April 7 in History
451 — Attila the Hun sacks the town of Metz and attacks other cities in Gaul.
1724 — Johann Sebastian Bach’s “St John Passion” premieres during Good Friday Vespers at St Nicholas Church, Leipzig.
1795 — France introduces the metric system, derived from nature and invented during the French Revolution after the existing system of measures had become impractical for trade.
1805 — Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Symphony No 3” premieres at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna to mixed reviews. Also known as “Sinfonia Eroica” (Heroic Symphony), it becomes one of his most celebrated works and is widely considered a landmark in the transition between the Classical and the Romantic era.
1933 — Prohibition in the US is repealed for beer of no more than 3.2% alcohol by weight, and wine of similarly low alcohol content (celebrated as National Beer Day in the US). After signing the Cullen-Harrison Act into law on March 22, President Franklin D Roosevelt famously remarked: “I think this would be a good time for a beer.” Prohibition began on January 17 1920 and is totally repealed on December 5 1933.
1945 — World War 2: The Japanese battleship Yamato, together with her sister ship Musashi the heaviest and most powerfully armed battleships ever constructed, is sunk by American aircraft during Operation Ten-Go.
1949 — The Rodgers and Hammerstein musical “South Pacific” opens on Broadway, starring Italian opera singer Ezio Pinza and Mary Martin. It wins 10 Tony Awards in 1950.
1964 — IBM launches the System/360 mainframe computer that ushers in a new era of compatibility in which computers become platforms rather than collections of individual components. It is called “IBM’s $5bn gamble” and a “bet-the-business” move. In his 2001 “Good to Great”, Jim Collins ranks it as one of the top three business accomplishments of all time, alongside Ford’s Model T and Boeing’s first jetliner, the 707. 1969 — On what becomes known as the symbolic birth date of the internet, the first “request for comments” (RFC) is published.
1989 — Soviet submarine Komsomolets sinks in the Barents Sea off the coast of Norway, killing 42 of the 69 crewmen. A fire broke out in an aft compartment, but it surfaced and remained afloat for approximately five hours before sinking.