7 APRIL

1900 - During the height of the Philippine-American War, United States President William McKinley instructs the colonial body "Philippine Commission" to reiterate US intention to establish and organize government – essentially popular in form – in the municipal and provincial administrative divisions of the Philippine Islands; the instructions given to the Philippine Commission, a body aiming at imposing American imperialistic rule through the establishment of a colonial administration teaching local-level governance patterned after that of Washington, comes as a long battle breaks out between Filipino and American forces in Cagayan de Oro, Misamis Oriental on the very same day.

1934 - The Soviet-Finnish nonaggression treaty is renewed but five years later, the Soviet Union will denounce the pact and subsequently invade Finland in an action to be castigated by the League of Nations; the Soviet-Finnish War (Nov. 30, 1939 - March 12, 1940) will end when Finland yields territory and concessions to the USSR.

1978 - The production of the N-bomb (neutron bomb) is put on hold by United States President Jimmy Carter following the controversy generated in Europe by his earlier plan to install neutron warheads on the Lance missile and artillery shells scheduled for deployment in Europe; the N-bomb, designed to produce huge amounts of lethal radiation but minimal damage to property, has been dubbed by activists as 'capitalist' bomb and countries such as Belgium, Norway and Holland have refused to host N-bomb on their soil.

1994 - Civil war breaks out in the African nation of Rwanda, a day after President Juvenal Habyarimana and Burundi's President Cyprian Ntayamira are killed in a plane crash perpetrated either by the Tutsi's Rwandan Patriotic Front or extremist Hutus; within hours after Habyarimana's killing, the genocide of Tutus began and on this day, Rwandan armed forces kill 10 Belgian peacekeeping officers in a successful effort to discourage international intervention.