What Happened on October 7th in History
30 historical events on this date
World War II: The McCollum memo proposes bringing the United States into the war in Europe by provoking the Japanese to attack the United States.
World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated. Tanks and aircraft played major...
World War II: The Sonderkommando Revolt in Auschwitz was an uprising of prisoners (especially the Sonderkommando) at the Auschwitz concentration camp, they burnt down Crematorium IV.
The Auschwitz Sonderkommando revolt occurred on 7 October 1944, when a large group of Sonderkommando members in the crematoria area of Birkenau camp rebelled against the SS guards of the camp. The...
The communist German Democratic Republic (East Germany) is formed.
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from its formation on 7 October 1949 until its reunification with West Germany on 3 October 1990. Until...
Mother Teresa establishes the Missionaries of Charity.
Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu, better known as Mother Teresa or Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta, was an Albanian-Indian Catholic nun, founder of the Missionaries of Charity and a Catholic saint.
The 1958 Pakistani coup d'Ă©tat inaugurates a prolonged period of military rule.
The 1958 Pakistani military coup was the first military coup in Pakistan that took place on 27 October 1958. It resulted in the toppling of Iskander Ali Mirza, the president of Pakistan, by Muhammad...
The U.S. crewed space-flight project is renamed to Project Mercury.
Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States, running from 1958 through 1963. An early highlight of the Space Race, its goal was to put a man into Earth orbit and...
The Soviet probe Luna 3 transmits the first-ever photographs of the far side of the Moon.
Luna 3, or E-2A No.1, was a Soviet spacecraft launched in 1959 as part of the Luna programme. It was the first mission to photograph the far side of the Moon and the third Soviet space probe to be...
A Douglas Dakota IV operated by Derby Aviation (later renamed to British Midland International) crashes in Canigou, France, killing 34 people.
The Douglas C-47 Skytrain, or Dakota, is a military transport aircraft that was developed from the civilian Douglas DC-3 airliner. It was used extensively by the Allies during World War II. During...
President Kennedy signs the ratification of the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
The Partial Test Ban Treaty (PTBT), formally known as the 1963 Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapon Tests in the Atmosphere, in Outer Space and Under Water, prohibited all test detonations of nuclear...
Buddhist crisis: Amid worsening relations, outspoken South Vietnamese First Lady Madame Ngo Dinh Nhu arrives in the US for a speaking tour, continuing a flurry of attacks on the Kennedy administration.
The Buddhist crisis was a period of political and religious tension in South Vietnam between May and November 1963, characterized by a series of repressive acts by the South Vietnamese government...
The Fourth Soviet Constitution is adopted.
The 1977 Constitution of the Soviet Union, officially the Constitution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, was the communist state constitution adopted on 7 October 1977.
Aeroflot Flight 1080 crashes after takeoff from Koltsovo International Airport, killing 38.
Aeroflot Flight 1080 was a Soviet domestic passenger flight from Sverdlovsk, Russia, to Dzhambul, Kazakhstan, that crashed at night shortly after takeoff on 7 October 1978. All 38 passengers and...
Swissair Flight 316 crashes at Ellinikon International Airport in Athens, Greece, killing 14.
On 7 October 1979, a Swissair DC-8 crashed while landing at Athens-Ellinikon International Airport in Athens, Greece. Of the 154 passengers and crew on board, 14 were killed in the accident.
The Mameyes landslide kills almost 200 people in Puerto Rico.
The 1985 Puerto Rico floods produced showers and thunderstorms across the island and the deadliest single landslide on record in North America, that killed at least 130Â people in the Mameyes...
Four men from the Palestine Liberation Front hijack the MSÂ Achille Lauro off the coast of Egypt.
The Achille Lauro hijacking took place on 7 October 1985, when the Italian ocean liner MSÂ Achille Lauro was hijacked by four men representing the Palestinian Liberation Front (PLF) off the coast of...
Sikh nationalists declare the independence of Khalistan from India; it is not internationally recognized.
