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This day in history

This day in history: 7 December

Events, births and deaths on this date, ordered by how many people look them up.

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Key facts

345 historical events, births and deaths are listed for 7 December.
Entries come from Wikipedia’s day pages and are ordered by page views.
2025: An attempted coup takes place in Benin, but is thwarted, and order restored.

Holidays and observances

Armed Forces Flag Day (India)

Christian feast day: Aemilianus (Greek Church)

Christian feast day: Ambrose

Christian feast day: Buíte of Monasterboice

Christian feast day: December 7 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

Christian feast day: Maria Giuseppa Rossello

Christian feast day: Sabinus of Spoleto

Eve of the Immaculate Conception-related observances: Day of the Little Candles, begins after sunset (Colombia)

International Civil Aviation Day

National Heroes Day (East Timor)

National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day (United States)

Spitak Remembrance Day (Armenia)

Events

2025An attempted coup takes place in Benin, but is thwarted, and order restored.

2025British racing driver Lando Norris wins the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in 2025 with McLaren.

2024Battle of Damascus (2024): Syrian opposition forces enter the Rif Dimashq Governorate, reaching within 20 km of the capital Damascus.

2017Aztec High School shooting: William Atchison kills two students at his former high school.

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.

2015The JAXA probe Akatsuki successfully enters orbit around Venus five years after the first attempt.

2014The annual furry convention Midwest FurFest is targeted in an unsolved chlorine gas attack.

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.

2003The Conservative Party of Canada is officially registered, following the merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada.

1995An Air Saint Martin (now Air Caraïbes) Beechcraft 1900 crashes near the Haitian commune of Belle Anse, killing 20.

1995Khabarovsk United Air Group Flight 3949 crashes into the Bo-Dzhausa Mountain, killing 98.

1995The Galileo spacecraft arrives at Jupiter, a little more than six years after it was launched by Space Shuttle Atlantis during Mission STS-34.

1993Long Island Rail Road shooting: Passenger Colin Ferguson murders six people and injures 19 others on the LIRR in Nassau County, New York.

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.

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 steer

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.

1982In Texas, Charles Brooks Jr., becomes the first person to be executed by lethal injection in the United States.

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.

1972Apollo 17, the last Apollo Moon mission, is launched. The crew takes the photograph known as The Blue Marble as they leave the Earth.

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.

1971The Battle of Sylhet is fought between the Pakistani military and the Indian Army.

1965Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras I simultaneously revoke mutual excommunications that had been in place since 1054.

1963Instant replay makes its debut during the Army-Navy football game in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.

1962Prince Rainier III of Monaco revises the principality's constitution, devolving some of his power to advisory and legislative councils.

1949Chinese Civil War: The Government of the Republic of China moves from Nanjing to Taipei, Taiwan.

1946A fire at the Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia kills 119 people, the deadliest hotel fire in U.S. history.

1944An earthquake along the coast of Wakayama Prefecture in Japan causes a tsunami which kills 1,223 people.

1942World War II: British commandos conduct Operation Frankton, a raid on shipping in Bordeaux harbour.

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 o

1936Australian cricketer Jack Fingleton becomes the first player to score centuries in four consecutive Test innings.

1932German-born Swiss physicist Albert Einstein is granted an American visa.

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

1922The Parliament of Northern Ireland votes to remain a part of the United Kingdom and not unify with Southern Ireland.

1917World War I: The United States declares war on Austria-Hungary.

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.

1842First concert of the New York Philharmonic, founded by Ureli Corelli Hill.

1837The Battle of Montgomery's Tavern, the only battle of the Upper Canada Rebellion, takes place in Toronto, where the rebels are quickly defeated.

1787Delaware becomes the first state to ratify the United States Constitution.

1776Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, arranges to enter the American military as a major general.

1732The Royal Opera House opens at Covent Garden, London, England.

