Today's 7 December Major Events in History

Photo for the article Today's 7 December Major Events

185 Emperor Lo-Yang of China sees supernova MSH 15-52
1354 Margaret II Countess of Hainaut and her son William, Duke of Bavaria, sign a peace treaty ending the Cod and Hook wars between them
1696 Connecticut Route 108, one of the oldest highways in the U.S. is completed to Trumbull
1703 Great storm of 1703 hits Southern England - thousands killed, Royal Navy losses 13 ships and around 1,500 seamen
1703 The first Eddystone Lighthouse is destroyed in the Great Storm of 1703
1724 Tumult of Thorn - religious unrest is followed by the execution of nine Protestant citizens and the mayor of Thorn (Toruń) by Polish authorities

Soane Succeeds Newton

1727 Physician Sir Hans Soane becomes President of the Royal Society, succeeding Sir Isaac Newton [1]

1732 The Royal Opera House opens at Covent Garden, London, England
1741 Elisabeth Petrovna becomes Tsarina of Russia

1787 Delaware is the 1st state to ratify the US constitution

Humboldt's Magnetic Field Discovery

1804 Naturalist Alexander von Humboldt reports his discovery of the decrease in intensity of Earth's magnetic field from the poles to the equator in a memoir to the Paris Institute

1835 Bavarian Ludwig railway opens - first German steam railway

1842 New York Philharmonic's first concert is held at the Apollo Rooms on lower Broadway

Battle of Interest

1862 Battle of Hartsville, Tenessee: Confederate Colonel John Hunt Morgan and his cavalry capture garrison at Hartsville

1862 Battle of Prairie Grove, Arkansas ends in a stalemate; Confederate forces withdraw, leaving Union troops in control of northwest Arkansas
1864 Skirmish at Ebenezer Creek/Cypress Swamp, Georgia

Jesse James's First Bank Robbery

1869 Jesse James first confirmed bank robbery - he and his brother rob a bank in Gallatin, Missouri, shots cashier in a revenge killing

1872 HMS Challenger sets sail on 3½ year world oceanographic cruise, the first expedition to explore the deep sea successfully on a global scale [1]
1875 Natives Sons of the West organized
1876 NY Mutuals & Philadelphia A's expelled from NL for not completing sked
1885 49th Congress (1885-87) convenes

1891 52nd US Congress (1st to appropriate $1 billion) holds 1st session
1895 Battle at Amba Alagi: Abyssinians beat Italian armies
1900 Max Planck, in his house at Grunewald, on the outskirts of Berlin, discovers the law of black body radiation.
1902 Britain and Germany issue an ultimatum to Venezuela demanding that President Cipriano Castro pay claims for damages caused during his takeover of the government in 1899
1907 Eugene Corri becomes the first referee inside the boxing ring
1907 The First Egyptian Nationalist Congress meets under the leadership of Mustafa Kamil Pasha

Bakelite: the Birth of Plastic

1909 Inventor Leo Baekeland patents the first thermosetting plastic, Bakelite, sparking the birth of the plastics industry

1911 Leslie J Stuart's musical "Betsy" premieres in NYC
1911 National Hockey Association forms with New Westminster, Vancouver & Victoria
1912 Bust of Queen Nefertiti is found in El-Amarna, Egypt

42nd Rainbow Division

1917 US 42nd 'Rainbow' Infantry Division arrives in France with Colonel Douglas MacArthur among its ranks

1917 US becomes 13th country to declare war on Austria during World War I
1920 NSW make 802 against South Australia, then Mailey takes 8-81
1920 USPD-KPD parties merge into Vereinigte Communist Party of Germany
1921 KWG-AM in Stockton CA begins radio transmissions
1924 German election (Social Democrats win, Nazis & Communists lose)
1925 Biltmore Theater opens at 261 W 47th St NYC

1926 The gas refrigerator is patented
1932 1st gyro-stabilized vessel to cross Atlantic arrives in NY
1937 Dutch Minister Romme proclaims married women are forbidden to work

