This day in history: 7th April 2009

1920 - Ravi Shankar born, 7 April, 1920 - is a Bengali Indian sitar player and composer. He is a disciple of Baba Allauddin Khan, the founder of the Maihar gharana of Hindustani classical music, and the father of Grammy-award-winning singer-songwriter Norah Jones and sitar player Anoushka Shankar. He was George Harrison’s sitar teacher

1933 - Wayne Rogers born, 7 April, 1933 - Actor ("M*A*S*H")

1938 - Spencer Dryden born, 7 April, 1938 - Musician (Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship) 
 
1939 - David Frost born, 7 April, 1939 - TV host ("That Was the Week that Was")

1939 - Francis Ford Coppola born, 7 April, 1939 - Director

1940 –Satee Shourie.born, 7 April. Satee Shourie’s daughter Mona is the ex-wife of producer/ director Boney Kapoor. Boney divorced Mona for actress Sridevi.

1942 - Jeetendra was born Ravi Kapoor in Amritsar, Punjab on 7th April, 1942 to a Punjabi family. Ravi Kapoor was born in a business family that dealt with imitation jewellery. While supplying jewellery to V. Shantaram, he was cast as Sandhya’s double in the 1959 movie "Navrang."

1951 – Rahul Rawail, director/ writer/ producer Bollywood. Date of Birth: 1951, Bombay, Maharashtra, India, Son of Harnam Singh Rawail.

1954 - Jackie Chan born, 7 April, 1954 - Actor ("Rush Hour", "Rush Hour 2")

1964 - Russell Crowe born, 7 April, 1964 - Actor ("A Beautiful Mind," "Gladiator")

1965 - Shagufta Ali is an actress who believes in calling a spade, a spade. The actress has been a part of the industry for the past 20 years. A Mithibai graduate Shagufta comes from a conservative Muslim family.

1975 - Victoria Adams Beckham born, 7 April, 1975 - Singer (Spice Girls) Wife of David Beckham

1985 - At Farm Aid IV, Elton John performed "Candle in the Wind" for Ryan White. White, a young boy with AIDS, died later the same day.

1997 - An Amsterdam university began offering a course entitled "Madonna 101."

1998 - Carlos Vega died of a self-inflicted gunshot.

1998 - George Michael was arrested in a public restroom in Beverly Hills for lewd conduct. He was sentenced to community service for the incident. 
 
2000 - The Delhi police unearth a multicrore cricket betting and match- fixing racket involving five South African cricketers, including the captain Hansie Cronje. A Delhi-based Indian operator Rajesh Kalra put behind bars.

2000 - Michael Abram attended a hearing for his attempt to murder Beatle singer George Harrison and his wife Olivia on December 30, 1999. Abram was ordered to appear for trial, but a date was not set.

2000 - Suvarna Chakoram award ( and a kitty of Rs.10 lakh) for the best film in the Fifth International Film Festival of India (IFFK 2000) going to a rather unusually named film from Korea, Mayonnaise.

2000 - Thousands of Muscovites rallied on April 7 to support journalists of the besieged NTV network. The journalists had barricaded themselves into their Moscow studios claiming the Kremlin was trying to crush their independence and strangle press freedom in Russia.

2001 - Filmfare awards function held in Hyderabad on 7th April. Awards in various categories for films in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kanada were given to artistes. - SAMPURN