October 7

October 7 is the 280th day of the year (281st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 85 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events

Up to 1800

3761 BC – The epoch (origin) of the modern Hebrew calendar.
336 – Pope Marcus ends his reign as Catholic Pope.
1428 – Start of the English siege of Orléans in the Hundred Years' War.
1477 – Opening of Uppsala University in Sweden.
1492 – Christopher Columbus misses Florida when he changes course.
1506 – Pope Julius II and France occupy Bologna.
1513 – Battle of La Motta: Spanish troops under Ramon de Cardona defeat the Venetians.
1520 – First public burning of books in Netherlands, in Louvain.
1542 – Explorer Cabrillo discovered Catalina Island off California coast.
1571 – The Battle of Lepanto is fought, and the Holy League (Spain, Venice, and Papal States) destroys Turkish fleet.
1582 – Due to the implementation of the Gregorian calendar this day does not exist in this year in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.
1637 – Prince Frederick Henry of Orange occupies Breda.
1690 – English attack Quebec under Louis de Buade.
1702 – English/Dutch troops under John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough occupy Roermond.
1714 – Beer tax riots in Alkmaar, Netherlands.
1737 – 40 foot waves sink 20,000 small craft and kill 300,000 (Bengal, India).
1756 – Flooding on the Elbe near what is now Germany's North Sea coast kills 600 people.
1763 – George III of Great Britain issues British Royal Proclamation of 1763, closing aboriginal lands in North America north and west of Alleghenies to white settlements.
1765 – Stamp Act Congress convenes in NY.
1769 – English explorer, Captain Cook, reaches New Zealand. Abel Tasman had been the first European to land there over a century earlier.
1776 – Crown Prince Paul of Russia marries Sophie Marie Dorothea of Württemberg.
1777 – American Revolutionary War: Americans beat the British in the Battle of Second Saratoga and the Battle of Bemis Heights.
1780 – American Revolutionary War: Battle of Kings Mountain American Patriot militia defeat Loyalist irregulars led by British colonel Patrick Ferguson in South Carolina.

1801 – 1900

1806 – Carbon paper patented in London by inventor Ralph Wedgewood.
1816 – The first double-decked steamboat, the "Washington," arrives in New Orleans, Louisiana.
1826 – Granite Railway (first chartered railway in the U.S.) begins operations.
1828 – The city of Patras, Greece is liberated by the French expeditionary force in Peloponnese under General Maison.
1840 – Willem II becomes King of the Netherlands.
1864 – American Civil War: In the Battle of Darbytown Road, the Confederate forces' attempt to regain ground that had been lost around Richmond is stopped.
1864 – American Civil War: Capture of the CSS Florida — Union warship captures the USS Wachusett — Confederate raider ship while in port in Bahia, Brazil.
1865 – The Morant Bay Rebellion starts in Jamaica.
1868 – Cornell University holds opening day ceremonies; student enrollment is 412, the most at any American university to that date.
1870 – Leon Gambetta flees Paris in balloon.
1879 – Germany and Austria-Hungary sign the "Twofold Covenant" and create the Dual Alliance.
1882 – Baseball: First World Series (game 2), Chicago (NL) beats Cincinnati (AA) 2–0.
1886 – Spain abolishes slavery in Cuba.
1900 – The term "orienteering" is first used for an event.

