On this day: December 7

Events on December 7

• 43 BC Cicero, widely considered one of ancient Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists, was killed after having been proscribed as an enemy of the state. Wikipedia
• 574 Suffering from mental illness, Eastern Roman emperor Justin II had his general Tiberius proclaimed Caesar, adopting him as his own son. Wikipedia
• 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. Wikipedia
• 1732 The Royal Opera House opens at Covent Garden, London, England. Wikipedia
• 1776 Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, arranges to enter the American military as a major general. Wikipedia
• 1787 Delaware becomes the first state to ratify the United States Constitution. Wikipedia
• 1837 British troops swiftly defeated rebels led by William Lyon Mackenzie and Anthony Van Egmond at the Battle of Montgomery's Tavern, the only major confrontation of the Upper Canada Rebellion. Wikipedia
• 1862 American Civil War: The Battle of Prairie Grove ended a Confederate attempt to regain control of northwestern Arkansas. Wikipedia
• 1917 World War I: The United States declares war on Austria-Hungary. Wikipedia
• 1932 German-born Swiss physicist Albert Einstein is granted an American visa. Wikipedia
• 1936 Australian cricketer Jack Fingleton became the first player to score centuries in four consecutive Test innings. Wikipedia
• 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.) Wikipedia
• 1942 Second World War: A small unit of Royal Marines launched Operation Frankton, in which they damaged six ships in the port of Bordeaux in German-occupied France. Wikipedia
• 1949 Chinese Civil War: The Government of the Republic of China moves from Nanjing to Taipei, Taiwan. Wikipedia
• 1972 Construction workers found the remains of Martin Bormann near Lehrter Station in Berlin, ending a decades-long search after his conviction in absentia at the Nuremberg trials. Wikipedia
• 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. Wikipedia
• 1975 The Indonesian military began a lengthy occupation of East Timor under the pretext of anti-colonialism. Wikipedia
• 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. Wikipedia
• 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. Wikipedia
• 1988 A 6.8 Ms earthquake struck the Spitak region of Armenia, killing at least 25,000 people. Wikipedia
• 1995 The Galileo spacecraft arrived at Jupiter, a little more than six years after it was launched by Space Shuttle Atlantis during Mission STS-34. Wikipedia
• 2011 The United States transferred its last base in the Al Anbar Governorate to the Iraqi government, ending the Anbar campaign. Wikipedia
• 2014 The annual furry convention Midwest FurFest was targeted in an unsolved chlorine gas attack. Wikipedia
• 2015 The JAXA space probe Akatsuki entered into orbit around Venus to study the planet's atmosphere, five years after its first attempt failed. Wikipedia
• 2024 Battle of Damascus (2024): Syrian opposition forces enter the Rif Dimashq Governorate, reaching within 20 km of the capital Damascus. Wikipedia
• 2025 British racing driver Lando Norris wins the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in 2025 with McLaren. Wikipedia
• 2025 An attempted coup takes place in Benin, but is thwarted, and order restored. Wikipedia