Williams to the Red Sox

1937 Red Sox acquire the contract of 19-year-old Ted Williams

1937 Russian chess player Alexander Alekhine recaptures his final world title from Dutch grand master Max Euwe by a large margin (+10−4=11)
1938 Philip Barry's play "Here Come the Clowns" premieres in NYC
1938 W9XZY broadcasts facsimile of St Louis Post-Dispatch by radio

Lou Gehrig Elected HOF

1939 New York Yankees legend Lou Gehrig, 36, is elected to Baseball Hall of Fame, only six months after his retirement

1939 William Walton's Violin Concerto premieres in Cleveland; Ohio, with Jascha Heifetz as soloist and the Cleveland Orchestra conducted by Artur Rodziński
1940 North Africa: British counter offensive under general O'Connor
1940 The first prototype Fairey Barracuda flew
1941 1st Japanese midget submarine (No. 20) attacked by a US ship (USS Ward)

Hitler's Night and Fog Directive

1941 Adolf Hitler issues "Nacht und Nebel Erlass" (Night and Fog Directive), against anti-Nazi resistance fighters in occupied territories; targets sent to concentration camps and/or murdered

1941 Australian bombers land on Timor and Ambon islands of Indonesia
1941 Imperial Japanese Navy attacks US Naval Air Station Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii; 18 sailors killed, 33 of 36 patrol planes destroyed or damaged, 1st Japanese aircraft shot down in action

1941 Imperial Japanese Navy with 353 planes attacks the US fleet at Pearl Harbor Naval Base, Hawaii, killing 2,403 people

Hirohito Signs Declaration of war

1941 Japanese Emperor Hirohito signs a declaration of war on the United States and the British Empire

Rommel Ends Tobruk Siege

1941 WWII: German Siege of Tobruk, Libya ends after 8 months, as Erwin Rommel withdraws after losses and supply chain failures

Dutch Commonwealth

1942 In a radio broadcast Queen Wilhelmina promises a post-war "Round Table" to restructure the Kingdom into a partnership of equals (often called the Dutch Commonwealth)

1942 USS New Jersey launched, built by Philadelphia Naval Shipyard - US's most decorated warship (decommissioned 1991)
1944 Convention on International Civil Aviation drawn up in Chicago
1944 General Radescu forms Romanian government
1946 Fire at Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta, kills 119
1949 15th Heisman Trophy Award: Leon Hart (end), Notre Dame

1952 KKTV TV channel 11 in Colorado Spgs-Pueblo, CO (CBS) 1st broadcast

1953 WCCB TV channel 18 in Charlotte, North Carolina (IND/ABC) begins broadcasting
1954 Japanese government of Joshida resigns
1954 KCTS TV channel 9 in Seattle, WA (PBS) begins broadcasting
1956 American diver Pat McCormick wraps up the women's double when she wins the 10m platform gold medal at the Melbourne Olympics with 84.85 points; also won the 3m springboard gold
1956 Australian swimmer Murray Rose claims his 3rd gold medal at the Melbourne Olympics when he wins the 1,500m in 17:58.9; also wins 400m & 4 x 200m relay
1956 Helen O'Connell joins Today Show panel (NBC)

Larisa Latynina's Four Golds

1956 Soviet artistic gymnast Larisa Latynina takes her gold medal tally to 4 at the Melbourne Olympics; wins teams and individual all-round titles having earlier won vault and floor exercise sections

1957 New York Yankees Tony Kubek is selected as AL Rookie of the Year
1958 Romulo Betancourt elected President of Venezuela
1960 Ivory Coast claims independence from France
1962 Great Britain performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1963 First football instant replay when CBS uses the newly developed Ampex video tape recorder to replay a 1-yard touchdown during the Army-Navy game
1963 Ian Meckiff no-balled for throwing against the South Africans

Harrison Changes Company Name

1964 George Harrison changes his music publishing company's name from Mornyork to Harrisongs

Catholic, Orthodox Churches Heal Rift

1965 Roman Catholic Pope Paul VI and Orthodox Patriarch Athenagoras I simultaneously lift the mutual excommunications that led to the split of the two churches in 1054 during the Great Schism

1966 A fire at an army barracks in Erzurum, Turkey kills 68 people.

(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay

1967 Otis Redding records his song "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay", co-written and produced by guitarist Steve Cropper at Stax Studios in Memphis Tennessee

1967 The Beatles' clothing store "Apple Boutique" opens at 94 Baker Street, London

Beggar's Banquet

1968 London Records releases Rolling Stones album "Beggar's Banquet" in US, the last during Brian Jones' lifetime

1968 Orbiting Astronomical Observatory 2 launched into Earth orbit
1968 Richard Dodd returns a library book his great-grandfather took out in 1823 from the University of Cincinnati
1970 Taizan Maezumi Roshi, head of LA Zen Center, receives dharma
1970 West Germany & Poland normalize relations
1971 An off-duty member of the Ulster Defence Regiment is shot dead by members of the Irish Republican Army in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland
1971 Wings release their 1st album "Wild Life"

1972 Apollo 17 is launched, the final manned lunar landing mission, where the crew takes the famous Blue Marble photo of the entire Earth from a distance of 29,400 km (18,300 mi)

Imelda Marcos Stabbed

1972 Philippine's first lady Imelda Marcos stabbed and wounded by an assailant

Band on the Run

1973 Apple Records releases Paul McCartney & Wings album "Band on the Run" in UK; the commercial and critical pinnacle of his post-Beatle work tops the charts in 7 countries

1973 Orioles sell pitcher Eddie Watt to the Phillies
1975 10th Islander shut-out opponent-Glenn Resch 3-0 vs Sabres
1975 Archbishop Makarios returns to Cyprus
1975 Indonesian army occupies East Timor

Security Council Endorses Waldheim

1976 UN Security Council endorses Kurt Waldheim, Secretary-General for second 5 year term

1977 Islander Billy Smith's 10th shut-out opponent-Black Hawks 4-0

Star Trek: The Motion Picture

1979 "Star Trek: The Motion Picture," the first movie of the series, premieres, directed by Robert Wise and starring William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy

1981 Spain becomes a member of the NATO
1982 Dos Erres massacre in Guatemala during country's civil war, 171 people killed led by Santos López Alonzo
1982 In Texas, Charles Brooks, Jr. becomes the first person to be executed by lethal injection in the US.
1982 Suriname army under Desi Bouterse fires on radio station building
1983 2 jets collided at Madrid Airport killing 93
1983 France performs nuclear test at Mururoa Atoll

1985 Atlantis (61-B) returns to Kennedy Space Center via Kelly AFB
1986 NBC premiere of miniseries "Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna" (Part 1)

1987 43 die in Pacific Southwest Airline crash in California (man shot pilots)
1987 Palestinian uprising against Israel in West Bank

1988 A 6.9 magnitude earthquake in Spitak, Armenia, kills 25,000 to 50,000 people and leaves up to 500,000 homeless
1988 American visual artist Chuck Close (48) suffers a spinal artery collapse leaving him paralyzed from the neck down
1988 Gorbachev announces 10% unilateral Soviet troop reductions at UN
1988 Mikhail Gorbachev cheered by Wall St crowds upon arrival in NYC

Texas Rangers Sign Ryan

1988 MLB Texas Rangers sign free-agent pitcher Nolan Ryan to a one-year contract

Islanders Fire Simpson

1988 NHL NY Islanders fire head coach Terry Simpson, and replace him with former coach Al Arbour

Arafat Proclaims State of Palestine

1988 PLO delegation lead by Yasser Arafat proclaims the State of Palestine, recognizing the existence of the State of Israel for the first time

1989 C Coleman & D Zippel's musical "City of Angels" premieres in NYC

Parliament Endorses Hussein

1990 Iraqi Parliament endorses Saddam Hussein's decision to free hostages

1991 A J Kitt, US, wins World Skiing Cup
1992 Galileo spacecraft passes North Pole of Moon (Peary Crater)

Goulet has Surgery

1993 American singer Robert Goulet undergoes prostate cancer surgery

1993 Henri Konan Bedie names himself President of Ivory coast
1993 The Long Island Rail Road massacre: Passenger Colin Ferguson murders six people and injures 19 others on the LIRR in Nassau County, New York.

Howard Stern Averts a Suicide

1994 Radio personality Howard Stern talks a man out of attempting suicide

The Grateful Dead Break Up

1995 American rock band The Grateful Dead break up after the death of Jerry Garcia

Seamus Heaney Awarded Nobel

1995 Irish poet Seamus Heaney receives the Novel Prize for Literature at a ceremony in Stockholm [1] [2]

1995 NBA settles strike of referees, refs to return on Dec 12
1995 US space probe Galileo begins orbiting Jupiter
1996 Australian rugby union team ends 12-game European tour unbeaten after 39-19 victory over the Barbarians at Twickenham; Wallabies fullback Matt Burke scores 2 tries and lands 4 conversions, 2 penalties
1996 Space Shuttle STS 80 (Columbia 21), lands
1999 The RIAA files a lawsuit against the Napster file-sharing client, on charges of copyright infringement.

Film & TV History

2003 Television adaptation of Tony Kushner's "Angels in America" directed by Mike Nichols, starring Justin Kirk and Al Pacino, premieres on HBO

2003 The Conservative Party of Canada is officially recognized after the merger of the Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservative Party of Canada.

2005 Rigoberto Alpizar, a passenger on American Airlines Flight 924 who allegedly claimed to have a bomb, is shot and killed by a team of US federal air marshals at Miami International Airport.

Pope John Paul II

2005 U.S. debut of the second part of two-part TV biopic miniseries "Pope John Paul II" on CBS

2006 A Tornado strikes Kensal Green in northwest London, seriously damaging around 150 properties
2007 The Hebei Spirit oil spill began in South Korea after a crane barge being towed by tug collided with the very large crude carrier, Hebei Spirit.
2009 "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" becomes "PBS NewsHour", upon Jim Lehrer's stepping down as anchor
2010 Iceland officially leaves the recession with growth of 1.2% in the third quarter
2014 Human Rights Watch Asia Division call for investigation into Indonesian security forces shooting of peaceful protesters
2014 Mayor of Paris calls for diesel cars to be banned from the French Capital by 2020, in order to reduce pollution
2014 The Archbishop of Canterbury claims that he is more shocked by the plight of Britain's hunger-stricken poor than suffering in African refugee camps
2014 The Syrian military accuse Israel of carrying out two air strikes on Syria
2014 Typhoon Hagupit hits central Philippines; millions flee homes for shelter
2015 Beijing issues its first-ever red alert for pollution

Bowie Attends Lazarus Opening

2015 David Bowie’s final public appearance, at the opening of his musical "Lazarus" at New York Theatre Workshop, NYC

Sanders 'Person of the Year'

2015 Time Magazine readers name Bernie Sanders their "person of the year"

2016 6.5 earthquake in Aceh province, Indonesia kills at least 97 people
2016 Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi resigns 3 days after losing a referendum to reform the constitution
2016 Pakistan International Airways plane crashes north of Islamabad, killing all 48 on board, including singer turned preacher Junaid Jamshed
2017 Australia's parliament votes to legalize gay marriage

2017 Ballon d'Or: Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo wins his fifth and second consecutive award to equal Lionel Messi's record