1901 – 1950

1904 – Baseball: New York Highlander Jack Chesbro wins record 41st game of season (41-12).
1907 – France's Henry Farman flies 30 m in a double decker plane.
1908 – Crete revolts against the Ottoman Empire and aligns with Greece.
1908 – Serbia and Montenegro sign anti-Austria-Hungarian pact.
1910 – Absinthe is banned in Switzerland.
1912 – The Helsinki Stock Exchange sees its first transaction.
1916 – Georgia Tech defeats Cumberland University 222–0 in the most lopsided victory in American college football.
1918 – The Governing Council in Warsaw declares Poland to be an independent state.
1919 – KLM of the Netherlands was founded. It is the oldest airline still operating under its original name.
1919 – First London-Amsterdam airline service (Britain Aerial Transport and KLM).
1922 – Oud-burgem of Rotterdam Zimmerman becomes High Comm's of Austria.
1922 – First radio link, WNJ (Newark, New Jersey) and WGY (Schenectady) link for World Series.
1924 – Greek government of Dikalekopoulis forms.
1928 – Ras Tafari Makonnen crowned negus of Abyssinia by Empress Zauditu.
1928 – Paavo Nurmi runs world record 10 miles (50:15.0).
1929 – Ramsay MacDonald is the first British premier to address the U.S. Congress.
1931 – First infra-red photograph, Rochester, New York.
1933 – Air France, the national airline of France, is created after the merger of five smaller airlines.
1938 – Germany demands all Jewish passports stamped with the letter J.
1940 – Germany invades Romania.
1941 – German army occupies Viarma, U.S.S.R.
1941 – John Curtin becomes the 14th Prime Minister of Australia
1942 – the McCollum memo conspires to bring the United States to war in Europe by provoking the Japanese to attack the United States.
1942 – U.S. and British government announce establishment of United Nations.
1942 – Maxwell Anderson's "Eve of St. Mark," premieres in New York City.
1942 – Salvo Katjoesja-rocket destroys Nazi battalion in Stalingrad.
1943 – Japan executes 100 American civilian prisoners on Wake Island.
1944 – Uprising at Birkenau concentration camp.
1944 – Uprising at Auschwitz, Jews burn down crematoriums.
1944 – Fieldmarshal Erwin Rommel is ordered to return to Berlin.
1944 – Allies bombs sea dikes at Vlissingen.
1949 – German Democratic Republic (East Germany) is formed.
1949 – One of the earliest television shows, "Ford Theater" debuts
1950 – United States forces cross the 38th parallel in the Korean War.
1950 – Missionaries of Charity is founded by Mother Teresa.

1951 – 2000

1951 – Malayan Emergency: Malayan Races Liberation Army (MRLA) ambushes and kills British High Commissioner Sir Henry Gurney.
1951 – David Ben-Gurion forms Israeli government.
1957 – Dick Clark's "American Bandstand" debuts.
1958 – President of Pakistan Iskander Mirza, with the support of General Ayub Khan and the army, suspends the 1956 constitution, imposes martial law, and cancels the elections scheduled for January 1959.
1958 – U.S. manned space-flight project renamed Project Mercury.
1958 – Potter Stewart appointed to U.S. Supreme Court.
1959 – Far side of the Moon seen for first time, compliments of U.S.S.R.'s Luna 3.
1960 – Second Kennedy and Nixon debate Cold War foreign policy in the second of four scheduled debates.
1960 – Nigeria joins the UN.
1962 – U.S.S.R. performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya, U.S.S.R.
1963 – John F. Kennedy signs ratification for the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
1963 – Hurricane Flora hits Haiti and the Dominican Republic, kills 7,190.
1968 – Hollywood adopts the movie ratings system.
1970 – Richard Nixon announces a new five-point peace proposal to end the Vietnam War.
1971 – Oman joins the UN.
1976 – Hua Guofeng becomes Chairman of the Communist Party of China.
1977 – The adoption of the Fourth Soviet Constitution.
1982 – Cats opens on Broadway and runs for nearly 18 years before closing on September 10, 2000.
1984 – NFL running back Walter Payton breaks Jim Brown's rushing record.
1985 – The "Achille Lauro" is hijacked by Palestinian terrorists.
1985 – The Mameyes disaster occurs in Ponce, Puerto Rico.
1996 – The Fox News Channel, an American cable news network, is launched.
2000 – Jean, Grand Duke of Luxembourg abdicates in favour of his son, Henri, Grand Duke of Luxembourg.
2000 – Germany wins 1–0 against England in the last game at the Old Wembley Stadium.

