May 7

Events
Up to 1900
558 - In Constantinople, the dome of the Hagia Sophia collapses. Justinian I immediately orders the dome rebuilt.
973 - Otto II, Holy Roman Emperor takes sole charge of the Holy Roman Empire after the death of his father and co-Emperor Otto I.
1274 - In France, the Second Council of Lyons opens to regulate the election of the Pope.
1429 - Joan of Arc leads a French attack on English bridgeheads on the south side of the Loire River.
1487 - Siege of Malaga during the Spanish Reconquista.
1664 - The Palace of Versailles is inaugurated by Louis XIV of France.
1697 - Stockholm's royal castle (dating back to medieval times) is destroyed in a huge fire (in the 18th century, it is replaced with the current Royal Palace).
1718 - City of New Orleans is founded by Jean-Baptiste le Moyne de Bienville.
1763 - Indian Wars: Pontiac's Rebellion begins - Chief Pontiac begins the "Conspiracy of Pontiac" by attacking British forces at Fort Detroit.
1824 - Ludwig van Beethoven, completely deaf, conducts the debut of his Ninth Symphony in Vienna.
1832 - Greece was recognised independent by the Treaty of London. Otto of Wittelsbach, Prince of Bavaria is chosen King.
1840 - The Great Natchez Tornado strikes Natchez, Mississippi, killing 317 people. It is the second deadliest tornado in United States history.
1847 - In Philadelphia, the American Medical Association (AMA) is founded.
1864 - American Civil War: The Army of the Potomac, under General Ulysses S. Grant, breaks off from the Battle of the Wilderness and moves southwards.
1864 - The world's oldest-surviving clipper ship, City of Adelaide, is launched by William Pile in Sunderland, Northeast England.
1895 - In Saint Petersburg, Russian scientist Alexander Stepanovich Popov demonstrates an invention which became the prototype of radio. In the former Soviet Union this day was celebrated as Day of Radio.
1896 - H. H. Holmes is hanged in Philadelphia.
1901 2000
1915 - World War I: a German U-boat sinks the RMS Lusitania, killing 1,198 people.
1920 - Polish-Bolshevik War: Polish-Ukrainian troops captured Kyiv during the Kiev Offensive.
1937 - Spanish Civil War: The German Condor Legion arrive in Spain with Heinkel He 51 biplanes to assist Franco's forces.
1940 - The Norway Debate begins in the British House of Commons. It eventually results in Winston Churchill replacing Neville Chamberlain as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
1945 - World War II: General Alfred Jodl signs unconditional surrender terms at Reims, France, ending Germany's participation in the war. The document will take effect the next day.
1946 - Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering (later renamed Sony) is founded with about 20 employees.
1947 - Kraft Television Theater debuts, running for the next 11 years.
1948 - The Council of Europe is founded during the Hague Congress.
1952 - The concept for the integrated circuit, the basis for all modern computers, is first published by Geoffrey W.A. Dummer.
1954 - Indochina War: The Battle of Dien Bien Phu ends in a French defeat (the battle began on March 13).
1960 - Cold War: U-2 Crisis - Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev announces that his nation is holding American U-2 pilot Gary Powers.
1964 - Pacific Air Lines flight 773, a Fairchild F-27 airliner crashes near San Ramon, California, killing 44. The pilot and co-pilot had been shot by a suicidal passenger.
1974 - Willy Brandt resigns as Chancellor of Germany.
1986 - Canadian Patrick Morrow becomes the first person to climb to the top of the Seven Summits.
1992 - Michigan ratifies a 203-year-old proposed amendment to the United States Constitution making the 27th Amendment law. This amendment bars the U.S. Congress from giving itself a mid-term pay rise.
1992 - Space Shuttle Endeavour is launched on its maiden voyage.
1992 - Three employees at a McDonald's Restaurant in Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada are brutally murdered and a fourth permanently disabled after a botched robbery. It is the first fast-food murder in Canada.
1994 - The Scream by Edvard Munch is recovered after it was stolen from the National Gallery of Norway in Oslo, in February.
1995 - Jacques Chirac is elected President of France.
1998 - Apple Computer unveils the iMac.
1998 - Mercedes-Benz buys Chrysler for US$40 billion and forms DaimlerChrysler in the largest industrial merger in history.
1999 - Pope John Paul II travels to Romania becoming the first pope that had visited a predominantly Eastern Orthodox country since the Great Schism in 1054.
1999 - A jury finds The Jenny Jones Show and Warner Bros liable in the shooting death of Scott Amedure, after the show purposely deceived Jonathan Schmitz to appear on a secret same-sex crush episode. Schmitz later killed Amedure and the jury awarded Amedure's family US$25 million.
