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TODAY - Apr 07, 2026

Thought of the Day

A dream doesn't become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work.

Today's Birthday

W. K. Kellogg
W. K. Kellogg Industrialist, American(1860)

An American industrialist and the founder of the Kellogg Company.

 
Ravi Shankar
Ravi Shankar Musician, Indian(1920)

An Indian, musician who was one of the best-known exponents of the sitar in the second half of the 20th and his name often preceded by the title Pandit.

 
Jackie Chan
Jackie Chan Actor, Hong Kong(1954 )

An actor, stuntman, martial artist, film director and producer.

 
Tony Dorsett
Tony Dorsett Football Player, American(1954 )

A former American football running back in the National Football League for the Dallas Cowboys and Denver Broncos.

 
Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday Singer, American(1915)

One of the greatest jazz singers of all time, Who is also known as Lady Day.

This day in History

1919

The Original Dixieland Jazz Band, the first jazz band to record its music, makes its debut in London; its song "Tiger Rag" becomes popular.

1940

Educator Booker T. Washington becomes the first African-American pictured on a U.S. postage stamp.

1948

The World Health Organization, an agency of the United Nations dedicated to improving health worldwide, comes into existence.

1980

President Jimmy Carter breaks off diplomatic relations with Iran during the hostage crisis.

1994

Civil war erupts in Rwanda a day after an airplane carrying the nation's President, Juvenal Habyarimana, was shot down.

2000

The Indian police uncover a cricket betting and match fixing racket involving five South African cricketers.

Billie Holiday (1915-1959)

Billie Holiday

One of the greatest jazz singers of all time, Who is also known as Lady Day, she cast an almost magical spell over audiences with her ability to find the emotional core of a song, was born on April 7, 1915, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. She was the daughter of jazz guitarist Clarence Holiday, but they had no contact during her upbringing. She spent an impoverished childhood in Baltimore before she moved with her mother to New York City in the late 1920s. There, she began singing in Harlem nightclubs and took the name Billie. A recording session in 1935 brought her to public attention. Thereafter she was vocalist with various big bands, including those of Count Basie and Artie Shaw, and made many recordings with saxophonist Lester Young and with pianist Teddy Wilson. Young nicknamed her Lady Day. Holiday reinterpreted popular melodies with great freedom, particularly through her ever-varied manner of stretching and compressing rhythmic details in relation to the beat. Her voice had a unique, unforgettable, piercingly emotional tone quality, and this special sound, together with her blues-inflected delivery, brought profound depth and meaning to whatever she sang, however uncomplicated the lyrics may have seemed. Examples include “These Foolish Things” (1936), “He's Funny That Way” (1937), “Them There Eyes” (1939), “Strange Fruit” (1939), and “All of Me” (1941). By 1941, when Holiday recorded “God Bless the Child” and “Georgia on My Mind,” the undertone of sprightly good humour had largely departed from her performances, and she focused more and more on gloomy tempos. Throughout the 1940s and 1950s Holiday appeared in clubs around the United States, although racial discrimination made touring difficult. She experienced a succession of disastrous personal relationships, and by the 1950s her voice increasingly showed the effects of alcoholism and long-term heroin addiction. She died on July 17, 1959, New York City, New York, United States

Author : Dr. Nidhi Jindal