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Harry F. Sinclair, multimillionaire oil magnate (L) appears with his counsel Martin W. Littleton during hearing on the Teapot Dome scandal in 1924. On April 7, 1922, petroleum reserves in Wyoming were leased without competitive bidding to private companies, resulting in the Teapot Dome scandal. File Photo by Library of Congress/UPI
April 7 (UPI) — On this date in history:
In 1862, Union forces under the command of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant defeated the Confederates at Shiloh, Tenn.
In 1922, under the direction Secretary of the Interior Albert Bacon Fall, petroleum reserves at Wyoming’s Teapot Dome Oil Field were leased without competitive bidding to private companies. A Senate investigation ensued, leading to a bribery case that would become known as the Teapot Dome scandal.
In 1933, less than a month after President Franklin Roosevelt asked Congress to permit the manufacture and sale of beer, the Volstead Act was modified to allow for this request.
In 1947, auto pioneer Henry Ford died in Detroit at the age of 83. In 1896, he built his first self-propelled, gas-engine vehicle, and in 1903 incorporated the Ford Motor Company. He is credited for developing the first affordable, mass-produced car, the Model T, and pioneering the assembly line.
File Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress
In 1990, suspected arson fires aboard the ferry Scandinavian Star killed at least 75 people in Scandinavia’s worst post-war maritime disaster.
In 2009, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il was re-elected to a third five-year term despite failing health since a reported stroke in August 2008. He died in 2011.
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 injuring 12 others before shooting himself in the head as police closed in.
In 2012, broadcast journalist Mike Wallace, the CBS 60 Minutes icon, died in New Canaan, Conn. He was 93.
File Photo by Laura Cavanaugh/UPI
In 2017, the United States fired 59 Tomahawk missiles into a west Syrian airfield from where it was believed President Bashar al-Assad’s regime launched a deadly chemical attack that killed and injured hundreds of civilians.
In 2018, forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad launched a gas attack in the town of Douma, killing some 40 people.
In 2020, Grammy Award-winning country singer-songwriter John Prine died of COVID-19. He was 73.
File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI
