December 7 - Events

Events

• 43 BC – Marcus Tullius Cicero is assassinated.
• 1696 – Connecticut Route 108, third oldest highway in Connecticut, is laid out to Trumbull.
• 1724 – Tumult of Thorn – religious unrest is followed by the execution of nine Protestant citizens and the mayor of Thorn (Toruń) by Polish authorities.
• 1732 – The Royal Opera House opens at Covent Garden, London.
• 1776 – Marquis de Lafayette arranges to enter the American military as a major general.
• 1787 – Delaware becomes the first state to ratify the United States Constitution.
• 1862 – US Civil War: Battle of Prairie Grove, Arkansas.
• 1869 – American outlaw Jesse James commits his first confirmed bank robbery in Gallatin, Missouri.
• 1917 – World War I: The United States declares war on Austria-Hungary.
• 1930 – W1XAV in Boston, Massachusetts broadcasts video from the CBS radio orchestra program, The Fox Trappers. The broadcast also includes the first television commercial in the United States, an advertisement for I.J. Fox Furriers, who sponsored the radio show.
• 1936 – Australian cricketer Jack Fingleton becomes the first player to score centuries in four consecutive Test innings.
• 1941 – World War II: Attack on Pearl Harbor – The Imperial Japanese Navy attacks the United States Pacific Fleet and its defending Army Air Forces and Marine air forces at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, causing a declaration of war upon Japan by the United States. Japan also invades Malaya, Thailand, Hong Kong, the Philippines, and the Dutch East Indies at the same time (December 8 in Asia).
• 1946 – A fire at the Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia kills 119 people, the deadliest hotel fire in U.S. history.
• 1949 – Chinese Civil War: The government of Republic of China moves from Nanking to Taipei.
• 1962 – Prince Rainier III of Monaco revises the principality's constitution, devolving some of his power to advisory and legislative councils.
• 1963 – Instant replay makes its debut during an Army–Navy game.
• 1965 – Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras simultaneously revoke mutual excommunications that had been in place since 1054.
• 1970 – The first ever general election on the basis of direct adult franchise is held in Pakistan for 313 National Assembly seats.
• 1971 – Pakistan President Yahya Khan announces the formation of a Coalition Government at Centre with Nurul Amin as Prime Minister and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto as Vice-Prime Minister.
• 1972 – Apollo 17, the last Apollo moon mission, is launched. The crew takes the photograph known as The Blue Marble as they leave the Earth.
• 1975 – Indonesia invades East Timor.
• 1982 – In Texas, Charles Brooks, Jr. becomes the first person to be executed by lethal injection in the United States.
• 1983 – An 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 International Airport, killing 93 people.
• 1987 – Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 1771 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 himself.
• 1988 – Spitak Earthquake: In Armenia an earthquake measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale kills nearly 25,000, injures 15,000 and leaves 400,000 homeless.
• 1988 – Yasser Arafat recognizes the right of Israel to exist.
• 1989 – Sugar Ray Leonard and Roberto Duran complete their trilogy of boxing fights nine years after their first two fights, at the opening of the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada; Leonard retains his WBC world Super Middleweight title by a 12 round unanimous decision.
• 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.
• 1994 – Norfolk Southern ends its steam excursion program. This is the last time that Norfolk and Western 611 is under steam.
• 1995 – The Galileo spacecraft arrives at Jupiter, a little more than six years after it was launched by Space Shuttle Atlantis during Mission STS-34.
• 1999 – The Recording Industry Association of America files a lawsuit against the Napster file-sharing client alleging copyright infringement.
• 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 U.S. federal air marshals at Miami International Airport.
• 2005 – Ante Gotovina, a Croatian army general accused of war crimes, is captured in the Playa de las Américas, Tenerife by the Spanish police.
• 2006 – A tornado strikes Kensal Green, North West London, seriously damaging about 150 properties.
• 2007 – The Hebei Spirit oil spill begins in South Korea after a crane barge that had broken free from a tug collides with the Very Large Crude Carrier, Hebei Spirit.
• 2008 – The first NFL game is played in Canada at Rogers Centre in Toronto as the Buffalo Bills defeated the Miami Dolphins 16–3.