October 7 - Events

Events

• 3761 BC – The epoch reference date epoch (origin) of the modern Hebrew calendar (Proleptic Julian calendar).
• 1477 – Uppsala University is inaugurated after receiving its corporate rights from Pope Sixtus IV in February the same year.
• 1513 – Battle of La Motta: Spanish troops under Ramón de Cardona defeat the Venetians.
• 1542 – Explorer Cabrillo discovers Santa Catalina Island off of the California coast.
• 1571 – The Battle of Lepanto is fought, and the Holy League (Spain and Italy) destroys the Turkish fleet.
• 1582 – Because of the implementation of the Gregorian calendar, this day is skipped in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.
• 1691 – The English royal charter for the Province of Massachusetts Bay is issued.
• 1763 – George III of Great Britain issues British Royal Proclamation of 1763, closing aboriginal lands in North America north and west of Alleghenies to white settlements.
• 1776 – Crown Prince Paul of Russia marries Sophie Marie Dorothea of Württemberg.
• 1777 – American Revolutionary War: The Americans defeat the British in the Second Battle of Saratoga, also known as the Battle of Bemis Heights.
• 1780 – American Revolutionary War: Battle of Kings Mountain American Patriot militia defeat Loyalist irregulars led by British colonel Patrick Ferguson in South Carolina.
• 1800 – French corsair Robert Surcouf, commander of the 18-gun ship La Confiance, captures the British 38-gun Kent inspiring the traditional French song Le Trente-et-un du mois d'août.
• 1826 – The Granite Railway begins operations as the first chartered railway in the U.S.
• 1828 – Morea Expedition: The city of Patras, Greece, is liberated by the French expeditionary force in the Peloponnese under General Maison.
• 1840 – Willem II becomes King of the Netherlands.
• 1849 – Death of Edgar Allan Poe
• 1862 – Royal Columbian Hospital (RCH) opens as the first hospital in the Canadian province of British Columbia
• 1864 – American Civil War: Bahia Incident: USS Wachusett illegally captures the CSS Florida Confederate raider while in port in Bahia, Brazil in violation of Brazilian neutrality.
• 1868 – Cornell University holds opening day ceremonies; initial student enrollment is 412, the highest at any American university to that date.
• 1870 – Franco-Prussian War – Siege of Paris: Leon Gambetta flees Paris in a balloon.
• 1879 – Germany and Austria-Hungary sign the "Twofold Covenant" and create the Dual Alliance.
• 1912 – The Helsinki Stock Exchange sees its first transaction.
• 1916 – Georgia Tech defeats Cumberland University 222-0 in the most lopsided college football game in American history.
• 1919 – KLM, the flag carrier of the Netherlands, is founded. It is the oldest airline still operating under its original name.
• 1924 – Andreas Michalakopoulos becomes Prime Minister of Greece for a short period of time.
• 1929 – Photios II becomes Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.
• 1933 – Air France is inaugurated, after being formed by a merger of 5 French airlines.
• 1940 – World War II: the McCollum memo proposes bringing the United States into the war in Europe by provoking the Japanese to attack the United States.
• 1942 – World War II: The October Matanikau action on Guadalcanal begins as United States Marine Corps forces attack Imperial Japanese Army units along the Matanikau River.
• 1944 – World War II: During an uprising at Birkenau concentration camp, Jewish prisoners burn down the crematoria.
• 1949 – The German Democratic Republic (East Germany) is formed.
• 1955 – American poet Allen Ginsberg performs his poem Howl for the first time at the Six Gallery in San Francisco.
• 1958 – President of Pakistan Iskander Mirza, with the support of General Ayub Khan and the army, suspends the 1956 constitution, imposes martial law, and cancels the elections scheduled for January 1959.
• 1958 – The U.S. manned space-flight project is renamed Project Mercury.
• 1959 – U.S.S.R. probe Luna 3 transmits the first ever photographs of the far side of the Moon.
• 1960 – Nigeria joins the United Nations.
• 1963 – John F. Kennedy signs the ratification of the Partial Test Ban Treaty.
• 1971 – Oman joins the United Nations.
• 1976 – Hua Guofeng becomes Mao Zedong's successor as chairman of Communist Party of China.
• 1977 – The adoption of the Fourth Soviet Constitution.
• 1985 – The Achille Lauro is hijacked by Palestine Liberation Organization.
• 1985 – The Mameyes landslide kills close to 300 in the worst landslide in North American history.
• 1991 – Bombing of Banski dvori in Zagreb.
• 1993 – The Great Flood of 1993 ends at St. Louis, Missouri, 103 days after it began, as the Mississippi River falls below flood stage.
• 1998 – Matthew Shepard, a gay student at the University of Wyoming, is found tied to a fence after being savagely beaten by two young adults in Laramie, Wyoming.
• 2001 – The U.S. invasion of Afghanistan begins with an air assault and covert operations on the ground.