From 2001

2001 – Start of United States war in Afghanistan with an air assault and covert operations on the ground.
2002 – Maher Arar is deported by the US government to Syria, where he is tortured and held without charge for a year before being returned home to Canada.
2003 – California recall: California governor Gray Davis is recalled from office and replaced by Arnold Schwarzenegger.
2004 – King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia abdicates.
2005 – Mohamed ElBaradei and the International Atomic Energy Agency win the Nobel Peace Prize.
2006 – Sport: The first Lusophone Games, for Portuguese-speaking countries begin in Macao.
2006 – Palau's capital is moved from Koror to Ngerulmud in the state of Melekeok.
2006 – Russian journalist and writer Anna Politkovskaya is murdered.
2011 – The Nobel Peace Prize is shared between Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and Leymah Gbowee of Liberia and Tawakel Karman of Yemen.
2012 – Hugo Chávez is re-elected President of Venezuela against Henrique Capriles. Chavez dies less than five months later, on March 5, 2013.
2014 – Lunar Eclipse: A "Blood Moon", or red-appearing Moon, is seen in most of the world except Europe and Africa.
2016 – President of Colombia Juan Manuel Santos wins the Nobel Peace Prize.
2019 – Saturn overtakes Jupiter as the planet in the Solar System with the most known Moons (82, compared to Jupiter's 79).
2019 – Eight people are injured in a lorry-ramming attack in Limburg an der Lahn, Germany.
2023 – Hamas leads an invasion of Israel, starting the 2023 Israel-Hamas war.

Births

1926 – 1950

1926 – Marcello Abbado, Italian composer and pianist
1927 – Ronald David Laing, Scottish psychiatrist (d. 1989)
1927 – Al Martino, American singer and actor (d. 2009)
1928 – Sanne Ledermann, friend of Anne Frank (d. 1943)
1928 – Sohrab Sepehri, Persian poet and painter (d. 1980)
1928 – Ali Kafi, Algerian politician (d. 2013)
1929 – Hans-Peter Dürr, German physicist (d. 2014)
1929 – Graeme Ferguson, Canadian director and producer
1931 – Desmond Tutu, South African archbishop and activist, Nobel Peace Prize laureate (d. 2021)
1932 – Joannes Gijsen, Dutch-born former Catholic bishop of Reykjavik (d. 2013)
1934 – Amiri Baraka, American poet, playwright and academic (d. 2014)
1934 – Ulrike Meinhof, German left-wing militant and Red Army Faction member (d. 1976)
1935 – Thomas Keneally, Australian writer
1936 – Charles Dutoit, Swiss conductor
1937 – Maria Szyszkowska, Polish politician
1937 – Christopher Booker, English journalist and author
1938 – Fereydoun Farrokhzad, Iranian singer, actor and poet (d. 1992)
1938 – Ann Jones, English tennis player
1939 – Clive James, Australian TV presenter and writer
1939 – Harry Kroto, English chemist (d. 2016)
1939 – John Hopcroft, American computer scientist
1939 – Enrique Pinti, Argentine actor, comedian, theatre director and writer
1942 – Joy Behar, American talk show host and actress
1943 – José Cardenal, Cuban baseball player
1943 – Oliver North, American former military officer and politician
1944 – Donald Tsang, former Chief Executive of Hong Kong
1944 – Pete van Wieren, American sportscaster (d. 2014)
1945 – Kevin Godley, English singer-songwriter
1946 – Bernard Lavilliers, French singer-songwriter and actor
1946 – Pengiran Anak Saleha, Queen of Brunei
1950 – Jakaya Kikwete, Tanzanian politician, 4th President of Tanzania

