On This Day — 7 December

2025

British racing driver Lando Norris wins the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in 2025 with McLaren.

Lando Norris

2025

An attempted coup takes place in Benin, but is thwarted, and order restored.

2025 Beninese coup attempt

2024

Battle of Damascus (2024): Syrian opposition forces enter the Rif Dimashq Governorate, reaching within 20 km of the capital Damascus.

Fall of Damascus (2024)

2017

Aztec High School shooting: William Atchison kills two students at his former high school.

2017 Aztec High School shooting

2016

Pakistan International Airlines Flight 661, a domestic passenger flight from Chitral to Islamabad, operated by an ATR-42-500 crashes near Havelian, killing all 47 on board.

Pakistan International Airlines Flight 661

2015

The JAXA probe Akatsuki successfully enters orbit around Venus five years after the first attempt.

JAXA

2014

The annual furry convention Midwest FurFest is targeted in an unsolved chlorine gas attack.

Furry convention

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.

Killing of Rigoberto Alpizar

2003

The Conservative Party of Canada is officially registered, following the merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada.

Conservative Party of Canada

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.

Galileo (spacecraft)

1995

Khabarovsk United Air Group Flight 3949 crashes into the Bo-Dzhausa Mountain, killing 98.

Khabarovsk United Air Group Flight 3949

1995

An Air Saint Martin (now Air Caraïbes) Beechcraft 1900 crashes near the Haitian commune of Belle Anse, killing 20.

Air Caraïbes

1993

Long Island Rail Road shooting: Passenger Colin Ferguson murders six people and injures 19 others on the LIRR in Nassau County, New York.

Long Island Rail Road shooting

1988

The 6.8 Ms  Armenian earthquake shakes the northern part of the country with a maximum MSK intensity of X (Devastating), killing 25,000–50,000 and injuring 31,000–130,000.

1988 Armenian earthquake

1987

Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 1771, a British Aerospace 146-200A, 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 steers the plane into the ground.

Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 1771

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 Airport, killing 93 people.

Iberia (airline)

1982

In Texas, Charles Brooks Jr., becomes the first person to be executed by lethal injection in the United States.

Texas

1982

The Senior Road Tower collapses in less than 17 seconds. Five workers on the tower are killed and three workers on a building nearby are injured.

Senior Road Tower

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.

Apollo 17

1971

The Battle of Sylhet is fought between the Pakistani military and the Indian Army.

Battle of Sylhet

1971

Pakistan President Yahya Khan announces the formation of a coalition government with Nurul Amin as Prime Minister and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto as Deputy Prime Minister.

Pakistan

1965

Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras I simultaneously revoke mutual excommunications that had been in place since 1054.

Pope Paul VI

1963

Instant replay makes its debut during the Army-Navy football game in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.

Instant replay

1962

Prince Rainier III of Monaco revises the principality's constitution, devolving some of his power to advisory and legislative councils.

Rainier III, Prince of Monaco

1949

Chinese Civil War: The Government of the Republic of China moves from Nanjing to Taipei, Taiwan.

Chinese Civil War

1946

A fire at the Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia kills 119 people, the deadliest hotel fire in U.S. history.

Winecoff Hotel fire

1944

An earthquake along the coast of Wakayama Prefecture in Japan causes a tsunami which kills 1,223 people.

1944 Tōnankai earthquake

1942

World War II: British commandos conduct Operation Frankton, a raid on shipping in Bordeaux harbour.

Operation Frankton

1941

World War II: Attack on Pearl Harbor: The Imperial Japanese Navy carries out a surprise attack on the United States Pacific Fleet and its defending Army and Marine air forces at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. (For Japan's near-simultaneous attacks on Eastern Hemisphere targets, see December 8.)

World War II

1936

Australian cricketer Jack Fingleton becomes the first player to score centuries in four consecutive Test innings.

Cricket

1932

German-born Swiss physicist Albert Einstein is granted an American visa.

Physicist

1930

W1XAV in Boston, Massachusetts telecasts video from the CBS radio orchestra program, The Fox Trappers. The telecast also includes the first television advertisement in the United States, for I.J. Fox Furriers, which also sponsored the radio show.

W1WX

1922

The Parliament of Northern Ireland votes to remain a part of the United Kingdom and not unify with Southern Ireland.

Parliament of Northern Ireland

1917

World War I: The United States declares war on Austria-Hungary.

World War I

1904

Comparative fuel trials begin between warships HMS Spiteful and HMS Peterel: Spiteful was the first warship powered solely by fuel oil, and the trials led to the obsolescence of coal in ships of the Royal Navy.

Warship

1842

First concert of the New York Philharmonic, founded by Ureli Corelli Hill.

New York Philharmonic

1837

The Battle of Montgomery's Tavern, the only battle of the Upper Canada Rebellion, takes place in Toronto, where the rebels are quickly defeated.

Battle of Montgomery's Tavern

1787

Delaware becomes the first state to ratify the United States Constitution.

Delaware

1776

Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, arranges to enter the American military as a major general.

Marquis de Lafayette

1732

The Royal Opera House opens at Covent Garden, London, England.

Royal Opera House

1724

Tumult of Thorn: Religious unrest is followed by the execution of nine Protestant citizens and the mayor of Thorn (Toruń) by Polish authorities.

Tumult of Thorn (Toruń)

1703

The Great Storm of 1703, the greatest windstorm ever recorded in the southern part of Great Britain, makes landfall. Winds gust up to 120 mph, and 9,000 people die.

Great storm of 1703

927

The Sajid emir of Adharbayjan, Yusuf ibn Abi'l-Saj is defeated and captured by the Qarmatians near Kufa.

Sajid dynasty

574

Byzantine Emperor Justin II, suffering recurring seizures of insanity, adopts his general Tiberius and proclaims him as Caesar.

Justin II

-43

Marcus Tullius Cicero is assassinated in Formia on orders of Marcus Antonius.

Cicero