1999 - Kosovo War: In Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, three Chinese embassy workers are killed and 20 wounded when a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) aircraft mistakenly bombs the Chinese embassy in Belgrade.
1999 - In Guinea-Bissau, President Joao Bernardo Vieira is ousted in a military coup.
2000 - Vladimir Putin becomes President of Russia.
From 2001
2001 - Wanted train robber Ronnie Biggs returns to the UK after spending over 30 years on the run in Brazil.
2002 - A China Southern Airlines MD-82 plunges into the Yellow Sea killing 112 people.
2007 - The tomb of King Herod the Great, who is mentioned in the Bible, is discovered.
2008 - Dmitry Medvedev becomes President of Russia, with Vladimir Putin as Prime Minister.
2010 - Scientists working on the Neanderthal Genome Project announce that modern humans and Neanderthals could have interbred.
2012 - Vladimir Putin becomes President of Russia for a second time, swapping places with Dmitry Medvedev, who becomes Prime Minister.
2012 - Victor Ponta is elected Prime Minister of Romania.
2013 - 27 people are killed and over 30 are injured when a tanker truck explodes outside Mexico City.
2014 - Prime Minister of Thailand Yingluck Shinawatra is removed from office for abuse of power.
2015 - The United Kingdom general election, 2015 is held. The Conservative Party of incumbent Prime Minister David Cameron wins a surprise overall majority, with the Labour Party losing seats across England, Scotland and Wales. The Scottish National Party wins all but three seats in Scotland.
2016 - Sadiq Khan of the Labour Party becomes Mayor of London, after defeating Conservative Zac Goldsmith in the election. He is the first Muslim Mayor of a major Western city.
2017 - Emmanuel Macron is elected President of France, defeating Marine Le Pen in the run-off.
Births
Up to 1800
1328 - Louis II, Elector of Brandenburg (d. 1365)
1530 - Louis, Prince de Conde, French general (d. 1569)
1605 - Patriarch Nikon of the Russian Orthodox Church (d. 1681)
1643 - Stephanus Van Cortlandt, American politician (d. 1700)
1704 - Carl Heinrich Graun, German composer and tenor (d. 1759)
1711 - David Hume, Scottish philosopher and historian (d. 1776)
1724 - Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser, Austrian general (d. 1797)
1740 - Nikolai Arkharov, Russian general (d. 1814)
1748 - Olympe de Gouges, French playwright and feminist revolutionary (d. 1793)
1763 - Jozef Antoni Poniatowski, Polish prince (d. 1813)
1767 - Princess Frederica Charlotte of Prussia (d. 1820)
1787 - Jacques Viger, 1st Mayor of Chicago (d. 1858)
1801 1900
1812 - Robert Browning, English poet (d. 1889)
1819 - Otto Wilhelm von Struve, German astronomer (d. 1905)
1826 - Varina Davis, First Lady of the Confederate States of America (d. 1906)
1833 - Johannes Brahms, German composer (d. 1897)
1836 - Joseph Gurney Cannon, American politician (d. 1926)
1837 - Karl Mauch, German geographer and explorer (d. 1875)
1840 - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Russian composer (d. 1893)
1841 - Gustave Le Bon, French psychologist (d. 1931)
1847 - Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery, British Prime Minister (d. 1929)
1857 - William A. MacCorkle, 9th Governor of West Virginia (d. 1930)
1861 - Rabindranath Tagore, Indian poet and writer of the Bengali language (d. 1941)
1867 - Wladyslaw Reymont, Polish writer (d. 1925)
1875 - William Hoyt, American athlete (d. 1954)
1882 - Willem Elsschot, Flemish writer (d. 1960)
1891 - Harry McShane, Scottish engineer and activist (d. 1988)
1892 - Josip Broz Tito, President of Yugoslavia (d. 1980)
1892 - Archibald MacLeish, American poet and politician (d. 1982)
1893 - Frank J. Selke, Canadian ice hockey player and manager (d. 1985)
1901 1950
1901 - Gary Cooper, American actor (d. 1961)
1901 - Marcel Poot, Belgian composer (d. 1988)
1905 - Bumble Bee Slim, American musician (d. 1968)
1908 - Max Grundig, German businessman (d. 1989)
1909 - Edwin H. Land, American inventor (d. 1991)
1911 - Ishiro Honda, Japanese movie director (d. 1993)
1913 - Simon Ramo, American physicist (d. 2016)
1914 - Arthur Snelling, English diplomat (d. 1996)
1917 - Domenico Bartolucci, Italian cardinal (d. 2013)
