December 7Birthdays & History

On this day: December 7 in history

Oldest first. Tap a year to see it on the World Chronicle timeline.

1. 43 BCMarcus Tullius Cicero is assassinated in Formia on orders of Marcus Antonius.Europe
2. 574Byzantine Emperor Justin II, suffering recurring seizures of insanity, adopts his general Tiberius and proclaims him as Caesar.Europe
3. 927The Sajid emir of Adharbayjan, Yusuf ibn Abi'l-Saj is defeated and captured by the Qarmatians near Kufa.Middle East
4. 1703The Great Storm of 1703, the greatest windstorm ever recorded in the southern part of Great Britain, makes landfall. Winds gust up to 120 mph, and 9,000 people die.Europe
5. 1724Tumult of Thorn: Religious unrest is followed by the execution of nine Protestant citizens and the mayor of Thorn (Toruń) by Polish authorities.Europe
6. 1732The Royal Opera House opens at Covent Garden, London, England.Europe
7. 1776Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, arranges to enter the American military as a major general.North America
8. 1787Delaware becomes the first state to ratify the United States Constitution.North America
9. 1837The Battle of Montgomery's Tavern, the only battle of the Upper Canada Rebellion, takes place in Toronto, where the rebels are quickly defeated.North America
10. 1842First concert of the New York Philharmonic, founded by Ureli Corelli Hill.North America
11. 1904Comparative fuel trials begin between warships HMS Spiteful and HMS Peterel: Spiteful was the first warship powered solely by fuel oil, and the trials led to the obsolescence of coal in ships of the Royal Navy.Europe
12. 1917World War I: The United States declares war on Austria-Hungary.North AmericaEurope
13. 1922The Parliament of Northern Ireland votes to remain a part of the United Kingdom and not unify with Southern Ireland.Europe
14. 1930W1XAV in Boston, Massachusetts telecasts video from the CBS radio orchestra program, The Fox Trappers. The telecast also includes the first television advertisement in the United States, for I.J. Fox Furriers, which also sponsored the radio show.North America
15. 1932German-born Swiss physicist Albert Einstein is granted an American visa.EuropeNorth America
16. 1936Australian cricketer Jack Fingleton becomes the first player to score centuries in four consecutive Test innings.Oceania
17. 1941World War II: Attack on Pearl Harbor: The Imperial Japanese Navy carries out a surprise attack on the United States Pacific Fleet and its defending Army and Marine air forces at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. (For Japan's near-simultaneous attacks on Eastern Hemisphere targets, see December 8.)North AmericaAsia
18. 1942World War II: British commandos conduct Operation Frankton, a raid on shipping in Bordeaux harbour.Europe
19. 1944An earthquake along the coast of Wakayama Prefecture in Japan causes a tsunami which kills 1,223 people.Asia
20. 1946A fire at the Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia kills 119 people, the deadliest hotel fire in U.S. history.North America
21. 1949Chinese Civil War: The Government of the Republic of China moves from Nanjing to Taipei, Taiwan.Asia
22. 1962Prince Rainier III of Monaco revises the principality's constitution, devolving some of his power to advisory and legislative councils.Europe
23. 1963Instant replay makes its debut during the Army-Navy football game in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.North America
24. 1965Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras I simultaneously revoke mutual excommunications that had been in place since 1054.Europe
25. 1971Pakistan President Yahya Khan announces the formation of a coalition government with Nurul Amin as Prime Minister and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto as Deputy Prime Minister.Asia
26. 1971The Battle of Sylhet is fought between the Pakistani military and the Indian Army.Asia
27. 1972Apollo 17, the last Apollo Moon mission, is launched. The crew takes the photograph known as The Blue Marble as they leave the Earth.World
28. 1982In Texas, Charles Brooks Jr., becomes the first person to be executed by lethal injection in the United States.North America
29. 1982The Senior Road Tower collapses in less than 17 seconds. Five workers on the tower are killed and three workers on a building nearby are injured.Europe
30. 1983An Iberia Airlines Boeing 727 collides with an Aviaco DC-9 in dense fog while the two airliners are taxiing down the runway at Madrid–Barajas Airport, killing 93 people.Europe
31. 1987Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 1771, a British Aerospace 146-200A, crashes near Paso Robles, California, killing all 43 on board, after a disgruntled passenger shoots his ex-boss traveling on the flight, then shoots both pilots and steers the plane into the ground.EuropeNorth America
32. 1988The 6.8 Ms Armenian earthquake shakes the northern part of the country with a maximum MSK intensity of X (Devastating), killing 25,000–50,000 and injuring 31,000–130,000.Europe
33. 1993Long Island Rail Road shooting: Passenger Colin Ferguson murders six people and injures 19 others on the LIRR in Nassau County, New York.North America
34. 1995The Galileo spacecraft arrives at Jupiter, a little more than six years after it was launched by Space Shuttle Atlantis during Mission STS-34.World
35. 1995An Air Saint Martin (now Air Caraïbes) Beechcraft 1900 crashes near the Haitian commune of Belle Anse, killing 20.Latin America
36. 1995Khabarovsk United Air Group Flight 3949 crashes into the Bo-Dzhausa Mountain, killing 98.Europe
37. 2003The Conservative Party of Canada is officially registered, following the merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada.North America
38. 2005Rigoberto Alpizar, a passenger on American Airlines Flight 924 who allegedly claimed to have a bomb, is shot and killed by a team of U.S. federal air marshals at Miami International Airport.North America
39. 2014The annual furry convention Midwest FurFest is targeted in an unsolved chlorine gas attack.North America
40. 2015The JAXA probe Akatsuki successfully enters orbit around Venus five years after the first attempt.World
41. 2016Pakistan International Airlines Flight 661, a domestic passenger flight from Chitral to Islamabad, operated by an ATR-42-500 crashes near Havelian, killing all 47 on board.Asia
42. 2017Aztec High School shooting: William Atchison kills two students at his former high school.Latin America
43. 2024Battle of Damascus (2024): Syrian opposition forces enter the Rif Dimashq Governorate, reaching within 20 km of the capital Damascus.Middle East
44. 2025British racing driver Lando Norris wins the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in 2025 with McLaren.Europe
45. 2025An attempted coup takes place in Benin, but is thwarted, and order restored.Africa

Source: Wikipedia "December 7" / CC BY-SA 4.0