By The Associated Press
           - Today is Wednesday, April 7, the 97th day of 1999. There are 268
             days left in the year.

           - On April 7, 1949, the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical "South
             Pacific" opened on Broadway.
           - In 1862, Union forces led by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant defeated the
             Confederates at the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee.
           - In 1927, an audience in New York saw an image of Commerce Secretary
             Herbert Hoover in the first successful long-distance demonstration
             of television.
           - In 1939, Italy invaded Albania, which offered only token resistance.
             Less than a week later, Italy annexed Albania.
           - In 1945, during World War II, American planes intercepted a Japanese
             fleet that was headed for Okinawa on a suicide mission.
           - In 1947, auto pioneer Henry Ford died in Dearborn, Mich., at age 83.
           - In 1948, the World Health Organization was founded.
           - In 1953, the U.N. General Assembly elected Dag Hammarskjold of
             Sweden to be secretary-general.
           - In 1957, the last of New York's electric trolleys completed its
             final run from Queens to Manhattan.
           - In 1969, the Supreme Court unanimously struck down laws prohibiting
             private possession of obscene material.
           - Ten years ago: A week after the Exxon Valdez oil spill disaster,
             President Bush pledged federal assistance to help in the clean-up.
             A Soviet nuclear-powered submarine, the Komsomolets, caught fire and
             sank in the Norwegian Sea, claiming 42 lives.
           - Five years ago: 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 intellectuals were slaughtered.
           - One year ago: President Clinton held a town meeting in Kansas City,
             Mo., on the future of Social Security. Mary Bono, the widow of
             entertainer-turned-politician Sonny Bono, won a special election to
             serve out the remainder of her husband's congressional term.

           *Happy Birthday+
           - Sitar player Ravi Shankar is 79.
           - Actor James Garner is 71.
           - Country singer Cal Smith is 67.
           - Actor Wayne Rogers is 66.
           - Actor Ian Richardson is 65.
           - Media commentator Hodding Carter is 64.
           - Country singer Bobby Bare is 64.
           - Rhythm-and-blues singer Charlie Thomas (The Drifters) is 62.
           - Jazz musician Freddie Hubbard is 61.
           - The mayor of Oakland, Calif., Jerry Brown, is 61.
           - Movie director Francis Ford Coppola is 60.
           - TV personality David Frost is 60.
           - Rock musician Bill Kreutzmann is 53.
           - Actor Jackie Chan is 45.
           - Football Hall-of-Famer Tony Dorsett is 45.