2001 – The $297 million Mars Odyssey was launched on a six-month, 286-million-mile journey to the Red Planet and was expected to arrive near Mars Oct 24. A 2-year orbit to map the planet’s chemistry and minerals was planned.
2001 – China rejected US statements of regret and continued to demand an apology for the April 1 collision between a US spy plane and Chinese jet.
2001 – In Vietnam a Russian-made M-17 helicopter carrying a team searching for American MIAs crashed and all aboard were reported killed. Rescuers recovered the bodies of 9 Vietnamese and 7 Americans the next day.
2003 – In the 19th day of Operation Iraqi Freedom US forces in tanks and armored vehicles stormed into the center of Baghdad, seizing Saddam Hussein’s Sijood and Republican palaces. As many as 5 marines were killed. Many Iraqis died in constant suicidal attacks.
2003 – A US warplane dropped 4 precision-guided 2,000-pound JDAMs and left a smoking crater 60 feet deep in the upscale al-Mansour section of western Baghdad, where Saddam Hussein was believed to have been in a meeting with top officials.
2003 – Capt. Harry Alexander Hornbuckle on the road to Baghdad led 80 US soldiers against 300 Iraqi and Syrian fighters. 200 enemy were killed with no US casualties.
2004 – The US government issued the 1st license for a manned suborbital rocket to Scaled Composites of Mojave headed by Burt Rutan.
2004 – A U.S.-led multinational force trying to bring stability to Haiti helped detain Wilford Ferdinand, a top rebel figure.
2004 – Militiamen loyal to al-Sadr, the radical Shiite cleric, clashed with Polish troops in Karbala, and Muntadhir al-Mussawi, an aide to the cleric, was killed.
2004 – In Iraq 2 German counter-terrorism GSG-9 security agents were ambushed and went missing while on a routine trip from Jordan to Baghdad.
2005 – Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a Shiite, was named Iraq’s interim prime minister; Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani was sworn in as interim president.
2006 – At 10 o’clock UTC NASA’s Pluto probe New Horizons crossed the orbit of Mars, after 78 days journey. This is a new Earth-to-Mars-distance flight record.
https://thisdayinusmilhist.wordpress.com/2014/04/07/april-7/
