The Almanac, Celebrity Birthdays, Today in History, April 7 Today is Saturday, April 7, the 98th day of 2012 with 268 to follow. This is the first day of Passover. The moon is waning. They include missionary St. Francis Xavier in 1506; English poet William Wordsworth in 1770; "Father of American Football" Walter Camp in 1859; baseball Hall of Fame member John McGraw in 1873; CIA Director Allen Dulles in 1893; gossip columnist Walter Winchell in 1897; conductor Percy Faith in 1908; singer Billie Holiday in 1915; sitar player Ravi Shankar in 1920 (age 92); actor James Garner in 1928 (age 84); former Defense Department analyst Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers, in 1931 (age 81); actor Wayne Rogers in 1933 (age 79); California Gov. Jerry Brown Jr. in 1938 (age 74); film director Francis Ford Coppola ("The Godfather") and British TV personality David Frost, both in 1939 (age 73); former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in 1944 (age 68); musicians John Oates in 1949 (age 63) and Janis Ian in 1951 (age 61); actor/martial arts expert Jackie Chan and football Hall of Fame member Tony Dorsett, both in 1954 (age 58); and actor Russell Crowe in 1964 (age 48). In A.D. 30, by many scholars' reckoning, Jesus of Nazareth was crucified in Jerusalem. In 1795, the meter was adopted as basic measure of length by France. In 1862, Union forces under the command of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant defeated the Confederates at Shiloh, Tenn. In 1953, Swedish statesman Dag Hammarskjold was elected secretary-general of the United Nations. He served until his death in a 1961 plane crash. In 1990, suspected arson fires aboard the ferry Scandinavian Star killed at least 75 people in Scandinavia's worst post-war maritime disaster. Also in 1990, the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati and its director were indicted on obscenity and child pornography charges for displaying a controversial Robert Mapplethorpe photo exhibit. In 2005, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a Shiite Muslim, and Jalal Talabani, a Kurdish leader, were named prime minister and president, respectively, in the new Iraqi government. In 2006, three suicide bombers set off explosives in a Baghdad mosque, killing at least 90 people and injuring an estimated 175. Also in 2006, the United States and the European Union suspended financial aid to the Palestinian Authority because its ruling Hamas party refuses to recognize Israel. In 2007, a published report said the United States allowed Ethiopia to buy arms secretly from North Korea in January, three months after the U.N. imposed sanctions on North Korea for its nuclear program. In 2009, Sally Mae, the U.S. government-backed student loan lender, announced it would bring back to the United States some 2,000 jobs based overseas, such as some call centers and technology positions. Also in 2009, Kim Jong Il, the North Korea leader, was re-elected to a third five-year term despite failing health since his reported stroke in August 2008. In 2010, air travel resumed, most roads reopened and crews worked to restore power in Rio de Janeiro after a rainstorm and mudslide left more than 133 people dead. Also in 2010, the president of Kyrgyzstan, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, fled the capital Bishkek after a rash of violent demonstrations in which 68 people were killed. In 2011, a 23-year-old former student returned to his public elementary school in Rio de Janeiro and opened fire with two revolvers, killing 12 children and wounding 12 others before shooting himself in the head as police closed in. A thought for the day: James A. LaFond-Lewis said: "The fearless are merely fearless. People who act in spite of their fear are truly brave.