What happened today December 7th?

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Events
1724 - Thorn Blood tribunal (de:Thorner Blutgericht), execution of protestant who attacked and demolished Jesuit Church by Poland in Toruń(Thorn)
1732 - The Royal Opera House opens at Covent Garden, London.
1776 - Marquis de Lafayette attempts to enter the American military as a major general.
1787 - Delaware becomes the first state to ratify the US Constitution.
1815 - Michel Ney, Marshal of France, is executed by firing squad after having been convicted of treason for his support of Napoleon I.
1917 - World War I: The US declares war on Austria-Hungary.
1941 - World War II: Canada declared war on Finland, Hungary, Romania, and Japan.
1941 - World War II: Attack On Pearl Harbor - The Imperial Japanese Navy attacks the US Pacific Fleet and its defending Army Air Forces and Marine air forces at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
1946 - A fire at the Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia kills 119 people.
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.
1965 - Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras simultaneously lift mutual excommunications that had been in place since 1054.
1966 - A fire at an army barracks in Erzurum, Turkey kills 68 people.
1970 - The first ever general election on the basis of direct adult franchise are held in Pakistan for 313 National Assembly seats.
1971 - Pakistan President Yahya Khan announces 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 take 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 US.
1983 - Iberia Airlines' Boeing 727 collided with Aviaco DC-9 in intense fog when the two airliners taxied down the runway at Madrid Airport killing 93 people.
1987 - PSA Flight 1771 crashes near Paso Robles, California, killing all 43 on board, after a disgruntled passenger shoots his ex-boss 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 - In their third and final fight, Sugar Ray Leonard retains the WBC Super Middleweight Championship of the World, defeating Roberto Duran.
1993 - In South Africa, the Transitional Executive Council is established.
1993 - The Long Island Rail Road Massacre: Colin Ferguson murders six people and injures 19 others on the LIRR in Nassau County, New York.
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.
1995 - 20 people are killed in the Port-au-Prince air disaster
2003 - The Conservative Party of Canada is officially recognized after the merger of the Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservative Party of Canada.
2004 - Hamid Karzai is inaugurated as President of Afghanistan.
2004 - John Kufuor is re-elected as President of Ghana.
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.

Births
521 - Saint Columba, Irish Christian missionary to Scotland (d. 597)
1545 - Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, consort of Mary I of Scotland (d. 1567)
1561 - Kikkawa Hiroie, Japanese politician (d. 1625)
1598 - Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Italian artist (d. 1680)
1637 - Bernardo Pasquini, Italian composer (d. 1710)
1670 - John Aislabie, English director of the South Sea Company (d. 1742)
1764 - Claude Victor-Perrin, duc de Belluno, French marshal (d. 1841)
1784 - Allan Cunningham, British poet (d. 1842)
1801 - Johann Nestroy, Austrian dramatist and actor (d. 1862)
1810 - Theodor Schwann, German physiologist (d. 1882)
1810 - Josef Hyrtl, Austrian anatomist (d. 1894)
1823 - Leopold Kronecker, German mathematician (d. 1891)
1847 - George Grossmith, British actor and writer (d. 1912)
1860 - Joseph Cook, 6th Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1947)
1863 - Pietro Mascagni, Italian composer (d. 1945)
1863 - Richard Sears, American department store founder (d. 1914)
1873 - Willa Cather, American novelist (d. 1947)
1879 - Rudolf Friml, American composer (d. 1972)
1887 - Ernst Toch, Austrian composer (d. 1964)
1888 - Joyce Cary, Irish author (d. 1957)
1888 - Hamilton Fish III, American politician (d. 1991)
1903 - Danilo Blanuša, Croatian mathematician (d. 1987)
1904 - Konstantin Sokolsky, Russian singer (d. 1991)
1905 - Gerard Kuiper, Dutch-born American astronomer (d. 1973)
1907 - Fred Rose, Canadian communist politician (d. 1983)
1910 - Louis Prima, American musician (d. 1978)
1912 - Daniel Jones, British composer (d. 1993)
1915 - Eli Wallach, American actor
1916 - Jean Carignan, French Canadian fiddler (d. 1988)
1920 - Fiorenzo Magni, Italian cylist
1924 - Mário Soares, President of Portugal
1924 - Bent Fabric, Danish pop pianist and composer
1927 - Helen Watts, British contralto
1928 - Noam Chomsky, American linguist and political writer
1930 - Hal Smith, American baseball player
1932 - Ellen Burstyn, American actress
1940 - Gerry Cheevers, National Hockey League goaltender
1942 - Harry Chapin, American singer and songwriter (d. 1981)
1942 - Peter Tomarken, American game show host (d. 2006)
1942 - Alex Johnson, American baseball player
1943 - Bernard C. Parks, Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department
1944 - Daniel Chorzempa, American organist
1944 - Jamiel Chagra, American drug trafficker
1945 - Marion Rung, Finnish singer
1947 - Johnny Bench, American baseball player
1947 - Garry Unger, Canadian ice hockey player
1947 - Tony Thomas, American TV and film producer
1948 - Gary Morris, American singer and actor
1948 - Mads Vinding, Danish bassist
1949 - Tom Waits, American singer, composer, and actor
1954 - Mark Hofmann, American forger and bomber
1954 - Mike Nolan, Irish singer (Bucks Fizz)
1955 - Priscilla Barnes, American actress
1956 - Larry Bird, American basketball player
1957 - Tom Winsor, British lawyer and economic regulator
1958 - Tim Butler, British musician (Psychedelic Furs)
1958 - Rick Rude, American professional wrestler (d. 1996)
1966 - C. Thomas Howell, American actor
1967 - Tino Martinez, American baseball player
1968 - Mark Geyer, Australian rugby league player
1970 - Carmen Campuzano, Mexican actress and fashion model
1971 - Vladimir Akopian, Armenian chess player
1971 - Chasey Lain, American pornographic actress
1972 - Hermann Maier, Austrian skier
1972 - Tammy Lynn Sytch, American professional wrestler
1973 - Damien Rice, Irish musician
1973 - Terrell Owens, American football player
1974 - Nicole Appleton, Canadian-born singer
1975 - Jamie Clapham, British footballer
1976 - Alan Faneca, American football player
1977 - Dominic Howard, British drummer (Muse)
1978 - Shiri Appleby, American actress
1979 - Ayako Fujitani, Japanese actress
1979 - Jennifer Carpenter, American actress
1980 - John Terry, English footballer
1984 - Robert Kubica, the first Polish Formula One racing driver
1984 - Aaron Gray, American basketball player
1986 - Megan Kanka, American rape and murder victim, basis of Megan's Law (d. 1994)
1987 - Aaron Carter, American singer and actor
1988 - Emily Browning, Australian actress
2003 - Princess Catharina-Amalia of the Netherlands