1951 – 1975

1951 – David J. Halberstam, American sportscaster
1951 – John Mellencamp, American singer-songwriter, guitarist and actor
1952 – Mary Badham, American actress
1952 – Vladimir Putin, President of Russia
1953 – Ronald Worm, German footballer
1953 – Tico Torres, American musician (Bon Jovi)
1953 – Linda Griffiths, Canadian actress and playwright (d. 2014)
1954 – Christian Bourquin, French politician (d. 2014)
1955 – Yo-Yo Ma, French-born cellist
1955 – Ralph Johnson, American computer scientist
1956 – Brian Sutter, Canadian ice hockey player
1957 – Jayne Torvill, English figure skater
1959 – Simon Cowell, English media personality
1959 – Lourdes Flores Nano, Peruvian politician
1960 – Viktor Lazlo, Belgian singer
1964 – Sam Brown, American singer
1964 – Dan Savage, American LGBT activist, journalist and television producer
1966 – Marco Beltrami, American movie score composer
1966 – Sherman Alexie, American author, humourist and screenwriter
1967 – Toni Braxton, American soul music singer
1968 – Thom Yorke, lead singer of Radiohead
1968 – Pippa Funnell, British equestrian
1969 – Francesco Buzzurro, Italian guitarist
1969 – Karen L. Nyberg, American engineer and astronaut
1970 – Nicole Ari Parker, American actress
1971 – Ismael Urzaiz, Spanish footballer
1971 – Michelle Mone, Scottish businesswoman
1972 – Loek van Wely, Dutch chess player
1972 – Ben Younger, American screenwriter
1973 – Dida, Brazilian footballer
1973 – Grigol Mgalobishvili, 7th Prime Minister of Georgia
1974 – Charlotte Perrelli, Swedish singer
1975 – Tim Minchin, Australian comedian

From 1976

1976 – Gilberto Silva, Brazilian footballer
1976 – Santiago Solari, Argentine footballer
1976 – Taylor Hicks, American singer
1978 – Alesha Dixon, English singer
1978 – Jake Humphrey, English sports television presenter
1978 – Omar Benson Miller, American actor
1979 – Aaron Ashmore, Canadian actor
1979 – Shawn Ashmore, Canadian actor
1979 – Simona Amanar, Romanian gymnast
1980 – Jean-Marc Gaillard, French cross-country skier
1982 – Madjid Bougherra, Algerian footballer
1982 – Jermain Defoe, English footballer
1982 – Robby Ginepri, American tennis player
1983 – Aaron Parks, American jazz musician
1984 – Salman Butt, Pakistani cricketer
1984 – Simon Poulsen, Danish footballer
1985 – Evan Longoria, American baseball player
1986 – Gunnar Nielsen, Faroese footballer
1986 – Kaitlyn, American wrestler and model
1986 – Bree Olson, American pornographic actress
1987 – Sam Querrey, American tennis player
1987 – Cian Healy, Irish rugby union player
1987 – Lauren Mayberry, Scottish singer (Chvrches)
1988 – Diego Costa, Brazilian-Spanish footballer
1988 – Holland Roden, American actress
1990 – Ayla Kell, American actress
1991 – Nicole Jung, American-Korean singer
1991 – Lay, Chinese-Korean entertainer
1996 – Lewis Capaldi, Scottish singer and songwriter
1997 – Kira Kosarin, American actress and singer
2001 – Princess Senate Seeiso, Princess of Lesotho

Deaths

Up to 1900

336 – Pope Mark
929 – Charles the Simple, King of France (b. 879)
1368 – Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence (b. 1338)
1577 – George Gascoigne, English soldier, courtier and poet (b. 1535)
1612 – Giovanni Battista Guarini, Italian poet, dramatist and diplomat (b. 1538)
1637 – Victor Amadeus I, Duke of Savoy (b. 1587)
1653 – Fausto Poli, Italian cardinal (b. 1581)
1708 – Guru Gobind Singh, 10th Sikh Guru (b. 1666)
1787 – Henry Muhlenberg, German-born founder of the American Lutheran Church (b. 1711)
1796 – Thomas Reid, Scottish philosopher (b. 1710)
1849 – Edgar Allan Poe, American writer (b. 1809)
1857 – Louis McLane, United States Secretary of State (b. 1786)
1870 – Majid bin Said of Zanzibar, Sultan of Zanzibar (b. 1834)
1894 – Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., American writer (b. 1809)
1896 – Emma Wedgwood, British naturalist (b. 1808)

