Today in History: April 7, LA becomes second biggest

Apr 6, 2022, 9:00 AM | Updated: 9:13 pm

BY ASSOCIATED PRESS

Today in History

Today is Thursday, April 7, the 97th day of 2022. There are 268 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On April 7, 1984, the Census Bureau reported Los Angeles had overtaken Chicago as the nation’s “second city” in terms of population.

On this date:

In 1862, Union forces led by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell defeated the Confederates at the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee.

In 1915, jazz singer-songwriter Billie Holiday, also known as “Lady Day,” was born in Philadelphia.

In 1922, the Teapot Dome scandal had its beginnings as Interior Secretary Albert B. Fall signed a secret deal to lease U.S. Navy petroleum reserves in Wyoming and California to his friends, oilmen Harry F. Sinclair and Edward L. Doheny, in exchange for cash gifts.

In 1945, during World War II, American planes intercepted and effectively destroyed a Japanese fleet, which included the battleship Yamato, that was headed to Okinawa on a suicide mission.

In 1949, the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical “South Pacific” opened on Broadway.

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.” (This became known as the “domino theory,” although Eisenhower did not use that term.)

In 1957, shortly after midnight, the last of New York’s electric trolleys completed its final run from Queens to Manhattan.

In 1959, a referendum in Oklahoma repealed the state’s ban on alcoholic beverages.

In 1962, nearly 1,200 Cuban exiles tried by Cuba for their roles in the failed Bay of Pigs invasion were convicted of treason.

In 1966, the U.S. Navy recovered a hydrogen bomb that the U.S. Air Force had lost in the Mediterranean Sea off Spain following a B-52 crash.

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 2020, acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly resigned after lambasting the officer he’d fired as the captain of the USS Theodore Roosevelt, which had been stricken by a coronavirus outbreak; James McPherson was appointed as acting Navy secretary.

Ten years ago: A massive avalanche engulfed a Pakistani military complex in a mountain battleground close to the Indian border; all 140 people on the base died. CBS newsman Mike Wallace, 93, died in New Canaan, Connecticut.

Five years ago: President Donald Trump concluded his two-day summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping (shee jihn-peeng) at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, saying he had developed an “outstanding” relationship with the Chinese leader. Gov. Jerry Brown declared an end to California’s historic drought emergency imposed in 2014.

One year ago: Former NFL player Phillip Adams fatally shot six people in Rock Hill, South Carolina, including a prominent doctor, his wife and their two grandchildren, before killing himself. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said investigators found that golfer Tiger Woods had been driving at more than 80 miles an hour – nearly twice the posted speed limit – when he lost control of an SUV in February; the wreck left Woods seriously injured. Anne Beatts, a groundbreaking comedy writer who was on the original staff of “Saturday Night Live,” died at her California home at 74.

Today’s Birthdays: Country singer Bobby Bare is 87. R&B singer Charlie Thomas (The Drifters) is 85. Former California Gov. Jerry Brown is 84. Movie director Francis Ford Coppola is 83. Actor Roberta Shore is 79. Singer Patricia Bennett (The Chiffons) is 75. Singer John Oates is 74. Former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels is 73. Singer Janis Ian is 71. Country musician John Dittrich is 71. Actor Jackie Chan is 68. College and Pro Football Hall of Famer Tony Dorsett is 68. Actor Russell Crowe is 58. Christian/jazz singer Mark Kibble (Take 6) is 58. Actor Bill Bellamy is 57. Rock musician Dave “Yorkie” Palmer (Space) is 57. Rock musician Charlie Hall (The War on Drugs) is 48. Former football player-turned-analyst Tiki Barber is 47. Actor Heather Burns is 47. Christian rock singer-musician John Cooper (Skillet) is 47. Actor Kevin Alejandro is 46. Retired baseball infielder Adrian Beltre is 43. Actor Sian Clifford is 40. Rock musician Ben McKee (Imagine Dragons) is 37. Christian rock singer Tauren Wells is 36. Actor Ed Speleers is 34.