2017 Crumbling French château La Mothe-Chandeniers in Les Trois-Moutiers is bought by 9,000 people through a crowdfunding campaign organized by the website Dartagnans.fr; the money is used to save the château from developers and fund its restoration
2017 Former US gymnastics physician Larry Nasser is sentenced to 60 years on child pornography charges
2017 Mosconi Cup nine-ball pool, Las Vegas, Nevada: Europe scores 8th straight title with an 11-4 rout of US; MVP: Joshua Filler (Germany)
2017 Naples' pizza spinning given UNESCO intangible heritage status along with Germany's organ music, Kyrgystan's Kok boru, and India's Kumbh festival
2017 Pantone's 2018 Colour of the Year is Ultra Violet
2017 Unrest in West Bank and Gaza, schools closed and a general strike in response to America's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital
2017 Virtual currency Bitcoin rises in value, passing $18,440 on some exchanges

Merkel's Replacement

2018 Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer is elected the new leader of Germany's Christian Democratic Union party, replacing Angela Merkel

2018 Brazilian spiritual healer João Teixeira de Faria accused of sexual abuse by four women, over 200 more come forward in next week

2018 Comedian Kevin Hart steps down as 2019 Oscars host after his history of homophobic statements is revealed

Mueller Filings Implicate Trump

2018 Court filings by US federal prosecutors and Special Counsel Robert Mueller against Michael Cohen appear to implicate President Donald Trump on campaign fraud and Russian dealings

2018 Former Italy national football coach Cesare Prandelli is appointed manager of Serie A club Genoa CFC replacing Ivan Juric; first time in history all 20 Serie A managers are all Italian
2018 Mosconi Cup nine-ball pool, London, England: US ends Europe's 8-year run with an 11-9 win; MVP: Skyler Woodward (USA)
2019 Alexandra Trusova sets a world record as the first female figure skater to land a quadruple flip jump at the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final in Italy [1]

2020 Australian states celebrate "Freedom Day" easing COVID-19 restrictions in Victoria and New South Wales

Bob Dylan Sells Song Catalogue

2020 Bob Dylan sells his entire songwriting catalog of more than 600 songs to the Universal Music Publishing Group for over $300 million

2020 Breaking, the competitive form of breakdancing, confirmed as an Olympic sport for the Paris 2024 games
2020 Coca-Cola named the world's No. 1 plastic polluter, in Break Free From Plastic's annual brand audit
2020 Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo wins a second term in the country's general elections
2020 Most of California begins second lockdown as hospitals come under strain and the state records average of 21,000 COVID-19 cases a day
2021 Chile becomes the 31st nation to legalize same-sex marriage [1]
2021 Mockumentary comedy "Abbott Elementary," created by Quinta Brunson and starring Brunson, Tyler James Williams, and Janelle James, premieres on ABC
2021 The 3,500-year-old Gilgamesh Dream Tablet, part of the Epic of Gilgamesh and one of the oldest known pieces of literature, goes on display in Iraq for the first time in 30 years after being looted during the Gulf War [1]

Biden Warns Putin over Ukraine

2021 US President Joe Biden warns Russian President Vladimir Putin of economic consequences if Russia continues a military build-up in Ukraine, during a virtual meeting

2022 After widespread public protests, China announces a major loosening of COVID-19 restrictions for the whole country, allowing home quarantine and scrapping QR codes, effectively ending China's zero-COVID policy [1]
2022 Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock wins re-election over Republican Herschel Walker in run-off for the Georgia Senate seat, taking the US Senate to a clearer 51-49 Democratic majority [1]
2022 Peruvian president Pedro Castillo ousted from office after trying to dissolve Congress, who were about to impeach him on corruption charges. Vice president, Dina Boluarte sworn in as country's first woman president. [1]
2022 Twenty-five right-wing extremists arrested in Germany suspected of organizing a coup to overthrow the government and install a monarchy, including prince Heinrich XIII and army officers [1]
2023 The China Jinping Underground Laboratory (CJPL), the world's deepest and largest underground laboratory at 2,400 meters, begins operating below Jinping Mountains [1]
2024 Ghana's presidential election won by former president John Mahama of the National Democratic Congress, defeating Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia of the New Patriotic Party [1]
2024 Restored Notre Dame Cathedral re-opens after the 2019 fire with a VIP ceremony attended by world leaders in Paris, France [1] [2]