Deaths
43 BC - Cicero, Roman politician and author (b. 106 BC)
283 - Pope Eutychian
1254 - Pope Innocent IV
1279 - King Boleslaus V of Poland (b. 1226)
1295 - Gilbert de Clare, 7th Earl of Hertford, English politician (b. 1243)
1498 - Alexander Hegius von Heek, German humanist
1562 - Adrian Willaert, Flemish composer
1649 - Charles Garnier, French Jesuit missionary (b. 1606)
1672 - Richard Bellingham, English-born Massachusetts colonial magistrate (b. 1592)
1683 - John Oldham, English poet (smallpox) (b. 1653)
1683 - Algernon Sydney, English politician (b. 1623)
1723 - Jan Santini Aichel, Bohemian architect (b. 1677)
1725 - Florent Carton Dancourt, French dramatist and actor (b. 1661)
1775 - Charles Saunders, British admiral
1793 - Joseph Bara, French revolutionary (b. 1780)
1815 - Michel Ney, French marshall (executed) (b. 1769)
1817 - William Bligh, British naval officer (b. 1745)
1874 - Constantin von Tischendorf, German biblical scholar (b. 1815)
1894 - Ferdinand de Lesseps, French diplomat and entrepreneur (Suez Canal) (b. 1805)
1902 - Thomas Nast, German-born American cartoonist (b. 1840)
1906 - Élie Ducommun, Swiss journalist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1833)
1913 - Luigi Oreglia di Santo Stefano, Italian Catholic churchman and last surviving cardinal of Pius IX (b. 1828)
1941 - Isaac C. Kidd, American rear admiral (b. 1884)
1947 - Nicholas M. Butler, American university president, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1862)
1947 - Tristan Bernard, French playwright and novelist (b. 1866)
1956 - Huntley Gordon, Canadian actor (b. 1887)
1960 - Clara Haskil, Swiss pianist (b. 1895)
1969 - Lefty O'Doul, baseball player (b. 1897)
1969 - Eric Portman, English actor (b. 1903)
1970 - Rube Goldberg, American cartoonist (b. 1883)
1975 - Thornton Wilder, American playwright (b. 1897)
1977 - Peter Carl Goldmark, Hungarian-born American engineer (b. 1906)
1978 - Alexander Wetmore, American ornithologist (b. 1886)
1980 - Darby Crash, American punk-rock lengend (b. 1958)
1983 - Fanny Cano, Mexican actress (b. 1944)
1985 - Robert Graves, British author (b. 1895)
1985 - Potter Stewart, US Supreme Court Justice (b. 1915)
1989 - William Calhoun, Professional wrestler (b. 1934)
1990 - Joan Bennett, American actress (b. 1910)
1990 - Jean Duceppe, Quebec stage, television and film actor (b. 1923)
1990 - Jean Paul Lemieux, Quebec painter (b. 1904)
1993 - Félix Houphouët-Boigny, President of Côte d'Ivoire (b. 1905)
1993 - Wolfgang Paul, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1913)
1994 - J.C. Tremblay, National Hockey League defenseman (b. 1939)
1998 - Martin Rodbell, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1925)
2000 - Vladimir Gotovac, Croatian poet and politician (b. 1930)
2001 - Charles McClendon, LSU Tigers head football coach (b. 1923)
2003 - Carl F. H. Henry American theologian and publisher (b. 1913)
2003 - Azie Taylor Morton, Treasurer of the United States (b. 1936)
2003 - Raúl Vale, Venezuelan entertainer (b. 1944)
2004 - Frederick Fennell, American conductor (b. 1914)
2004 - Jerry Scoggins, American singer (b. 1913)
2005 - Bud Carson, American football player and coach (b. 1931)

Holidays and observances
R.C. Saints - Saint Ambrose: Memorial
US - Pearl Harbor Day (observance)
International Civil Aviation Day

External links
BBC: On This Day
The New York Times: On This Day
On This Day in Canada