Born on this day

2002Torri Huske, American swimmer

2001Jalen McMillan, American football player

2000Dane Belton, American football player

1999Boo Buie, American basketball player

1999Pavol Regenda, Slovak ice hockey player

1998Tony Yike Yang, Canadian pianist

1997Abi Harrison, Scottish footballer

1997Tommy Nelson, American actor

1994Geno Chiarelli, American politician

1994Hunter Henry, American football player

1994Pete Alonso, American baseball player

1994Yuzuru Hanyu, Japanese figure skater

1993Alex Singleton, American football player

1993Rahama Sadau, Nigerian actress

1992Sean Couturier, American-Canadian ice hockey player

1991Chris Wood, New Zealand footballer

1991Eugenio Pisani, Italian race car driver

1990Aleksandr Menkov, Russian long jumper

1990Cameron Bairstow, Australian basketball player

1990David Goffin, Belgian tennis player

1990Urszula Radwańska, Polish tennis player

1990Yasiel Puig, Cuban baseball player

1989Alessandro Marchi, Italian footballer

1989Kevin Séraphin, French basketball player

1989Kyle Hendricks, American baseball player

1989Philip Larsen, Danish ice hockey player

1988Andrew Goudelock, American basketball player

1988Angelina Gabueva, Russian tennis player

1988Nathan Adrian, American swimmer

1987Aaron Carter, American singer-songwriter, rapper, dancer, and actor (died 2022)

1986Billy Horschel, American golfer

1986Nita Strauss, American guitarist

1985Jon Moxley, American wrestler

1984Aaron Gray, American basketball player

1984Luca Rigoni, Italian footballer

1984Milan Michálek, Czech ice hockey player

1984Robert Kubica, Polish race car driver

1983Al Thornton, American basketball player

1983Mike Mucitelli, American mixed martial artist

1982Lou Amundson, American basketball player

Died on this day

2024Doudou Adoula, Congolese atalaku and composer (born 1965)

2023Benjamin Zephaniah, British writer and dub poet (born1958)

2023Emiko Miyamoto, Japanese volleyball player (born 1937)

2023Refaat Alareer, Palestinian professor and writer (born1979)

2020Chuck Yeager, American aviator (born 1923)

2020Dick Allen, American baseball player and tenor (born 1942)

2019Ron Saunders, English football player and manager (born 1932)

2017Steve Reevis, Native American actor (born 1962)

2016Greg Lake, English musician (born 1947)

2016Junaid Jamshed, Pakistani recording artist, television personality, fashion designer, occasional actor, singer-songwriter and preacher. (born 1964)

2015Gerhard Lenski, American sociologist and academic (born 1924)

2015Hyron Spinrad, American astronomer and academic (born 1934)

2015Peter Westbury, English race car driver (born 1938)

2015Shirley Stelfox, English actress (born 1941)

2014Mark Lewis, American author and educator (born 1954)

2013Chick Willis, American singer and guitarist (born 1934)

2013Édouard Molinaro, French actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1928)

2012Marty Reisman, American table tennis player and author (born 1930)

2012Ralph Parr, American colonel and pilot (born 1924)

2012Roelof Kruisinga, Dutch physician and politician, Dutch Minister of Defence (born 1922)

2012Saul Steinberg, American businessman and financier (born 1939)

2011Harry Morgan, American actor (born 1915)

2010Elizabeth Edwards, American lawyer and author (born 1949)

2010Kari Tapio, Finnish singer (born 1945)

2008Herbert Hutner, American banker and lawyer (born 1908)

2006Jeane Kirkpatrick, American academic and diplomat, 16th United States Ambassador to the United Nations (born 1926)

2005Bud Carson, American football player and coach (born 1931)

2004Frederick Fennell, American conductor and educator (born 1914)

2004Jay Van Andel, American businessman and philanthropist, co-founded Amway (born 1924)

2004Jerry Scoggins, American singer and guitarist (born 1913)

Quote of the day

“Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom.”

Lao Tzu

Questions people ask

Where do the entries come from?

From Wikipedia’s on-this-day pages for this language, updated once a day and ordered by how often each article is read.

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