On this day: September 7

Events on September 7

• 1159 Pope Alexander III was chosen to succeed of Adrian IV in a disputed election. Wikipedia
• 1191 Third Crusade: Crusaders under Richard I of England defeated Ayyubid troops under Saladin at the Battle of Arsuf in present-day Israel. Wikipedia
• 1565 Arrival of the so-called Grande Soccorso ("great relief") by Philip II of Spain to the Great Siege of Malta. Wikipedia
• 1642 First English Civil War: Royalist and Parliamentarian forces clashed in the Battle of Babylon Hill, after which both sides claimed victory. Wikipedia
• 1652 Chinese peasants on Formosa (now Taiwan) began a rebellion against Dutch rule which was suppressed four days later. Wikipedia
• 1778 Anglo-French War: Having established an alliance with the United States, France invaded the Caribbean island of Dominica and captured its British fort. Wikipedia
• 1812 French invasion of Russia: The Battle of Borodino, the bloodiest battle of the Napoleonic Wars, is fought near Moscow and results in a French victory. Wikipedia
• 1822 Pedro I declared the independence of Brazil from Portugal, establishing the Empire of Brazil. Wikipedia
• 1860 Unification of Italy: Giuseppe Garibaldi enters Naples. Wikipedia
• 1901 With Beijing occupied by foreign troops from the Eight-Nation Alliance, Qing China was forced to sign the Boxer Protocol, an unequal treaty that ended the Boxer Rebellion. Wikipedia
• 1911 French poet Guillaume Apollinaire is arrested and put in jail on suspicion of stealing the Mona Lisa from the Louvre museum. Wikipedia
• 1916 World War I: The Supreme War Command was established to oversee the armed forces of all the Central Powers. Wikipedia
• 1923 The International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) is formed. Wikipedia
• 1936 The last thylacine died in captivity in Hobart Zoo, Australia. Wikipedia
• 1940 Second World War: The Luftwaffe changed their strategy in the Battle of Britain and began bombing London and other cities and towns. Wikipedia
• 1965 During an Indo-Pakistani War, China announces that it will reinforce its troops on the Indian border. Wikipedia
• 1984 An explosion on board a Maltese patrol boat that was disposing of illegal fireworks at sea off Gozo killed seven soldiers and policemen. Wikipedia
• 1986 Desmond Tutu became the first black leader of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa. Wikipedia
• 1986 Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet survives an assassination attempt by the FPMR; five of Pinochet's bodyguards are killed. Wikipedia
• 1996 American rapper Tupac Shakur was fatally shot in Paradise, Nevada, dying six days later. Wikipedia
• 1999 Three weeks after an earthquake struck northwestern Turkey, a second earthquake struck Athens, causing Greece and Turkey to initiate "earthquake diplomacy". Wikipedia
• 2004 Hurricane Ivan made landfall on Grenada, devastating at least 85 per cent of buildings on the island. Wikipedia
• 2010 A Chinese fishing trawler operating in disputed waters collided with Japan Coast Guard patrol boats near the Senkaku Islands, sparking a major diplomatic dispute between the two countries. Wikipedia
• 2011 Yak-Service Flight 9633, carrying the players and coaching staff of the ice hockey team Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, crashed on take-off near Yaroslavl, Russia, resulting in the deaths of 44 of the 45 people on board. Wikipedia
• 2017 The 8.2 Mw 2017 Chiapas earthquake strikes southern Mexico, killing at least 60 people. Wikipedia
• 2021 Bitcoin becomes legal tender in El Salvador. Wikipedia

Born on September 7

• 1533 Elizabeth I of England (died 1603) Wikipedia
• 1707 Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, French mathematician, cosmologist, and author (died 1788) Wikipedia
• 1726 François-André Danican Philidor, French chess player and composer (died 1795) Wikipedia
• 1819 Thomas A. Hendricks, American lawyer and politician, 21st Vice President of the United States (died 1885) Wikipedia
• 1829 August Kekulé, German chemist and academic (died 1896) Wikipedia
• 1836 Henry Campbell-Bannerman, Scottish merchant and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (died 1908) Wikipedia
• 1870 Aleksandr Kuprin, Russian pilot, explorer, and author (died 1938) Wikipedia
• 1909 Elia Kazan, Greek-American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (died 2003) Wikipedia
• 1911 Todor Zhivkov, Bulgarian police officer and politician, Head of State of Bulgaria (died 1998) Wikipedia
• 1914 James Van Allen, American physicist and philosopher (died 2006) Wikipedia
• 1917 John Cornforth, Australian-English chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2013) Wikipedia
• 1930 Baudouin of Belgium (died 1993) Wikipedia
• 1936 Buddy Holly, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 1959) Wikipedia
• 1940 Abdurrahman Wahid, Indonesian journalist and politician, 4th President of Indonesia (died 2009) Wikipedia
• 1940 Dario Argento, Italian director, producer, and screenwriter Wikipedia
• 1943 Gloria Gaynor, American singer-songwriter Wikipedia
• 1950 Julie Kavner, American actress Wikipedia
• 1964 Eazy-E, American rapper and producer (died 1995) Wikipedia
• 1968 Marcel Desailly, Ghanaian-French footballer Wikipedia
• 1980 Emre Belözoğlu, Turkish footballer Wikipedia
• 1987 Evan Rachel Wood, American actress and singer Wikipedia
• 1999 Gracie Abrams, American singer-songwriter Wikipedia

Died on September 7

• 1134 Alfonso the Battler, Spanish emperor (born 1073) Wikipedia
• 1151 Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou (born 1113) Wikipedia
• 1809 Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke, Thai king (born 1737) Wikipedia
• 1892 John Greenleaf Whittier, American poet and activist (born 1807) Wikipedia
• 1910 William Holman Hunt, English painter (born 1827) Wikipedia
• 1933 Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon, English ornithologist and politician, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (born 1862) Wikipedia
• 1949 José Clemente Orozco, Mexican painter and illustrator (born 1883) Wikipedia
• 1960 Wilhelm Pieck, German carpenter and politician, President of East Germany (born 1873) Wikipedia
• 1962 Karen Blixen, Danish memoirist and short story writer (born 1885) Wikipedia
• 1978 Keith Moon, English drummer (The Who) (born 1946) Wikipedia
• 1990 A. J. P. Taylor, English historian and journalist (born 1906) Wikipedia
• 1991 Edwin McMillan, American physicist and chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1907) Wikipedia
• 1997 Mobutu Sese Seko, Congolese soldier and politician, President of Zaire (born 1930) Wikipedia
• 2018 Mac Miller, American rapper (born 1992) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Air Force Day (Pakistan) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Anastasius the Fuller Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Clodoald Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed Giovanni Battista Mazzucconi Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Gratus of Aosta Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Stephen Pongracz Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed Maria Angela Picco Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Marko Krizin Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Regina Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed Thomas Tsugi Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: September 7 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Constitution Day (Fiji) Wikipedia
• Independence Day (Brazil), celebrates the independence of Brazil from Portugal in 1822. Wikipedia
• Military Intelligence Day (Ukraine) Wikipedia
• National Threatened Species Day (Australia) Wikipedia
• Victory Day (Mozambique) Wikipedia

Sources

• Wikipedia — “September 7” — events, births, deaths and observances (text under CC BY-SA 4.0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikipedia — “Selected anniversaries/September 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 “September 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 September 7 stays on the list; the remaining places, up to 26 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. Each list runs by year, and the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures, audio and video.