7th December

Events:

• 1732 - The Royal Opera House opens at Covent Garden, London.
• 1787 - Delaware becomes the first state to ratify the United States Constitution.
• 1815 - Michel Ney, Marshal of France, is executed by firing squad, after been convicted of treason by the Bourbon Restoration government of Louis XVIII for his support of Napoleon Bonaparte during the Hundred Days.
• 1941 - The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor officially brings the United States into World War II.
• 1965 - Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras simultaneously lift mutual excommunications that had been in place since 1054
• 1972 - Apollo 17, the last Apollo moon mission, is launched.
• 1975 - Indonesia invades East Timor.
• 1982 - First US execution by lethal injection is carried out.
• 1988 - In Armenia an earthquake 6.9 on the Richter scale killed nearly 25.000, injured 15.000 and left 400.000 persons homeless. Yasser Arafat recognizes the right of Israel to exist.
• 1989 - In the third and final installment of their historic boxing trilogy, Sugar Ray Leonard and Roberto Duran fight in Las Vegas; Leonard retains the WBC Super Middleweight championship of the world with a 12 round decision.
• 1993 - South African transitional executive council established

Births:

• 521 - Saint Columba, Christian missionary (d. 597)
• 1598 - Gian Lorenzo Bernini, artist (d. 1680)
• 1637 - Bernardo Pasquini, composer (d. 1710)
• 1670 - John Aislabie, director of the South Sea Company (d. 1742)
• 1761 - Marie Tussaud, museum proprietres and waxwork modeller (d. 1850)
• 1784 - Allan Cunningham, Scottish poet (d. 1842)
• 1801 - Johann Nestroy, dramatist and actor (d. 1862)
• 1860 - Sir Joseph Cook, Australian prime minister (d. 1947)
• 1863 - Pietro Mascagni, composer (d. 1945)
• 1863 - Richard Sears, department store founder (d. 1914)
• 1873 - Willa Cather, novelist (d. 1947)
• 1879 - Rudolf Friml, American composer (d. 1972)
• 1887 - Ernst Toch, composer (d. 1964)
• 1888 - Joyce Cary, author (d. 1957)
• 1888 - Hamilton Fish, American politician (d. 1991)
• 1905 - Gerard Kuiper, astronomer (d. 1973)
• 1912 - Daniel Jones, composer
• 1912 - Louis Prima, musician (d. 1978)
• 1915 - Eli Wallach, actor
• 1924 - Mário Soares, President of Portugal 1986-96
• 1928 - Noam Chomsky, linguist, political writer
• 1932 - Ellen Burstyn, actress
• 1934 - Gordon Parks Jr., director (d. 1979)
• 1942 - Harry Chapin, musician (d. 1981)
• 1942 - Peter Tomarken, game show host
• 1944 - Daniel Chorzempa, organist
• 1947 - Johnny Bench, Baseball Hall of Famer
• 1948 - Gary Morris, singer, actor
• 1949 - Tom Waits, singer, composer, actor
• 1956 - Larry Bird, Basketball Hall of Famer
• 1966 - C. Thomas Howell, actor
• 1966 - Carl Ververs, also known as Carl August Simon, Dutch artist
• 1987 - Aaron Carter, singer
• 2003 - Princess Catharina-Amalia of the Netherlands

Deaths:

• 43 BC - Cicero, Roman politician and author
• 283 - St. Eutychian, Pope
• 1815 - Michel Ney, a marshal of the French army, executed by firing squad
• 1894 - Ferdinand Marie, French diplomat and engineer
• 1902 - Thomas Nast, cartoonist
• 1956 - Huntley Gordon, pioneer Hollywood actor
• 1970 - Rube Goldberg, cartoonist
• 1975 - Thornton Wilder, playwright
• 1985 - Potter Stewart, retired United States Supreme Court justice
• 1990 - Joan Bennett, actress
• 1993 - Felix Houphouet-Boigny, Côte d'Ivoire political leader
• 2003 - Carl F. H. Henry American Evangelical theologian, founder of Christianity Today magazine (90 years)

Holidays and Observances:

• US: Pearl Harbor Day

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