On This Day — 7 May
2000s
2025
The Indian Army and the Indian Air Force conduct surgical strikes code-named Operation SINDOOR on terrorist hideouts in Pakistan in response to the Pahalgam Attack that killed 26 people.
Indian Army
2023
Tanur boat disaster: At least 22 people are killed when a boat carrying tourists capsizes in Tanur, Malappuram, Kerala, India.
2023 Tanur boat disaster
2004
American businessman Nick Berg is beheaded by Islamist militants. The act is recorded on videotape and released on the Internet.
Killing of Nick Berg
2002
An EgyptAir Boeing 737-500 crashes on approach to Tunis–Carthage International Airport, killing 14 people.
EgyptAir Flight 843
2002
A China Northern Airlines MD-82 plunges into the Yellow Sea, killing 112 people.
China Northern Airlines Flight 6136
2000
Vladimir Putin is inaugurated as president of Russia.
Vladimir Putin
1900s
1999
Pope John Paul II travels to Romania, becoming the first pope to visit a predominantly Eastern Orthodox country since the Great Schism in 1054.
Pope John Paul II
1999
Kosovo War: Three Chinese citizens are killed and 20 wounded when a NATO aircraft inadvertently bombs the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, Serbia.
Kosovo War
1999
In Guinea-Bissau, President João Bernardo Vieira is ousted in a military coup.
Guinea-Bissau
1998
Mercedes-Benz buys Chrysler for US$40 billion and forms DaimlerChrysler in the largest industrial merger in history.
Mercedes-Benz
1994
Edvard Munch's painting The Scream is recovered undamaged after being stolen from the National Gallery of Norway in February.
Edvard Munch
1992
Michigan ratifies a 203-year-old proposed amendment to the United States Constitution making the 27th Amendment law. This amendment bars the U.S. Congress from giving itself a mid-term pay raise.
Michigan
1992
Space Shuttle program: The Space Shuttle Endeavour is launched on its first mission, STS-49.
Space Shuttle program
1992
Three employees at a McDonald's Restaurant in Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada, are brutally murdered and a fourth permanently disabled after a botched robbery. It is the first "fast-food murder" in Canada.
McDonald's
1991
A fire and explosion occurs at a fireworks factory at Sungai Buloh, Malaysia, killing 26.
Bright Sparklers fireworks disaster
1986
Canadian Patrick Morrow becomes the first person to climb each of the Seven Summits.
Patrick Morrow
1964
Pacific Airlines Flight 773 is hijacked by Francisco Gonzales and crashes in Contra Costa County, California, killing 44.
Pacific Air Lines Flight 773
1960
Cold War: U-2 Crisis of 1960: Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev announces that his nation is holding American U-2 pilot Gary Powers.
Cold War
1954
Indochina War: The Battle of Dien Bien Phu ends in a French defeat and a Viet Minh victory (the battle began on March 13).
First Indochina War
1952
The concept of the integrated circuit, the basis for all modern computers, is first published by Geoffrey Dummer.
Integrated circuit
1948
The Council of Europe is founded during the Hague Congress.
Council of Europe
1946
Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering (later renamed Sony) is founded.
Sony
1945
World War II: Last German U-boat attack of the war, two freighters are sunk off the Firth of Forth, Scotland.
U-boat
1942
World War II: During the Battle of the Coral Sea, United States Navy aircraft carrier aircraft attack and sink the Imperial Japanese Navy light aircraft carrier Shōhō; the battle marks the first time in naval history that two enemy fleets fight without visual contact between warring ships.
Battle of the Coral Sea
1940
World War II: The Norway Debate in the British House of Commons begins, and leads to the replacement of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain with Winston Churchill three days later.
World War II
1937
Spanish Civil War: The German Condor Legion, equipped with Heinkel He 51 biplanes, arrives in Spain to assist Francisco Franco's forces.
Spanish Civil War
1931
The stand-off between criminal Francis Crowley and 300 members of the New York Police Department takes place in his fifth-floor apartment on West 91st Street, New York City.
