TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS SATURDAY, APRIL 7, the 97th day of 2018. There are 268 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower held a news conference in which he spoke of the importance of containing the spread of communism in Indochina, saying, “You have a row of dominoes set up, you knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is the certainty that it will go over very quickly. So you could have a beginning of a disintegration that would have the most profound influences.” It became known as the “domino theory,” although Eisenhower did not use that term.
In 1798, the Mississippi Territory was created by an act of Congress, with Natchez as the capital.
In 1862, Union forces led by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant defeated the Confederates at the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee.
In 1927, the image and voice of Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover were transmitted live from Washington to New York in the first successful longdistance demonstration of television.
In 1939, Italy invaded Albania, which was annexed less than a week later.
In 1953, the U.N. General Assembly ratified Dag Hammarskjold of Sweden as the new secretary-general, succeeding Trygve Lie of Norway.
In 1978, President Jimmy Carter announced he was deferring development of the neutron bomb, a high-radiation weapon.
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 moderates were slaughtered by Hutu extremists.
In 1998, British pop star George Michael was arrested on suspicion of committing a lewd act in a restroom at Will Rogers Park in Beverly Hills, Calif.; Michael later pleaded no contest, was fined $810 and ordered to perform 80 hours of community service.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Media commentator Hodding Carter III and country singer Bobby Bare are 83. Rhythm-and-blues singer Charlie Thomas (The Drifters) is 81. Movie director Francis Ford Coppola is 79. Singer John Oates is 70. Singer Janis Ian and country musician John Dittrich are 67. Actor Jackie Chan and College and Pro Football Hall-of-Famer Tony Dorsett are 64. Actor Russell Crowe is 54. Actor Kevin Alejandro is 42. Rock musician Ben McKee (Imagine Dragons) is 33. Actor Ed Speleers is 30. Actor Conner Rayburn is 19.