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“Yesterday, December 7, 1941 — a date which will live in infamy — the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.”
~ Franklin D. Roosevelt
Wikiquote (December 7, 1941 - Attack on Pearl Harbor / Franklin D. Roosevelt / Address to Congress after the attack on Pearl Harbor (December 8, 1941).)
December 7th, 43 BC
Marcus Tullius Cicero is assassinated.
Wikipedia Painting: Cicero Denounces Catiline, fresco by Cesare Maccari, 1882–88 (Detail of Catiline in Maccari's fresco in Palazzo Madama); Cicero discovering the tomb of Archimedes by the Austrian baroque painter Martin Knoller (1725-1804), (painted in 1775, located in a private collection in Mannheim, Germany).
December 7th, 1732
Royal Opera House in London opens at Covent Garden.
Wikipedia Photo: The Royal Opera House, Bow Street frontage with Enzo Plazzotta's statue, Young Dancer, in the foreground
December 7th, 1776
American Revolutionary War:
1776 - Marquis de Lafayette arranges to enter the American military as a major general of the United States.
Wikipedia Paintings: Washington Crossing the Delaware, by Emanuel Leutz; Battle of the Chesapeake, French (left) and British (right) lines; Battle of Bunker Hill, The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker Hill by John Trumbull; The Defeat of the Floating Batteries at Gibraltar, September 13, 1782, by John Singleton Copley; Washington and the Comte de Rochambeau at Yorktown, 1781; "The surrender at Saratoga" shows General Daniel Morgan in front of a French de Vallière 4-pounder; Surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown by (John Trumbull, 1797).
Marquis de Lafayette / "Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen", proposed to the Estates-General by Lafayette.
December 7th, 1787
Delaware becomes the first state to ratify the United States Constitution.
Wikipedia Painting: Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States, by Howard Chandler Christy
December 7th, 1862
American Civil War:
1862 - Battle of Prairie Grove;, Arkansas.
Wikipedia Image: ● Lincoln Memorial; an American national monument built to honor the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln - located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. across from the Washington Monument.
● The northern army led by George McClellan and the southern army led by Robert E. Lee met at Antietam Creek, Maryland in September, 1862. It was a bloody battle where 13,000 Confederates and 12,000 Union troops died in just one day. McClellan had hesitated to attack before the battle thus letting the southern troops regroup. Also, he had saved reserves and refused to use them at the end of the battle thinking that Lee was holding reserves for a counterattack, even though those reserves didn't exist. The Union victory stopped Lee's northward advance and was a turning point in the war.
● Battle of Antietam / Stone Bridge at Antietam Battlefield - Sharpsburg, Maryland
● First Battle Between Ironclads: CSS Virginia/Merrimac (left) vs. USS Monitor, in 1862 at the Battle of Hampton Roads.
● Although photography was still in its infancy, war correspondents produced thousands of images, bringing the harsh realities of the frontlines to those on the home front in a new and visceral way. The Atlantic.
September 7th, 1869
Gallatin, Missouri: American outlaw Jesse James commits his first confirmed bank robbery.
Wikipedia Jesse and Frank James
December 7th, 1917
World War I:
1917 - The United States declares war on Austria-Hungary.
Wikipedia Photo: Trenches on the Western Front; a British Mark IV Tank crossing a trench; Royal Navy battleship HMS Irresistible sinking after striking a mine at the Battle of the Dardanelles; a Vickers machine gun crew with gas masks, and German Albatros D.III biplanes. National Archives and Records Administration.
December 7th, 1930
W1XAV in Boston, Massachusetts broadcasts video from the CBS radio orchestra program, The Fox Trappers. The broadcast also includes the first television commercial in the United States, an advertisement for I.J. Fox Furriers, who sponsored the radio show.
Wikipedia Image: CBS Eye Logo - was introduced in the early 1950s. Since its introduction, the eye itself has remained unchanged.
December 7th, 1941
World War II:
1941 - Attack on Pearl Harbor; The Imperial Japanese Navy attacks the United States Pacific Fleet and its defending Army Air Forces and Marine air forces at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, causing a declaration of war upon Japan by the United States.
1941 - Japan also invades Malaya, Thailand, Hong Kong, the Philippines and the Dutch East Indies at the same time (December 8 in Asia).
Wikipedia Photo: Battleship Row: taken from a Japanese plane at the beginning of the attack. The explosion in the center is a torpedo strike on the USS Oklahoma. Two attacking Japanese planes can be seen: one over the USS Neosho and one over the Naval Yard; Battleship Row: aerial view of moorings on the southern side of Ford Island, three days after the attack on Pearl Harbor. In upper left is the sunken California, with smaller vessels clustered around her. Diagonally, from left center to lower right are: Maryland, lightly damaged, with the capsized Oklahoma outboard. A barge is alongside Oklahoma, supporting rescue efforts.[1] Tennessee, lightly damaged, with the sunken West Virginia outboard. Arizona, sunk, with her hull shattered by the explosion of the magazines below the two forward turrets. Note dark oil streaks on the harbor surface, originating from the sunken battleships; USS Arizona (BB-39) during the attack; Sailors in a motor launch rescue a survivor from the water alongside the sunken USS West Virginia (BB-48) during or shortly after the Japanese air raid on Pearl Harbor. credit National Archives.