Francis Crowley
1930
The 7.1 Mw Salmas earthquake shakes northwestern Iran and southeastern Turkey with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). Up to three-thousand people were killed.
1930 Salmas earthquake
1920
Polish–Soviet War: Kyiv offensive: Polish troops led by Józef Piłsudski and Edward Rydz-Śmigły and assisted by a symbolic Ukrainian force capture Kyiv only to be driven out by the Red Army counter-offensive a month later.
Polish–Soviet War
1920
Treaty of Moscow: Soviet Russia recognizes the independence of the Democratic Republic of Georgia only to invade the country six months later.
Treaty of Moscow (1920)
1915
World War I: German submarine U-20 sinks RMS Lusitania, killing 1,199 people, including 128 Americans. Public reaction to the sinking turns many former pro-Germans in the United States against the German Empire.
World War I
1915
The Republic of China accedes to 13 of the 21 Demands, extending the Empire of Japan's control over Manchuria and the Chinese economy.
Beiyang government
1800s
1895
In Saint Petersburg, Russian scientist Alexander Stepanovich Popov demonstrates to the Russian Physical and Chemical Society his invention, the Popov lightning detector—a primitive radio receiver. In some parts of the former Soviet Union the anniversary of this day is celebrated as Radio Day.
Saint Petersburg
1864
American Civil War: The Army of the Potomac, under General Ulysses S. Grant, breaks off from the Battle of the Wilderness and moves southwards.
American Civil War
1864
The world's oldest surviving clipper ship, the City of Adelaide is launched by William Pile, Hay and Co. in Sunderland, England, for transporting passengers and goods between Britain and Australia.
Clipper
1840
The Great Natchez Tornado strikes Natchez, Mississippi killing 317 people. It is the second deadliest tornado in United States history.
1840 Natchez tornado
1832
Greece's independence is recognized by the Treaty of London.
London Conference of 1832
1824
World premiere of Ludwig van Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in Vienna, Austria. The performance is conducted by Michael Umlauf under the composer's supervision.
Ludwig van Beethoven
Before 1800
1798
French Revolutionary Wars: A French force attempting to dislodge a small British garrison on the Îles Saint-Marcouf is repulsed with heavy losses.
French Revolutionary Wars
1794
French Revolution: Robespierre introduces the Cult of the Supreme Being in the National Convention as the new state religion of the French First Republic.
French Revolution
1765
HMS Victory is launched at Chatham Dockyard, Kent. She is not commissioned until 1778.
HMS Victory
1763
Pontiac's War begins with Pontiac's attempt to seize Fort Detroit from the British.
Pontiac's War
1718
The city of New Orleans is founded by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville.
New Orleans
1697
Stockholm's medieval castle Tre Kronor is destroyed by fire. It is replaced in the 18th century by the current Royal Palace.
Stockholm
1685
Battle of Vrtijeljka between rebels and Ottoman forces.
Battle on Vrtijeljka
1664
Inaugural celebrations begin at Louis XIV's new Palace of Versailles.
Louis XIV
1625
State funeral of James VI and I (1566–1625) is held at Westminster Abbey.
Death and funeral of James VI and I
1544
The Burning of Edinburgh by an English army is the first action of the Rough Wooing.
Burning of Edinburgh
1487
The Siege of Málaga commences during the Spanish Reconquista.
Siege of Málaga (1487)
1342
In Avignon, France, Cardinal Pierre Roger is elected Pope and takes the name Clement VI.
Avignon
1274
In France, the Second Council of Lyon opens; it ratified a decree to regulate the election of the Pope.
Second Council of Lyon
1190
The Crusader army of emperor Frederick Barbarossa defeats an army of the Rum Seljuks in the battle of Philomelion.
Frederick Barbarossa
1104
The Seljuk emirs of Mosul and Mardin defeat the Crusader States of Antioch and Edessa.
Seljuk Empire
558
In Constantinople, the dome of the Hagia Sophia collapses, twenty years after its construction. Justinian I immediately orders that the dome be rebuilt.
Constantinople
351
The Jewish revolt against Constantius Gallus breaks out after his arrival at Antioch.
Jewish revolt against Constantius Gallus