October 7

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 Orleans 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 Wurttemberg.
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 Chavez 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.
Births
Up to 1850
13 BC Drusus Julius Caesar, adoptive son of Roman Emperor Tiberius (d. 23)
1471 King Frederick I of Denmark and Norway (d. 1533)
1573 William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1645)
1576 John Marston, English poet and playwright (d. 1634)
1589 Maria Magdalena of Austria (d. 1631)
1728 Caesar Rodney, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (d. 1784)
1744 Sergey Vyazmitinov, Russian general and statesman (d. 1819)
1746 William Billings, American composer (d. 1800)
1748 King Charles XIII of Sweden (d. 1818)
1769 Solomon Sibley, American politician (d. 1846)
1798 Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume, French violinmaker, businessman and inventor (d. 1875)
1822 Rudolf Leuckert, German zoologist (d. 1898)
1835 Felix Draeseke, German composer (d. 1913)
1836 Henri Elzear Taschereau, 4th Chief Justice of Canada (d. 1911)
1841 King Nicholas of Montenegro (d. 1921)
1846 Wladimir Koppen, German scientist (d. 1940)
1849 James Whitcomb Riley, American poet (d. 1916)
1851 1900
1857 George P. McLean, Governor of Connecticut (d. 1932)
1866 Wlodimir Ledochowski, Polish-Austrian director of the Society of Jesus (d. 1942)
1870 Uncle Dave Macon, American banjo player, singer, songwriter and comedian (d. 1952)
1873 Alfred Ander, Swedish criminal, last person to be executed in Sweden (d. 1910)
1877 Thomas Archibald Sprague, Scottish botanist (d. 1958)
1881 Mikhail Drozdovsky, Russian general (d. 1918)
1884 Harold Geiger, US Army aviation pioneer (d. 1927)
1885 Niels Bohr, Danish physicist (d. 1962)
1888 Henry A. Wallace, Vice President of the United States (d. 1965)
1889 Robert Z. Leonard, American movie director, actor, producer and screenwriter (d. 1968)
1892 Dwain Esper, American director and producer (d. 1982)
1894 Del Lord, American director (d. 1970)
1897 Elijah Muhammad, American Muslim leader (d. 1975)
1897 Charles Chauvel, Australian screenwriter, movie director and producer (d. 1959)
1898 Alfred Wallenstein, American cellist and conductor (d. 1983)
1900 Heinrich Himmler, Nazi official (d. 1945)
1901 1925
1901 Souvanna Phouma, Prime Minister of Laos (d. 1984)
1904 Armando Castellazzi, Italian footballer (d. 1968)
1905 Andy Devine, American actor (d. 1977)
1909 Anni Blomqvist, Finnish writer (d. 1990)
1909 Shura Cherkassky, Ukrainian-American pianist (d. 1995)
1909 Erastus Corning 2nd, American politician, 72nd Mayor of Albany, New York (d. 1983)
1911 Vaughn Monroe, American singer-songwriter and bandleader (d. 1973)
1912 Fernando Belaunde Terry, President of Peru (d. 2002)
1913 Walt Whitman Rostow, American economist (d. 2003)
1914 Alfred Drake, American actor (d. 1992)
1914 Begum Akhtar, Indian singer (d. 1974)
1914 Sarah Churchill, British actress (d. 1982)
1915 Charles Templeton, Canadian cartoonist and television evangelist (d. 2001)
1917 June Allyson, American actress (d. 2006)
1918 Harry V. Jaffa, American historian (d. 2015)
1919 Zelman Cowen, Australian academic and Governor-General of Australia (d. 2011)
1920 Georg Leber, German politician (d. 2012)
1921 Raymond Goethals, Belgian footballer and coach (d. 2004)
1922 William Zinsser, American writer, editor, literary critic and teacher (d. 2015)
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 Durr, 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 Jose 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 Honore 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 Chereau, 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)
October 07