IT HAPPENED TODAY

APRIL 7

1770:

Poet William Wordsworth (above) was born in Cockermouth, Cumberland.

1827:

Matches, the invention of Stockton chemist John Walker, were sold for the first time.

1915:

Billie Holiday — “Lady Day” — said by some to be the greatest jazz singer of all time was born in Baltimore as Eleanora Fagan.

1947:

Death of Henry Ford, American motor car manufacturer.

1949:

South Pacific, by Rodgers and Hammerstein, opened on Broadway with Mary Martin and Ezio Pinza in the lead roles.

1968:

British world motor racing champion Jim Clark was killed in a crash at Hockenheim, Germany.

1976:

Controversial MP John Stonehouse (below) resigned from the Labour Party.

1978:

US President Jimmy Carter took the decision to postpone production of the controversial neutron bomb.

1989:

A Soviet nuclear-powered submarine, Komsomolets, carrying nuclear warheads, caught fire and sank off Norway with the loss of more than 40 crew members.

2008:

The Diana inquest ended with a jury concluding she was unlawfully killed because of gross negligence by drink-driver Henri Paul and the paparazzi.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR:

A ferry collided with a bridge pillar in Brazil’s Amazon region, causing the span’s central road to plunge into the Moju River.

BIRTHDAYS:

Francis Ford Coppola, film director, 81; Jackie Chan, actor and martial arts expert, 66; Russell Crowe, actor, 56; Alison Lapper, artist, 55; Michaela Strachan (above), TV presenter, 54; Tim Peake, astronaut, 48; Duncan James, singer (Blue), 42; Ed Speleers, actor, 32.