December 7
What happened on December 7 in history
6 events fall on December 7, from 1732 to 1988. Read them below, then try to place a historical scene yourself — guess where in the world it happened and in what year.
Guess where and when
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Events on December 7
1732
The Royal Opera House opens
The theatre that becomes the Royal Opera House gives its first performance.
1787
Delaware ratifies the Constitution
It becomes the first state.
1941
Pearl Harbor is attacked
Japanese aircraft strike the fleet and the United States enters the war.
Japanese aircraft attacked the Pacific Fleet at anchor in two waves, sinking or damaging most of the battleships there and killing more than 2,400 people. The aircraft carriers were at sea and survived, which shaped the naval war that followed. The United States declared war the next day.
1972
Apollo 17 launches
The last crewed mission to the Moon lifts off at night.
1972
The Blue Marble
Apollo 17's crew photographs the whole Earth on the way to the Moon.
On the way to the Moon, the Apollo 17 crew photographed a fully lit Earth from roughly 45,000 kilometres out, with Africa, Antarctica and the Indian Ocean all in the frame. Almost no cloud obscured the southern hemisphere that day. The Blue Marble became one of the most widely circulated photographs ever taken and a defining image for the environmental movement.
Source: NASA — The Blue Marble
1988
The Armenian earthquake
Spitak and Leninakan are destroyed.