1901 – 2000

1903 – Rudolf Lipschitz, German mathematician (b. 1832)
1906 – Honoré Beaugrand, 18th Mayor of Montreal (b. 1848)
1919 – Alfred Deakin, 2nd Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1856)
1925 – Christy Mathewson, American baseball player (b. 1860)
1926 – Emil Kraepelin, German psychiatrist (b. 1856)
1943 – Eugeniusz Bodo, Polish actor (b. 1899)
1943 – Radclyffe Hall, English author and poet (b. 1880)
1943 – Archibald Warden, English tennis player (b. 1869)
1951 – Anton Philips, Dutch businessman (b. 1874)
1956 – Clarence Birdseye, American inventor (b. 1886)
1959 – Mario Lanza, American tenor (b. 1921)
1967 – Norman Angell, British politician (b. 1872)
1991 – Leo Durocher, American baseball player and manager (b. 1905)
1992 – Tevfik Esenc, last speaker of the Ubykh language (b. 1904)
1993 – Cyril Cusack, Irish actor (b. 1910)
1994 – Niels Kaj Jerne, Danish immunologist (b. 1911)

From 2001

2002 – Pierangelo Bertoli, Italian singer-songwriter (b. 1942)
2004 – Kenneth Bigley, English engineer (b. 1942)
2006 – Anna Politkovskaya, Russian journalist and writer (b. 1958)
2007 – Norifumi Abe, Japanese motorcycle racer (b. 1975)
2008 – Peter Copley, British actor (b. 1915)
2008 – George Emil Palade, Romanian cell biologist (b. 1912)
2009 – Irving Penn, American photographer (b. 1917)
2010 – Milka Planinc, Prime Minister of Yugoslavia (b. 1924)
2011 – Ramiz Alia, last Communist leader of Albania, and President (b. 1925)
2012 – Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano, Mexican drug lord (b. 1974)
2013 – Ovadia Yosef, Israeli Chief Rabbi (b. 1920)
2013 – Patrice Chéreau, French director, movie maker, actor and producer (b. 1944)
2014 – Siegfried Lenz, German writer (b. 1926)
2014 – Iva Withers, Canadian-American theatre actress and singer (b. 1917)
2014 – Nika Kiladze, Georgian footballer (b. 1988)
2014 – Zilpha Keatley Snyder, American writer (b. 1927)
2014 – Cigar, American racehorse (b. 1990)
2015 – Dominique Dropsy, French footballer (b. 1951)
2015 – Elena Lucena, Argentine actress (b. 1914)
2015 – Harry Gallatin, American basketball player and coach (b. 1927)
2015 – W. R. Mitchell, British writer (b. 1928)
2015 – Jurelang Zedkaia, 5th President of the Marshall Islands (b. 1950)
2016 – Wolfgang Suschitzky, Austro-Hungarian-born British photographer and cinematographer (b. 1912)
2017 – Konstantin Sarsania, Russian footballer (b. 1968)
2017 – Vyacheslav Vsevolodovich Ivanov, Russian philologist (b. 1929)
2017 – Jim Landis, American baseball player (b. 1934)
2017 – Washington SyCip, Filipino-American World War II veteran (b. 1921)
2017 – Kazys Almenas, Lithuanian physicist, engineer and publisher (b. 1935)
2017 – Ole Krarup, Danish politician (b. 1935)
2018 – Peggy McCay, American actress (b. 1927)
2018 – Oleg Pavlov, Russian novelist (b. 1970)
2018 – Celeste Yarnall, American actress (b. 1944)
2019 – Pepe Oneto, Spanish journalist and writer (b. 1942)
2019 – Ella Vogelaar, Dutch politician (b. 1949)

Observances

Teacher's Day (Laos)
National Day of East Germany (1949 to 1989)

Events

Up to 1800

1801 – 1900

1901 – 1950

1951 – 2000

From 2001

Births

Up to 1850

1851 – 1900

1901 – 1925

1926 – 1950

1951 – 1975

From 1976

Deaths

Up to 1900

1901 – 2000

From 2001

Observances