April 7

Ketanji Brown Jackson is confirmed for the Supreme Court of the United States, becoming the first black female justice.

COVID-19 pandemic: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announces that the SARS-CoV-2 Alpha variant has become the dominant strain of COVID-19 in the United States.

COVID-19 pandemic: China ends its lockdown in Wuhan.

COVID-19 pandemic: Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly resigns for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic on USS Theodore Roosevelt and the dismissal of Brett Crozier.

Former Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, is arrested for corruption by determination of Judge Sérgio Moro, from the "Car-Wash Operation". Lula stayed imprisoned for 580 days, after being released by the Brazilian Supreme Court.

Syria launches the Douma chemical attack during the Eastern Ghouta offensive of the Syrian Civil War.

A man deliberately drives a hijacked truck into a crowd of people in Stockholm, Sweden, killing five people and injuring fifteen others.

U.S. President Donald Trump orders the 2017 Shayrat missile strike against Syria in retaliation for the Khan Shaykhun chemical attack.

The Israel Defense Forces use their Iron Dome missile system to successfully intercept a BM-21 Grad launched from Gaza, marking the first short-range missile intercept ever.

A gunman opens fire at an elementary school in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, killing twelve children and injuring 22 others before committing suicide.

Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori is sentenced to 25 years in prison for ordering killings and kidnappings by security forces.

Mass protests begin across Moldova under the belief that results from the parliamentary election are fraudulent.

First release of Git distributed version control system.

Iraq War: U.S. troops capture Baghdad; Saddam Hussein's Ba'athist regime falls two days later.

Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide demands reparations of $21 billion from France for the Haiti Independence Debt.

NASA launches the 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter.

Turkish Airlines Flight 5904 crashes near Ceyhan in southern Turkey, killing six people.

First Chechen War: Russian paramilitary troops begin a massacre of civilians in Samashki, Chechnya.

Rwandan genocide: Massacres of Tutsis begin in Kigali, Rwanda, and soldiers kill the civilian Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana.

Auburn Calloway attempts to destroy Federal Express Flight 705 in order to allow his family to benefit from his life insurance policy.

A fire breaks out on the passenger ferry Scandinavian Star, killing 159 people.

John Poindexter is convicted for his role in the Iran–Contra affair. In 1991 the convictions are reversed on appeal.

Soviet submarine Komsomolets sinks in the Barents Sea off the coast of Norway, killing 42 sailors.

Soviet Defense Minister Dmitry Yazov orders the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan.

During STS-6, astronauts Story Musgrave and Don Peterson perform the first Space Shuttle spacewalk.

Iranian Foreign Affairs Minister Sadegh Ghotbzadeh is arrested.

During the Iran hostage crisis, the United States severs relations with Iran.

Development of the neutron bomb is canceled by President Jimmy Carter.

German Federal prosecutor Siegfried Buback and his driver are shot by two Red Army Faction members while waiting at a red light.

Member of Parliament and suspected spy John Stonehouse resigns from the Labour Party after being arrested for faking his own death.

Vietnam War: Communist forces overrun the South Vietnamese town of Loc Ninh.

Vietnam War: President Richard Nixon announces his decision to quicken the pace of Vietnamization.

The Internet's symbolic birth date: Publication of RFC 1.

Two-time Formula One British World Champion Jim Clark dies in an accident during a Formula Two race in Hockenheim.

Representatives of the National Congress of American Indians testify before members of the US Senate in Washington, D.C., against the termination of the Colville tribe.

IBM announces the System/360.

Francoist Spain agrees to surrender its protectorate in Morocco.

Winston Churchill resigns as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom amid indications of failing health.

United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower gives his "domino theory" speech during a news conference.

The World Health Organization is established by the United Nations.

The Soviet Union annexes East Prussia as the Kaliningrad Oblast of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.

World War II: The Imperial Japanese Navy battleship Yamato, one of the two largest ever constructed, is sunk by United States Navy aircraft during Operation Ten-Go.

In the Fragheto massacre, soldiers belonging to the German 356th Infantry Division kill 30 Italian civilians and 15 partisans near Casteldelci in central-northern Italy.

The Holocaust in Ukraine: In Terebovlia, Germans order 1,100 Jews to undress and march through the city to the nearby village of Plebanivka, where they are shot and buried in ditches.

Ioannis Rallis becomes collaborationist Prime Minister of Greece during the Axis Occupation.

The National Football League makes helmets mandatory.

Booker T. Washington becomes the first African American to be depicted on a United States postage stamp.

Benito Mussolini declares an Italian protectorate over Albania and forces King Zog I into exile.

Benito Mussolini invades Albania.

Prohibition in the United States is repealed for beer of no more than 3.2% alcohol by weight, eight months before the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution. (Now celebrated as National Beer Day in the United States.)

Nazi Germany issues the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service banning Jews and political dissidents from civil service posts.

AT&T engineer Herbert Ives transmits the first long-distance public television broadcast (from Washington, D.C., to New York City, displaying the image of Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover).

Violet Gibson attempts to assassinate Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini.

Teapot Dome scandal: United States Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall leases federal petroleum reserves to private oil companies on excessively generous terms.

Mount Vesuvius erupts and devastates Naples.

The Algeciras Conference gives France and Spain control over Morocco.

Thomas D'Arcy McGee, one of the Canadian Fathers of Confederation, is assassinated by a Fenian activist.

American Civil War: The Union's Army of the Tennessee and the Army of the Ohio defeat the Confederate Army of Mississippi near Shiloh, Tennessee.

Pedro II becomes Emperor of Empire of Brazil.

The Mechanics' Institution is established in Manchester, England at the Bridgewater Arms hotel, as part of a national movement for the education of working men. The institute is the precursor to three Universities in the city: the University of Manchester, UMIST and the Metropolitan University of Manchester (MMU).

Lewis and Clark Expedition: The Corps of Discovery breaks camp among the Mandan tribe and resumes its journey West along the Missouri River.

German composer Ludwig van Beethoven premieres his Third Symphony, at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna.

The Mississippi Territory is organized from disputed territory claimed by both the United States and the Spanish Empire. It is expanded in 1804 and again in 1812.

The French First Republic adopts the kilogram and gram as its primary unit of mass.

Russo-Turkish war (1787–1792): Greek privateer Lambros Katsonis loses three of his ships in the Battle of Andros.

Settlers establish Marietta, Ohio, the first permanent settlement created by U.S. citizens in the recently organized Northwest Territory.

End of Burmese–Siamese War (1765–1767).

Premiere performance of Bach's St John Passion, BWV 245, at St. Nicholas Church, Leipzig.

Francis Xavier leaves Lisbon on a mission to the Portuguese East Indies.

Ferdinand Magellan arrives at Cebu.

Felix V abdicates his claim to the papacy, ending the reign of the final Antipope.

Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV charters Prague University.

Empress Matilda becomes the first female ruler of England, adopting the title "Lady of the English".

First Corpus Juris Civilis, a fundamental work in jurisprudence, is issued by Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I.

Attila the Hun captures Metz in France, killing most of its inhabitants and burning the town.