On this day: November 7

Events on November 7

• 1504 Christopher Columbus returns from his fourth and last voyage. Wikipedia
• 1723 O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort, BWV 60, a dialogue cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach for Leipzig, was first performed. Wikipedia
• 1861 American Civil War: Battle of Belmont: In Belmont, Missouri, Union forces led by General Ulysses S. Grant overrun a Confederate camp but are forced to retreat when Confederate reinforcements arrive. Wikipedia
• 1861 The first Melbourne Cup horse race is held in Melbourne, Australia. Wikipedia
• 1874 A cartoon by Thomas Nast in Harper's Weekly, is considered the first important use of an elephant as a symbol for the United States Republican Party. Wikipedia
• 1893 Women's suffrage: Women in the U.S. state of Colorado are granted the right to vote, the second state to do so. Wikipedia
• 1912 The Deutsche Opernhaus (now Deutsche Oper Berlin) opens in the Berlin neighborhood of Charlottenburg, with a production of Beethoven's Fidelio. Wikipedia
• 1916 Boston Elevated Railway Company's streetcar No. 393 smashes through the warning gates of the open Summer Street drawbridge in Boston, Massachusetts, plunging into the frigid waters of Fort Point Channel, killing 46 people. Wikipedia
• 1917 World War I: British forces captured Gaza following the retreat of the Ottoman garrison. Wikipedia
• 1917 World War I: The Third Battle of Gaza ends, with British forces capturing Gaza from the Ottoman Empire. Wikipedia
• 1917 The October Revolution, which gets its name from the Julian calendar date of 25 October, occurs, according to the Gregorian calendar; on this date, the Bolsheviks storm the Winter Palace. Wikipedia
• 1918 The 1918 influenza epidemic spreads to Western Samoa, killing 7,542 (about 20% of the population) by the end of the year. Wikipedia
• 1941 World War II: Soviet hospital ship Armenia is sunk by German planes while evacuating refugees and wounded military and staff of several Crimean hospitals. It is estimated that over 5,000 people died in the sinking. Wikipedia
• 1944 Franklin D. Roosevelt is elected for a record fourth term as President of the United States. Wikipedia
• 1949 Oil was discovered in the Caspian Sea off the coast of Azerbaijan, leading to the construction of Neft Daşları, the world's first offshore oil platform. Wikipedia
• 1956 Suez Crisis: The United Nations General Assembly adopts a resolution calling for the United Kingdom, France and Israel to immediately withdraw their troops from Egypt. Wikipedia
• 1957 Cold War: The Gaither Report calls for more American missiles and fallout shelters. Wikipedia
• 1975 In Bangladesh, a joint force of people and soldiers takes part in an uprising led by Colonel Abu Taher that ousts and kills Brigadier Khaled Mosharraf, freeing the then house-arrested army chief and future president Major General Ziaur Rahman. Wikipedia
• 1983 Cold War: The command post exercise Able Archer 83 begins, eventually leading to the Soviet Union to place air units in East Germany and Poland on alert, for fear that NATO was preparing for war Wikipedia
• 1987 The Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system in Singapore opens for passenger service. Wikipedia
• 1987 In Tunisia, president Habib Bourguiba is overthrown and replaced by Prime Minister Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Wikipedia
• 1989 Douglas Wilder wins the governor's seat in Virginia, becoming the first elected African American governor in the United States. Wikipedia
• 2000 The controversial US presidential election is later resolved in the Bush v. Gore Supreme Court case, electing George W. Bush as the 43rd President of the United States. Wikipedia
• 2004 Iraq War: The interim government of Iraq calls for a 60-day state of emergency as U.S. forces storm the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah. Wikipedia
• 2012 An earthquake off the Pacific coast of Guatemala kills at least 52 people. Wikipedia
• 2020 Joe Biden is confirmed elected as the 46th president of the United States, defeating incumbent Donald Trump. Wikipedia

