December 7 - Definition and Overview

December 7 is the 341st day (342nd on leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 24 days remaining.

Events

• 1732 - The Royal Opera House opens at Covent Garden, London.
• 1787 - Delaware becomes the first state to ratify the United States Constitution.
• 1815 - Michel Ney, Marshal of France, is executed by firing squad, after been convicted of treason by the Bourbon Restoration government of Louis XVIII for his support of Napoleon Bonaparte during the Hundred Days.
• 1941 - The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor officially brings the United States into World War II.
• 1941 - The Japanese attack Hong Kong
• 1949 - Chinese Civil War: The government of the Republic of China moves from Nanking to Taipei.
• 1965 - Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras simultaneously lift mutual excommunications that had been in place since 1054
• 1972 - Apollo 17, the last Apollo moon mission, is launched. The crew take The Blue Marble image as they leave the Earth.
• 1975 - Indonesia invades East Timor.
• 1982 - First US execution by lethal injection is carried out in Texas.
• 1988 - In Armenia an earthquake 6.9 on the Richter scale kills nearly 25.000, injures 15.000 and leaves 400.000 persons homeless. Yasser Arafat recognizes the right of Israel to exist.
• 1989 - In the third and final installment of their historic boxing trilogy, Sugar Ray Leonard and Roberto Duran fight in Las Vegas; Leonard retains the WBC Super Middleweight championship of the world with a 12 round decision.
• 1993 - South Africa transitional executive council established
• 2004 - Hamid Karzai is inaugurated as president of Afghanistan.
• 2004 - John Kufuor is re-elected as president of Ghana.

Births

• 521 - Saint Columba, Irish Christian missionary to Scotland (d. 597)
• 1598 - Gian Lorenzo Bernini, artist (d. 1680)
• 1637 - Bernardo Pasquini, composer (d. 1710)
• 1670 - John Aislabie, director of the South Sea Company (d. 1742)
• 1761 - Marie Tussaud, museum proprietress and waxwork modeller (d. 1850)
• 1784 - Allan Cunningham, Scottish poet (d. 1842)
• 1801 - Johann Nestroy, dramatist and actor (d. 1862)
• 1847 - George Grossmith, English actor and comic writer, best remembered for his work with Gilbert & Sullivan (d. 1912)
• 1860 - Sir Joseph Cook, sixth Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1947)
• 1863 - Pietro Mascagni, composer (d. 1945)
• 1863 - Richard Sears, department store founder (d. 1914)
• 1873 - Willa Cather, novelist (d. 1947)
• 1879 - Rudolf Friml, American composer (d. 1972)
• 1887 - Ernst Toch, composer (d. 1964)
• 1888 - Joyce Cary, author (d. 1957)
• 1888 - Hamilton Fish, American politician (d. 1991)
• 1903 - Danilo Blanusa, Croatian mathematician (d. 1987)
• 1904 - Konstantin Sokolsky, Russian singer
• 1905 - Gerard Kuiper, astronomer (d. 1973)
• 1910 - Louis Prima, musician (d. 1978)
• 1912 - Daniel Jones, composer
• 1915 - Eli Wallach, actor
• 1924 - Mário Soares, President of Portugal 1986-96
• 1927 - Helen Watts, Welsh contralto
• 1928 - Noam Chomsky, linguist, political writer
• 1932 - Ellen Burstyn, actress
• 1934 - Gordon Parks Jr., director (d. 1979)
• 1942 - Harry Chapin, musician (d. 1981)
• 1942 - Peter Tomarken, game show host
• 1944 - Daniel Chorzempa, organist
• 1945 - Marion Rung, Finnish singer
• 1947 - Johnny Bench, Baseball Hall of Famer
• 1948 - Gary Morris, singer, actor
• 1949 - Tom Waits, singer, composer, actor
• 1956 - Larry Bird, Basketball Hall of Famer
• 1966 - C. Thomas Howell, actor
• 1971 - Chasey Lain, erotic actress
• 1973 - Terrell Owens, American football star
• 1987 - Aaron Carter, singer
• 1988 - Emily Browning, Australian actress
• 2003 - Princess Catharina-Amalia of the Netherlands

Deaths

• 43 BC - Cicero, Roman politician and author (b. 106 BC)
• 283 - St. Eutychian, Pope
• 1254 - Pope Innocent IV
• 1683 - John Oldham, English poet
• 1815 - Michel Ney, a marshal of the French army, executed by firing squad
• 1817 - William Bligh, British naval officer
• 1894 - Ferdinand Marie, French diplomat and engineer
• 1902 - Thomas Nast, cartoonist
• 1956 - Huntley Gordon, pioneer Hollywood actor
• 1970 - Rube Goldberg, cartoonist
• 1975 - Thornton Wilder, playwright
• 1985 - Potter Stewart, retired United States Supreme Court justice
• 1985 - Robert Graves, author
• 1990 - Joan Bennett, actress
• 1993 - Félix Houphouët-Boigny, Côte d'Ivoire political leader
• 2003 - Carl F. H. Henry American Evangelical theologian, founder of Christianity Today magazine (90 years)
• 2003 - Azie Taylor Morton, former Treasurer of the United States
• 2003 - Raúl Vale, Venezuelan-Mexican entertainer
• 2004 - Jerry Scoggins, country singer, sang "The Ballad Of Jed Clampett," theme song for The Beverly Hillbillies. (b. 1913)

Holidays and observances

• United States: Pearl Harbor Day (observance)

December 6 - December 8 - November 7 - January 7 -- listing of all days