1919 - Joe Mitty, British philanthropist (d. 2007)
1919 - Eva Peron, First Lady of Argentina (d. 1952)
1921 - Gaston Rebuffat, French mountaineer (d. 1985)
1923 - Anne Baxter, American writer and actress (d. 1985)
1923 - Bulend Ulusu, 18th Prime Minister of Turkey (d. 2015)
1924 - Albert Band, French-American director and producer (d. 2002)
1924 - Marjorie Boulton, British author and poet (d. 2017)
1925 - Lauri Vaska, Estonian-American chemist and academic (d. 2015)
1926 - Val Bisoglio, American actor
1927 - Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, German screenwriter (d. 2013)
1928 - John Ingle, American actor (d. 2012)
1931 - Teresa Brewer, American singer (d. 2007)
1932 - Jordi Bonet, Canadian-Catalan painter, muralist and sculptor (d. 1979)
1932 - Pete Domenici, American politician (d. 2017)
1933 - Nexhmije Pagarusha, Kosovar singer and actress
1935 - Avraham Heffner, Israeli television and movie director, producer and writer (d. 2014)
1936 - Tony O'Reilly, Irish billionaire
1936 - Jimmy Ruffin, American singer (d. 2014)
1939 - Sidney Altman, Canadian molecular biologist
1939 - Ruud Lubbers, former Prime Minister of the Netherlands (d. 2018)
1939 - Ruggero Deodato, Italian director, actor and screenwriter
1939 - Volker Braun, German writer
1940 - Angela Carter, English novelist and journalist (d. 1992)
1943 - Peter Carey, Australian writer
1944 - Richard O'Sullivan, English actor
1945 - Christy Moore, Irish singer-songwriter and guitarist
1945 - Robin Strasser, American actress
1946 - Thelma Houston, American singer-songwriter and actress
1946 - Michael Rosen, English poet and writer
1946 - Bill Kreutzmann, American drummer (The Grateful Dead)
1947 - Gary Herbert, American politician
1947 - Antonio de la Cruz, Spanish footballer
1947 - Numa Sadoul, French writer
1948 - Susan Atkins, American murderer (d. 2009)
1950 - Tim Russert, American broadcast journalist (d. 2008)
1950 - Mark Warawa, Canadian politician (d. 2019)
1951 1975
1951 - Robert Hegyes, American actor (d. 2012)
1956 - Jan Peter Balkenende, former Prime Minister of the Netherlands
1956 - Nicholas Hytner, English director and producer
1958 - Christine Lieberknecht, German politician
1961 - Hans-Peter Bartels, German politician
1961 - Sue Black, Scottish forensic anthropologist
1962 - Tony Campbell, American basketball player and coach
1962 - Dominik Moll, German-French director and screenwriter
1965 - Owen Hart, Canadian professional wrestler (died 1999)
1965 - Andrew Little, New Zealand politician
1965 - Norman Whiteside, Northern Irish footballer
1966 - Andrea Tafi, Italian cyclist
1967 - Martin Bryant, Australian criminal
1968
Traci Lords, American actress & singer
Lisa Raitt, Canadian politician
1969 - Rick Porras, American movie producer
1969 - Eagle-Eye Cherry, Swedish singer-songwriter
1969 - Katerina Maleeva, Bulgarian tennis player
1972 - Jennifer Yuh Nelson, South Korean-American animator
1973 - Paolo Savoldelli, Italian cyclist
1975 - Arni Gautur Arason, Icelandic footballer
From 1976
1976 - Calvin Booth, American basketball player
1977 - Lisa Kelly, Irish singer
1978 - Stian Arnesen, Norwegian musician and songwriter
1978 - Shawn Marion, American basketball player
1979 - Katie Douglas, American basketball player
1981 - Maria Radner, German opera singer (d. 2015)
1983 - Julio dos Santos, Paraguayan footballer
1983 - Garry O'Connor, Scottish footballer
1983 - Makano, Panamanian singer and composer
1986 - Matt Helders, English musician
1987 - Stefan Read, Canadian ski jumper
1988 - Nathan Burns, Australian footballer
1988 - Natalie Mejia, American dancer and singer
1988 - Takayuki Morimoto, Japanese footballer
1988 - Eino Puri, Estonian footballer
1988 - Sander Puri, Estonian footballer
1989 - Master Shortie, English singer-songwriter, rapper and producer
1989 - Raina, South Korean singer, dancer, model and rapper
1990 - Yoon Bit-Garam, South Korean footballer
1992 - Alexander Ludwig, Canadian actor
1992 - Tyler Johnson, American basketball player
1999 - Masaki Sato, Japanese singer (Morning Musume)
2000 - Maxwell Perry Cotton, American actor
Deaths
Up to 1900
685 - Mawan I, Umayyah Caliph (b. 623)
973 - Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor (born 912)