Born on December 7

• 521 Columba, Irish missionary, monk, and saint (died 597) Wikipedia
• 903 Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi, Persian astronomer and author (died 986) Wikipedia
• 1545 Henry Stuart, English-Scottish husband of Mary, Queen of Scots (died 1567) Wikipedia
• 1598 Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Italian sculptor and painter (died 1680) Wikipedia
• 1801 Johann Nestroy, Austrian actor and playwright (died 1862) Wikipedia
• 1810 Theodor Schwann, German physiologist and biologist (died 1882) Wikipedia
• 1823 Leopold Kronecker, Polish-German mathematician and academic (died 1891) Wikipedia
• 1863 Pietro Mascagni, Italian composer and conductor (died 1945) Wikipedia
• 1873 Willa Cather, American novelist, short story writer, and poet (died 1947) Wikipedia
• 1878 Akiko Yosano, Japanese author, poet, pioneering feminist, pacifist, and social reformer (died 1942) Wikipedia
• 1893 Fay Bainter, American actress (died 1968) Wikipedia
• 1905 Gerard Kuiper, Dutch-American astronomer and academic (died 1973) Wikipedia
• 1915 Eli Wallach, American actor (died 2014) Wikipedia
• 1924 Mário Soares, Portuguese historian, lawyer, and politician, 17th President of Portugal (died 2017) Wikipedia
• 1952 Susan Collins, American politician Wikipedia
• 1956 Iveta Radičová, Slovak politician Wikipedia
• 1972 Hermann Maier, Austrian skier Wikipedia
• 1980 John Terry, English footballer Wikipedia
• 1984 Robert Kubica, Polish race car driver Wikipedia
• 1985 Jon Moxley, American wrestler Wikipedia
• 1991 Chris Wood, New Zealand footballer Wikipedia
• 1994 Yuzuru Hanyu, Japanese figure skater Wikipedia

Died on December 7

• 43 BC Cicero, Roman philosopher, lawyer, and politician (born 106 BC) Wikipedia
• 283 Eutychian, pope of the Catholic Church Wikipedia
• 983 Otto II, Holy Roman Emperor (born 955) Wikipedia
• 1254 Innocent IV, pope of the Catholic Church (born 1195) Wikipedia
• 1815 Michel Ney, German-French general (born 1769) Wikipedia
• 1894 Ferdinand de Lesseps, French businessman and diplomat, co-developed the Suez Canal (born 1805) Wikipedia
• 1906 Élie Ducommun, Swiss journalist and educator, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1833) Wikipedia
• 1947 Nicholas Murray Butler, American philosopher and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1862) Wikipedia
• 1975 Thornton Wilder, American novelist and playwright (born 1897) Wikipedia
• 1979 Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, English-American astronomer and astrophysicist (born 1900) Wikipedia
• 1985 Robert Graves, English poet, novelist, critic (born 1895) Wikipedia
• 1990 Joan Bennett, American actress (born 1910) Wikipedia
• 1993 Félix Houphouët-Boigny, Ivoirian physician and politician, 1st President of Ivory Coast (born 1905) Wikipedia
• 2020 Chuck Yeager, American aviator (born 1923) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Armed Forces Flag Day (India) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Aemilianus (Greek Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Ambrose Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Buíte of Monasterboice Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Maria Giuseppa Rossello Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Sabinus of Spoleto Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: December 7 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Eve of the Immaculate Conception-related observances: Day of the Little Candles, begins after sunset (Colombia) Wikipedia
• International Civil Aviation Day Wikipedia
• National Heroes Day (East Timor) Wikipedia
• National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day (United States) Wikipedia
• Spitak Remembrance Day (Armenia) Wikipedia

Sources

• Wikipedia — “December 7” — events, births, deaths and observances (text under CC BY-SA 4.0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikipedia — “Selected anniversaries/December 7” — the anniversaries editors chose for the date and the article each one is about (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikidata — in how many language editions each entry's own article exists, used to fill the lists (CC0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• vacanza/holidays (open-source holiday rules, MIT licence) — holiday rules used to build the lists (checked 2026-10-15)

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “December 7” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-15 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. Every anniversary that Wikipedia's editors selected for December 7 stays on the list; the remaining places, up to 27 events, 22 births and 14 deaths, go to the entries whose own article — about the event itself, or else the person or thing it is about — appears in the most language editions (counted from Wikidata); an article about a person or thing, which covers far more than one day, counts half. An entry with no article of its own counts, also at half, by the least covered article it links, and one that links only places counts for nothing. The 1941 entry stays as well, and comes first in the one-line summary: we keep a short list, checked by hand, of widely known events that Wikipedia's editors leave out of their selection, usually because the article carries a maintenance notice. Each list runs by year, and the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures, audio and video.