an image of Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover in the first successful long-distance demonstration¹ of television.
On this date:
In 1862, Union forces led by General Ulysses S. Grant defeated the Confederates at the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee.

In 1939, Italy invaded Albania. (Less than a week later, Italy annexed² Albania.)

In 1945, during World War Two, American planes intercepted³ a Japanese fleet that was headed for Okinawa on a suicide mission.

In 1947, auto⁴ pioneer Henry Ford⁵ died in Dearborn, Michigan, at age 83.

In 1948, the World Health Organization was founded.

In 1949, the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical "South Pacific" opened on Broadway.

In 1953, the UN General Assembly elected Dag Hammarskjold of Sweden to be secretary-general.

In 1957, the last of New York's electric trolleys⁶ completed its final run from Queens to Manhattan.

In 1969, the Supreme⁷ Court unanimously struck down laws prohibiting private possession of obscene material.

In 1994, civil war erupted in Rwanda, a day after a mysterious plane crash claimed the lives of the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi; in the months that followed, hundreds of thousands of minority Tutsi and Hutu intellectuals were slaughtered⁸.

Ten years ago: Former national security adviser⁹ John M. Poindexter was convicted of five counts at his Iran-Contra trial (however, a federal appeals court later reversed the convictions). A display of Robert Mapplethorpe photographs opened at Cincinnati's Contemporary Arts Center, the same day the center and its director were indicted¹⁰ on obscenity charges (both were acquitted). An arson¹¹ fire aboard a ferry en route from Norway to Denmark killed 158 people.

Five years ago: President Clinton threatened to veto a lengthy¹² list of bills passed by the Republican-controlled House if they were not modified in the Senate. In a prime-time television address, House Speaker Newt Gingrich declared the GOP "Contract with America" was only a beginning.

One year ago: Yugoslav authorities sealed off Kosovo's main border crossings, preventing ethnic¹³ Albanians from leaving as the wave of refugees approached the half-million mark.