Here’s a summary of key historical events on December 7:
– 1787: Delaware became the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
– 1909: Leo Baekeland patented Bakelite, launching the modern plastics industry.
– 1941: Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, killing 2,403 people and drawing the U.S. into WWII. President Roosevelt called it “a date which will live in infamy.”
– 1972: Apollo 17, the final manned moon mission, was launched.
– 1975: Indonesia invaded East Timor, resulting in over 100,000 deaths.
– 1982: The first execution by lethal injection occurred in Texas.
– 1987: Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev visited the U.S., the first such visit since 1973.
– 1988: A devastating earthquake in Armenia killed around 25,000 people.
– 1992: The destruction of a mosque by Hindus in India led to violent riots, killing over 1,100.
– 1993: U.S. Energy Secretary Hazel O’Leary disclosed 204 secret underground nuclear tests from 1963 to 1990. On the same day, Colin Ferguson opened fire on a New York train, killing six people.
– 2004: Hamid Karzai was sworn in as Afghanistan’s first popularly elected president.
– 2016: A 6.5-magnitude earthquake in Indonesia’s Aceh province killed nearly 100 people, and a Pakistan International Airlines crash near Islamabad killed 48 people, including Junaid Jamshed.
– 2020: The International Olympic Committee announced breakdancing would be added to the 2024 Paris Games.
– 2022: Peruvian President Pedro Castillo was removed from office after attempting to dissolve Congress.
