HISTORY AT A GLANCE

TODAY is Friday, April 7, the 97th day of 2017. There are 268 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date: 1946 – Syria’s independence from France is officially

recognised. 1948 – The World Health Organization is established by the

United Nations. 1954 – United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower gives his “domino theory” speech during a news conference. 1955 – Winston Churchill resigns as Prime Minister of the

United Kingdom amid indications of failing health. 1956 – Spain relinquishes its protectorate in Morocco. 1964 – IBM announces the System/360. 1971 – President Richard Nixon announces his decision to increase the rate of American troop withdrawals from Vietnam. 1978 – Development of the neutron bomb is cancelled by

President Jimmy Carter. 1980 – The United States severs relations with the Islamic

Republic of Iran. 1983 – During STS-6, astronauts Story Musgrave and Don

Peterson perform the first Space Shuttle spacewalk. 1985 – Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev declares a moratorium on the deployment of middle-range missiles in Europe. 1989 – Soviet submarine Komsomolets sinks in the Barents

Sea off the coast of Norway killing 42 sailors. 1990 – A fire breaks out on the passenger ferry Scandinavian

Star, killing 159 people. 1992 – Republika Srpska announces its independence. 1994 – Rwandan Genocide: Massacres of Tutsis begin in

Kigali, Rwanda. 1995 – First Chechen War: Russian paramilitary troops begin

a massacre of civilians in Samashki, Chechnya. 1999 – The World Trade Organization rules in favor of the United States in its long-running trade dispute with the European Union over bananas. 2001 – Mars Odyssey is launched. 2003 – US troops capture Baghdad; Saddam Hussein’s

regime falls two days later. 2009 – Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori is sentenced to 25 years in prison for ordering killings and kidnappings by security forces. 2009 – Mass protests begin across Moldova under the belief that results from the parliamentary election are fraudulent.