Born on November 7

• 1186 Ögedei Khan, Mongol ruler, 2nd Great Khan of the Mongol Empire (died 1241) Wikipedia
• 1598 Francisco de Zurbarán, Spanish painter (died 1664) Wikipedia
• 1728 James Cook, English captain, navigator, and cartographer (died 1779) Wikipedia
• 1832 Andrew Dickson White, American historian, academic, and diplomat, co-founded Cornell University (died 1918) Wikipedia
• 1867 Marie Curie, Polish chemist and physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1934) Wikipedia
• 1878 Lise Meitner, Austrian-Swedish physicist and academic (died 1968) Wikipedia
• 1879 Leon Trotsky, Russian theorist and politician, founded the Red Army (died 1940) Wikipedia
• 1888 C. V. Raman, Indian physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1970) Wikipedia
• 1888 Nestor Makhno, Ukrainian anarchist revolutionary (died 1934) Wikipedia
• 1891 Genrikh Yagoda, director of the NKVD (died 1938) Wikipedia
• 1900 Nellie Campobello, Mexican writer who chronicled the Mexican Revolution (died 1986) Wikipedia
• 1903 Konrad Lorenz, Austrian zoologist, ethologist, and ornithologist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1989) Wikipedia
• 1913 Albert Camus, French novelist, philosopher, and journalist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1960) Wikipedia
• 1918 Billy Graham, American minister and author (died 2018) Wikipedia
• 1929 Eric Kandel, Austrian-American neuroscientist and psychiatrist, Nobel Prize laureate Wikipedia
• 1943 Michael Spence, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate Wikipedia
• 1943 Joni Mitchell, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist Wikipedia
• 1967 David Guetta, French DJ, record producer, remixer, and songwriter Wikipedia
• 1978 Rio Ferdinand, English footballer Wikipedia
• 1984 Amelia Vega, Dominican actress and singer, Miss Universe 2003 Wikipedia
• 1990 David de Gea, Spanish footballer Wikipedia
• 1996 Lorde, New Zealand singer-songwriter Wikipedia

Died on November 7

• 691 Cen Changqian, official of the Tang dynasty Wikipedia
• 1627 Jahangir, Mughal emperor (born 1569) Wikipedia
• 1652 Henry of Nassau-Siegen, German count, officer in the Dutch Army, diplomat for the Dutch Republic (born 1611) Wikipedia
• 1862 Bahadur Shah II, Mughal emperor (born 1775) Wikipedia
• 1913 Alfred Russel Wallace, Welsh-English biologist and geographer (born 1823) Wikipedia
• 1962 Eleanor Roosevelt, American humanitarian and politician, 39th First Lady of the United States (born 1884) Wikipedia
• 1964 Hans von Euler-Chelpin, German-Swedish biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1863) Wikipedia
• 1967 John Nance Garner, American lawyer and politician, 32nd Vice President of the United States (born 1868) Wikipedia
• 1980 Steve McQueen, American actor and producer (born 1930) Wikipedia
• 1981 Will Durant, American historian and philosopher (born 1885) Wikipedia
• 1992 Alexander Dubček, Slovak soldier and politician (born 1921) Wikipedia
• 2011 Joe Frazier, American boxer (born 1944) Wikipedia
• 2016 Leonard Cohen, Canadian singer-songwriter and poet (born 1934) Wikipedia
• 2020 Jonathan Sacks, former Chief Rabbi of the Commonwealth and member of the House of Lords (born 1948) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day: All Dominican Saints and Blesseds Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg (Lutheran) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Engelbert II of Berg Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Herculanus of Perugia Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: John Christian Frederick Heyer (Lutheran) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Ludwig Ingwer Nommensen (Lutheran) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Prosdocimus Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Vicente Liem de la Paz (one of Vietnamese Martyrs) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Willibrord Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: November 7 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Students' Day, the anniversary of B. R. Ambedkar's school entry day. (Maharashtra, India) Wikipedia
• Commemoration Day, the anniversary of Ben Ali's succession. (Tunisia) Wikipedia
• Hungarian Opera Day (Hungary) Wikipedia
• International Inuit Day Wikipedia
• National Day, after Treaty of the Pyrenees. (Northern Catalonia, France) Wikipedia
• National Revolution and Solidarity Day (Bangladesh) Wikipedia
• October Revolution Day (the Soviet Union (former, official), modern Belarus, Kyrgyzstan) Wikipedia
• Tokhu Emong (Lotha Naga people of India) Wikipedia

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “November 7” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-09 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. We picked the 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths with the widest coverage across Wikipedia's language editions (counted from Wikidata) and sorted them by year; the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures.