Bobby Buntrock Dies in Car Accident

April 7, 1974

21-year-old Bobby Buntrock, the child actor who played Harold "Sport" Baxter in TV's Hazel (1961-66), dies in a car crash. The bridge he was driving over was under construction and he drove into a hole between the lanes. The doors of his vehicle were trapped by the sides of the hole and he was unable to escape and drowned.
A widespread rumor started that his mother had died in a car accident on the same bridge, but this was not true. She had died several years earlier of a heart attack in their home.

Domino Theory of Vietnam

April 7, 1954

U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower in a historic speech describes the domino effect in Southeast Asia. This so-called "Domino Theory" would dominate U.S. policy towards Vietnam in following administrations. After describing the economic importance of Vietnam, Eisenhower described the falling domino effect: "You have a row of dominoes set up, you knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is a certainty that it will go over very quickly." He raised concerns that the fall of Vietnam would lead to the fall of Indochina, Burma, Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia, Japan, Philippines, and even Australia and New Zealand to communism. Shortly after his speech, North Vietnam fell to the communist. Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson both used the domino theory to justify increased U.S. economic and military assistance to non-communist South Vietnam and, eventually, to the U.S. entering the war in 1965.

First U.S. Long-Distance Demonstration of Television

April 7, 1927

Herbert Eugene Ives of Bell Laboratories broadcasts a picture from Washington D.C. to New York, a distance of about 200 miles (322 kilometers) over telephone lines. It was a speech by then U.S. Secretary of Commerce and future U.S. President Herbert Hoover in which he stated, "Today we have, in a sense, the transmission of sight for the first time in the world's history. Human genius has now destroyed the impediment of distance in a new respect, and in a manner hitherto unknown."

Matches

April 7, 1827

The first matches go on sale, invented by English chemist John Walker the previous year.
His matches consisted of wooden splints or sticks of cardboard tipped with a mixture of sulphide of antimony, chlorate of potash, and gum so that they would ignite when scratched on a rough surface. They were coated in sulfur to cause the flame to ignite the wood.
The price of a box of 50 matches was one shilling. Each box included a folded piece of sandpaper, through which the match had to be drawn to ignite it.
Early matches, including Walker's, were dangerous as flaming balls of fire would sometimes fall to the floor burning carpets and dresses, leading to their ban in France and Germany.
Walker refused to patent his idea, feeling it was too trivial of an invention.

Billie Holiday (Eleanora Fagan)

Born April 7, 1915 d. 1959

American Grammy-winning blues singer. She performed with Benny Goodman and Count Basie.
Music: What a Little Moonlight Can Do (1935).

America, Love It Or Leave It

Walter Winchell

Born April 7, 1897 d. 1972

American journalist. He popularized the phrase "America, love it or leave it" (1950s), which he used in defense of Joseph McCarthy's anti-communist witch hunts. TV: The Untouchables (1959-63, narrator).

William Rufus King

Born April 7, 1786 d. 1853

American politician. 13th U.S. Vice-President (1853), U.S. Senator (1848-52, Alabama), U.S. Minister to France (1844-46), and U.S. Representative (1811-16, North Carolina). He is the only U.S. executive official to take the oath of office on foreign soil; taking the oath of office in Cuba. He died of tuberculosis 45 days after taking office.