December 7th, 1949
Chinese Civil War:
1949 - The government of Republic of China moves from Nanking to Taipei.
Wikipedia Photo: In 1934, Mao Zedong headed the Long March. The Long March was when the Chinese Nationalists, led by Chiang Kai-shek, forced the Chinese Communists, led by Mao Zedong, on a march to the caves of Shaanxi. (colorized); Government soldiers train with modern machine guns; People's Liberation Army attacking government defensive positions in Shangtang; US diplomat Patrick J. Hurley, Chiang Ching-kuo, Chiang Kai-shek, Chang Ch'ün, Wang Shi Jie (王世杰), Mao Zedong; A Communist leader addressing Long March survivors; The PLA enters Beijing in the Pingjin Campaign and control the later capital of PRC.
December 7th, 1963
Instant replay makes its debut during an Army – Navy game.
Wikipedia Photo: 108th annual Army-Navy game at M & T Bank Stadium, the Navy defeated the Army 38-3, credit MC2 Herbert D. Banks Jr. / Navy Times.
December 7th, 1972
Apollo program: 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 Photo: Apollo Program: Apollo 11 first manned Moon landing and the first walk on the surface on the moon. Astronaut Buzz Aldrin walks on the surface of the moon near the leg of the lunar module Eagle. Apollo 11 Commander Neil Armstrong took this photograph with a 70mm lunar surface camera. Armstrong and Aldrin explored the Sea of Tranquility for two and a half hours while crewmate Michael Collins orbited above in the command module Columbia.
The Blue Marble is a famous photograph of the Earth, taken on December 7, 1972, by the crew of the Apollo 17 spacecraft, at a distance of about 45,000 kilometres (28,000 mi).
December 7th, 1988
Earthquake
1988 - Spitak Earthquake; in Armenia an earthquake measuring 6.9 on the. Richter scale kills nearly 25,000, injures 15,000 and leaves 400,000 homeless.
Wikipedia Image: Preliminary Determination of Epicenters / Aleppo Syria; Anchorage, Alaska - March 28, 1964 Prince William Sound USA earthquake and tsunami; 8.9 Mega Earthquake Strikes Japan; Tsunami Swirls Japan's Ibaraki Prefecture March 12 2011. credit NOAA / NGDC, NOAA National Geophysical Data Center, USGS, National Geographics.
December 7th, 1989
Sugar Ray Leonard and Roberto Duran complete their trilogy of boxing fights nine years after their first two fights, at the opening of the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada; Leonard retains his WBC world Super Middleweight title by a 12 round unanimous decision.
Wikipedia Photo: Duran gave Leonard his first loss in a June 1980 fight, but Leonard got revenge and got back the welterweight crown when Duran famously cried "No mas" after being pummeled by Leonard for eight rounds., credit © Sports Illustrated, Manny Millan/SI.
December 7th, 1995
National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA's Galileo spacecraft arrives at Jupiter, a little more than six years after it was launched by Space Shuttle Atlantis during Mission STS-34.
Wikipedia Photo: Galileo Spacecraft was the first Planet Jupiter Obiter, NASA.
December 7th, 1999
Recording Industry Association of America files a lawsuit against the Napster file-sharing client alleging copyright infringement.
Wikipedia Image: Napster Logo.
December 7th, 2005
Aircraft hijacking:
2005 - Rigoberto Alpizar, a passenger on American Airlines Flight 924 who allegedly claimed to have a bomb, is shot and killed by a team of U.S. federal air marshals at Miami International Airport.
Wikipedia Photo: Hijacked Sudan passenger jet lands in Libya, August 27, 2008; Amsterdam false alarm revives airplane hijacking memories, Passengers leave a Vueling plane at a field near Amsterdam Airport after a hijack scare last week that led the Netherlands to scramble F-16 fighter jets, September 2, 2012 Reuters; Egypt Air flight 648 was hijacked in November 1985 by the terrorist Abu Nidal organisation, credit AP; Cockpit section of Pan Am 103 wreckage following a mid-air explosion, December 21, 1988; 747 Pan Am airliner that exploded and crashed over Lockerbie, Scotland, with 259 passengers on board in 1988; Debris lies in a deep gash through the town of Lockerbie, Scotland, caused by the crash of Pan Am flight 103, credit AP; Flight 175 hits the WTC South Tower. The picture was taken from a traffic helicopter. credit: WABC 7/ Salient Stills; Hijacked United Airlines Flight 175 from Boston crashes into the South Tower of the World Trade Center and explodes at 9:03 a.m. on September 11, 2001 in New York City, credit Spencer Platt / Getty Images.
December 7th, 2008
The first NFL game is played in Canada at Rogers Centre in Toronto as the Buffalo Bills defeated the Miami Dolphins 16–3.
Wikipedia Photo: © Buffalo Bills Offensive Line (October 26, 2008 - Source: Doug Benc / Getty Images North America); Miami Dolphins Offensive Line (Nick Laham / Getty Images); Buffalo Bills' running back pushes back Miami Dolphins December 2007 Syracuse Post-Standard AP; Miami Dolphins' Ronnie Brown leaps over Buffalo Bills' George Wilson during the first half of the NFL football game in Orchard Park, N.Y., Sunday, Sept. 12, 2010. (AP Photo / Derek Gee).