On This Day — 7 March

2000s

2024

Sweden officially joins NATO, becoming its 32nd member.

Sweden

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2024

Hannah Gutierrez-Reed is found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the death of Halyna Hutchins on the set of the movie Rust, the first time someone has been found guilty for causing a death on a movie set.

Rust shooting incident

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2021

At least 108 die and 615 are injured in the 2021 Bata explosions in Bata, Equatorial Guinea.

2021 Bata explosions

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2009

Massereene Barracks shooting: The Real Irish Republican Army kills two British soldiers and injures two other soldiers and two civilians at Massereene Barracks, the first British military deaths in Northern Ireland since the end of The Troubles.

Massereene Barracks shooting

2007

Reform of the House of Lords: The British House of Commons votes to make the upper chamber, the House of Lords, 100% elected.

Reform of the House of Lords

2007

Garuda Indonesia Flight 200 crashes at Adisutjipto International Airport in the Special Region of Yogyakarta, Indonesia, killing 21 people.

Garuda Indonesia Flight 200

2006

The terrorist organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba coordinates a series of bombings in Varanasi, India.

Lashkar-e-Taiba

1900s

1989

Iran and the United Kingdom break diplomatic relations after a fight over Salman Rushdie and his controversial novel, The Satanic Verses.

Iran

1986

Challenger Disaster: Divers from the USS Preserver locate the crew cabin of Challenger on the ocean floor.

Space Shuttle Challenger disaster

1971

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, political leader of then East Pakistan (present day-Bangladesh), delivers his historic 7th March speech in the Racecourse Field (Now Suhrawardy Udyan) in Dhaka.

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman

1965

Bloody Sunday: A group of 600 civil rights marchers are brutally attacked by state and local police in Selma, Alabama.

Selma to Montgomery marches

1965

Aeroflot Flight 542 crashes in the Yermakovsky District, killing all 31 aboard.

Aeroflot Flight 542

1951

Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 307 crashes in Lynnhurst, Minneapolis, killing 15 people.

Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 307

1951

Korean War: Operation Ripper: United Nations troops led by General Matthew Ridgway begin an assault against Chinese forces.

Korean War

1951

Iranian prime minister Ali Razmara is assassinated by Khalil Tahmasebi, a member of the Islamic fundamentalist Fada'iyan-e Islam, outside a mosque in Tehran.

Ali Razmara

1941

World War II: Günther Prien and the crew of German submarine U-47, one of the most successful U-boats of World War II, disappear without a trace.

World War II

1931

The Parliament House of Finland is officially inaugurated in Helsinki, Finland.

Parliament House, Helsinki

1921

The short-lived socialist Labin Republic is proclaimed.

Labin Republic

1902

Second Boer War: Boers, led by Koos de la Rey, defeat the British at the Battle of Tweebosch.

Second Boer War

1800s

1876

Alexander Graham Bell is granted a patent for an invention he calls the "telephone".

Alexander Graham Bell

1850

Senator Daniel Webster gives his "Seventh of March" speech endorsing the Compromise of 1850 in order to prevent a possible civil war.

United States Senate

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1826

Shrigley abduction: 15-year old Ellen Turner is abducted by Edward Gibbon Wakefield, a future figure in the establishment of colonies in South Australia and New Zealand.

Shrigley abduction