The Khalistan movement is a separatist movement seeking to create a homeland for Sikhs by establishing an ethnoreligious sovereign state called Khalistan in the Punjab region. The proposed...
A hunter discovers three gray whales trapped under the ice near Alaska; the situation becomes a multinational effort to free the whales.
Operation Breakthrough was a US-Soviet effort to free three gray whales from pack ice in the Beaufort Sea near Point Barrow in the U.S. state of Alaska in 1988. The whales' plight generated media...
Croatian War of Independence: Bombing of the Banski Dvori in Zagreb, Croatia.
The bombing of the Banski Dvori was a Yugoslav Air Force strike on the Banski Dvori in Zagrebâthe official residence of the President of Croatia at the time of the Croatian War of Independence. The...
The flood of '93 ends at St. Louis, Missouri, 103 days after it began, as the Mississippi River falls below flood stage.
The Great Flood of 1993 was a flood that occurred in the Midwestern United States, along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers and their tributaries, from April to October 1993.
Fox News Channel begins broadcasting.
The Fox News Channel (FNC), often referred to as Fox News, is an American multinational conservative news and political commentary television channel and website based in New York City. Owned by the...
Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Hezbollah militants capture three Israeli Defense Force soldiers in a cross-border raid.
Israel and the Palestinians are engaged in an ongoing military and political conflict about land and self-determination within the former territory of Mandatory Palestine. Key aspects of the...
The U.S. invasion of Afghanistan begins with an air assault and covert operations on the ground, starting the longest war in American history.
Shortly after the September 11 attacks in 2001, the United States declared the war on terror and subsequently led a multinational military operation against Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. The stated...
The Space Shuttle Atlantis launches on STS-112 to continue assembly of the International Space Station.
Space Shuttle Atlantis is a retired Space Shuttle orbiter vehicle which belongs to NASA, the spaceflight and space exploration agency of the United States. Atlantis was manufactured by the Rockwell...
Three bombs explode at Taba and Nuweiba in the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt, killing 34.
The 2004 Sinai bombings were three bomb attacks targeting tourist hotels in the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt, on 7 October 2004. The attacks left 34 people dead and 171 injured.
Asteroid 2008 TC3 impacts the Earth over Sudan, the first time an asteroid impact is detected prior to its entry into Earth's atmosphere.
2008 TC3 was an 80-tonne (80-long-ton; 90-short-ton), 4.1-meter (13Â ft) diameter asteroid that entered Earth's atmosphere on October 7, 2008. It exploded at an estimated 37 kilometers (23Â mi) above...
Qantas Flight 72 experiences an in-flight upset near Learmonth, Victoria, Australia, injuring 112.
Qantas Flight 72 (QF72) was a scheduled flight from Singapore Changi Airport to Perth Airport by an Airbus A330. On 7 October 2008, the flight made an emergency landing at Learmonth Airport near the...
In the wake of Hurricane Matthew, the death toll rises to over 800.
Hurricane Matthew was a powerful and devastating tropical cyclone which caused catastrophic damage and a humanitarian crisis in Haiti, as well as widespread devastation across Cuba, the Bahamas, and...
Ten people are killed and eight are injured in an explosion at petrol station in Creeslough, Ireland.
The Creeslough explosion occurred on 7 October 2022 at an apartment above Applegreen petrol station in Creeslough, a village in north County Donegal, Ireland. It killed ten people and left eight...
Ales Bialiatski, along with two organisations, Memorial & Center for Civil Liberties, are awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Ales Viktaravich Bialiatski is a Belarusian human rights defender, pro-democracy activist, and writer. He is chair of the Viasna Human Rights Centre. He was held as a prisoner of conscience. An...
Hamas and several other Palestinian militant groups launch an attack into Israel, which results in the deaths of around 1,200, mostly civilians, and the taking of 251 hostages, including civilians and soldiers. The attack initiated the Gaza war and the larger Middle Eastern crisis.
The Islamic Resistance Movement, abbreviated Hamas, is a Sunni Islamist Palestinian nationalist political organisation with a military wing known as the al-Qassam Brigades. It has governed the...