1266 - Farid-ud-din Ganj Shakar, Islamic saint in South Asia (b. 1179)
1539 - Guru Nanak, founder of Sikhism (born 1469)
1539 - Ottaviano Petrucci, Italian printer (born 1466)
1615 - Sanada Yukimura, Japanese samurai (born 1567)
1617 - David Fabricius, German astronomer (born 1564)
1682 - Tsar Feodor III of Russia (born 1661)
1718 - Mary of Modena, wife of James II of England (born 1658)
1793 - Pietro Nardini, Italian violinist and composer (b. 1722)
1805 - William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1737)
1825 - Antonio Salieri, Italian composer (born 1750)
1840 - Caspar David Friedrich, German painter (born 1774)
1868 - Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux, English statesman (born 1778)
1872 - Alexander Loyd, 4th Mayor of Chicago (born 1805)
1873 - Salmon P. Chase, American politician (born 1808)
1901 2000
1902 - Agostino Roscelli, Italian priest (born 1818)
1922 - Max Wagenknecht, German composer (born 1857)
1924 - Alluri Sita Rama Raju, Indian activist (born 1897)
1940 - George Lansbury, English politician (born 1859)
1941 - James George Frazer, Scottish ethnologist and classical philologist (born 1854)
1942 - Felix Weingartner, Yugoslavian conductor (born 1863)
1943 - Fethi Okyar, Turkish diplomat and politician (born 1880)
1951 - Warner Baxter, American actor (born 1889)
1958 - Mihkel Ludig, Estonian organist, composer and conductor (born 1880)
1985 - Dawn Addams, British actress (born 1930)
1986 - Jeffrey Mylett, American actor (born 1949)
1986 - Haldun Taner, Turkish playwright and short story writer (born 1915)
1987 - Colin Blakely, English actor (born 1930)
1989 - Guy Williams, American actor (born 1924)
1991 - Istvan Zsolt, Hungarian football referee (born 1921)
1995 - Ray McKinley, American jazz musician (born 1910)
1998 - Allan McLeod Cormack, South African physicist (born 1924)
2000 - Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., American actor (born 1909)
From 2001
2001 - Jacques de Borbon Busset, French novelist, essayist and politician (born 1912)
2005 - Otilino Tenorio, Ecuadorean footballer (born 1980)
2010 - Wally Hickel, American politician, 2nd Governor of Alaska (born 1919)
2011 - Seve Ballesteros, Spanish golfer (born 1957)
2011 - Willard Boyle, Canadian physicist (born 1924)
2011 - Gunter Sachs, German businessman, art patron and playboy (born 1932)
2013 - Ray Harryhausen, American animator, director and producer (born 1920)
2013 - Aubrey Woods, English actor and singer (born 1928)
2013 - Ferruccio Mazzola, Italian footballer and manager (born 1948)
2014 - Colin Pillinger, British planetary scientist (born 1943)
2014 - Nazim Al-Haqqani, Turkish-Cypriot spiritual leader (born 1922)
2014 - Neville McNamara, Royal Australian Air Force commander (born 1923)
2014 - Manuel Jimenez de Parga, Spanish politician (born 1929)
2015 - John Dixon, Australian cartoonist (born 1929)
2015 - Maurice Flanagan, British businessman (born 1928)
2015 - Frank DiPascali, American financier and fraudster (born 1956)
2016 - Bernardo Ribeiro, Brazilian footballer (born 1989)
2016 - John Stabb, American punk music singer (born 1961)
2017 - Gran Apache, Mexican professional wrestler (born 1959)
2017 - Elon Lages Lima, Brazilian mathematician (born 1929)
2017 - Beppo Mauhart, Austrian football executive and journalist (born 1933)
2017 - Gholamreza Pahlavi, Iranian prince and writer (born 1923)
2017 - Lee Weissenborn, American politician (born 1929)
2017 - Wu Wenjun, Chinese mathematician (born 1919)
2018 - Maurane, Belgian singer and actress (born 1960)
2018 - Miki Muster, Slovenian artist (born 1925)
2018 - Jesus Kumate Rodriguez, Mexican physician and politician (born 1924)
2018 - Crosbie E. Saint, American military officer (born 1936)
2019 - Vicente Emano, Filipino politician (born 1943)
2019 - Georg Katzer, German composer (born 1935)
2019 - Te Wharehuia Milroy, New Zealand Maori language academic (born 1937)
2019 - Adam Svoboda, Czech ice hockey player (born 1978)
2019 - Jean Vanier, Canadian philosopher and theologian (born 1928)
2019 - Joel Virador, Filipino politician (born 1967)
Observances
Radio Day (Russia, Bulgaria)
Defender of the Fatherland Day (Kazakhstan)
Dien Bien Phu Victory Day (Vietnam)
May 07