Important Events From This day in History – 7 April

Today in History

• 1990 An arson attack on the passenger ferry, Scandinavian Star, kills 159

  Insurance fraud is now thought to be the most likely motive for the attack. According to a 2013 report, 9 crew members started the fire and thwarted the fire department’s efforts to extinguish it.

• 1969 The Internet is born

  BBN Technologies was awarded a contract by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) to build a forerunner to today’s world wide web. The date is widely regarded as the symbolic birthday of the internet.

• 1948 The World Health Organization is established

  The WHO is a United Nations agency tasked with combating disease and epidemics around the world, strengthening national health services, and improving health education in its 194 member countries.

• 1827 The first friction match is sold

  The first operable matches were created and sold by English chemist John Walker. Because burning fragments would occasionally fall to the floor and start fires, they were quickly banned in France and Germany.

• 1724 Johann Sebastian Bach’s St. John Passion is premiered

  The sacred oratorio is the German composer’s oldest extant Passion. The highly popular work is a dramatization of Jesus Christ’s final days as told in the Gospel of John.