On This Day:
Monday April 7, 2014 This is the 97th day of the year, with 268 days remaining in 2014. Fact of the Day: Benedict Arnold Benedict Arnold, born in Norwich, Connecticut, was an American patriot hero and one of the most accomplished American military commanders in the War of Independence - until 1779 when he shifted his allegiance to the British. After fighting bravely and winning many battles for the American army, Arnold was passed over for advancement and felt neglected by Congress and the military. Having been appointed to the command of the fort at West Point, Arnold made contact with the British and demanded £20,000 and a commission in the British army to hand West Point over to them. However, his British contact, Major John André, was captured by the Americans and the plan was thwarted, whereupon Arnold escaped to a British ship. It is reported that he received only £6,315 for his betrayal because the plot failed. He fought for the British until his return to England in 1781. With his reputation tarnished, he lived out the rest of his days in England and died a poor man.< br />
Holidays Feast day of St. Celsus, St. Goran, St. Finan Cam, St. George the Younger, St. Hegesippus, St. Aphraates, St. Henry Walpole, St. Herman Joseph, and St. John Baptist de la Salle.
United Nations: World Health Day.
New York: Verrazano Day.
Rwanda: Genocide Remembrance Day.
Events 1652 - The Dutch established a settlement at Cape Town, South Africa.
1795 - The metric system was adopted in France, where it had been developed.
1798 - The territory of Mississippi was organized.
1862 - Union forces led by General Ulysses S. Grant defeated the Confederates at the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee.
1906 - The Italian volcano, Vesuvius, erupted.
1933 - President Franklin Roosevelt signed legislation ending Prohibition in the United States.
1948 - The World Health Organization was founded.
1953 - The United Nations General Assembly elected Dag Hammarskjold of Sweden to be Secretary-General.
1957 - The last of New York's electric trolleys ran from Queens to Manhattan.
1963 - Yugoslavia proclaimed itself a Socialist republic and proclaimed Josip Broz Tito the president for life of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
1992 - The European Community formally recognized the independence of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
2001 - NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft took off on a six-month, 286-million-mile journey to the planet.
Births 1506 - St. Francis Xavier, Spanish Jesuit missionary.
1770 - William Wordsworth, English Romantic poet and poet laureate of England (1843-50)
1859 - Walter Camp, sports authority known as the "Father of American Football."
1860 - W.K. Kellogg, American industrialist and founder of the W.K. Kellogg Company.
1897 - Walter Winchell, American vaudeville performer, journalist, gossip columnist, radio commentator.
1915 - Billie Holiday (Eleanora Fagan), American jazz singer.
1939 - Francis Ford Coppola, American Academy Award-winning director.
1954 - Jackie Chan, Chinese martial artist, and action film actor.
1964 - Russell Crowe, New Zealand film actor.
Deaths 1891 - P. T. Barnum (born Phineas Taylor Barnum), American showman, and founder of the circus that eventually became Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus.
1947 - Henry Ford, American car manufacturer.
2007 - Johnny Hart, American cartoonist noted as the creator of the comic strip B.C. and co-creator of the strip The Wizard of Id.
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