Historical Events on Friday, 7th November

07/11/2023

António Costa resigns as Prime Minister of Portugal following news of an investigation in a corruption scandal implicating members of his cabinet.

António Luís Santos da Costa is a Portuguese lawyer and politician who has served as president of the European Council since 2024. He previously served as prime minister of Portugal from 2015 to 2024 and secretary-general of the Socialist Party from 2014 to 2024.

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07/11/2020

Joe Biden is confirmed elected as the 46th president of the United States, defeating incumbent Donald Trump.

Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. is an American politician who was the 46th president of the United States from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party, he represented Delaware in the United States Senate from 1973 to 2009 and also served as the 47th vice president under President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2017.

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07/11/2017

Shamshad TV is attacked by gunmen and suicide bombers, with a security guard killed and 20 people wounded; ISIS claims responsibility for the attack.

Shamshad Media Network is based in Afghanistan and Dubai. Shamshad Media Network is a private and an independent network based in Afghanistan, which began transmission in 2005.

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07/11/2012

An earthquake off the Pacific coast of Guatemala kills at least 52 people.

The 2012 Guatemala earthquake occurred on November 7 at 10:35:45 local time. The shock had a moment magnitude of 7.4 and a maximum Mercalli Intensity of VII. The epicenter was located in the Pacific Ocean, 35 kilometres (22 mi) south of Champerico in the department of Retalhuleu. The affected region is earthquake-prone, where the Cocos plate is being subducted along the Middle America Trench beneath the North American and the Caribbean plates, near their triple junction.

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07/11/2007

The Jokela school shooting in Jokela, Tuusula, Finland, takes place, resulting in the death of nine people.

On 7 November 2007, a mass shooting occurred at Jokela High School in the town of Jokela, Tuusula, Finland. The gunman, 18-year-old Pekka-Eric Auvinen, entered the school that morning armed with a semi-automatic pistol. He killed eight people and wounded one before shooting himself in the head; twelve others were also injured by flying glass or by spraining their ankles during the ensuing chaos. Auvinen died later that evening in a Helsinki hospital.

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07/11/2004

Iraq War: The interim government of Iraq calls for a 60-day state of emergency as U.S. forces storm the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah.

The Iraq War, also referred to as the Second Gulf War, was a protracted armed conflict in Iraq from 2003 to 2011. It began with the invasion by a United States–led coalition, which resulted in the overthrow of the Ba'athist government of Saddam Hussein. During the US occupation of Iraq, the conflict persisted as an insurgency that arose against coalition forces and the newly established Iraqi government. US forces were officially withdrawn in 2011. In 2014, the US became re-engaged in Iraq, leading a new coalition under Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve, as the conflict evolved into the ongoing Islamic State insurgency.

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07/11/2000

The controversial US presidential election is later resolved in the Bush v. Gore Supreme Court case, electing George W. Bush as the 43rd President of the United States.

Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 7, 2000. The Republican ticket of Texas governor George W. Bush and former secretary of defense Dick Cheney narrowly defeated the Democratic ticket of incumbent vice president Al Gore and Connecticut junior senator Joe Lieberman. It was the fourth of five U.S. presidential elections, and the first since 1888 in which the winning candidate lost the popular vote, and is considered one of the closest U.S. presidential elections in history, with long-standing controversy about the result.

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The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration discovers one of the country's largest LSD labs inside a converted military missile silo in Wamego, Kansas.

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is a United States federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Justice tasked with combating illicit drug trafficking and distribution within the U.S. It is the lead agency for domestic enforcement of the Controlled Substances Act, sharing concurrent jurisdiction with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The DEA is responsible for coordinating and pursuing U.S. drug investigations both domestically and internationally.

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07/11/1996

NASA launches the Mars Global Surveyor.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government responsible for the United States' civil space program and for research in aeronautics and space. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., NASA operates ten field centers across the U.S. and is organized into mission directorates for Science, Space Operations, Exploration Systems Development, Space Technology, Aeronautics Research, and Mission Support. Established in 1958, NASA succeeded the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) to give the U.S. space program a distinct civilian orientation focused on peaceful applications. Since then, it has led most American spaceflight programs, including Project Mercury, Project Gemini, the Apollo program, Skylab, the Space Shuttle, the International Space Station (ISS) and the ongoing multi-national Artemis program.

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ADC Airlines Flight 086 crashes into the Lagos Lagoon in Epe, Lagos State, Nigeria, killing all 144 people on board.

ADC Airlines Flight 086 (ADK086) was a Nigerian domestic flight operated by ADC Airlines from Port Harcourt to Lagos. On the afternoon of 7 November 1996, the crew of the Boeing 727-231 operating the flight lost control of the aircraft while avoiding a mid-air collision on approach; the aircraft crashed inverted at a very high speed into a lagoon, killing all 144 passengers and crew on board. The crash remains as the fourth deadliest plane crash in Nigerian history after Dana Air Flight 0992, the 1992 Nigerian Air Force C-130 crash, and the 1973 Kano Nigeria Airways Boeing 707 crash.

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07/11/1994

WXYC, the student radio station of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, launches the world's first internet radio broadcast.

WXYC is an American radio station broadcasting a college radio format. Licensed to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States, the station is non-commercial and run by students of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The station is owned by Student Educational Broadcasting, Inc. The station operates with an effective radiated power of 1,100 watts, across 900 square miles, from an antenna height above average terrain of 147 meters (482 ft).

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07/11/1991

Magic Johnson announces that he is HIV-positive and retires from the NBA.

Earvin "Magic" Johnson Jr. is an American businessman and former professional basketball player. Often regarded as the greatest point guard of all time, Johnson spent his entire career with the Los Angeles Lakers in the National Basketball Association (NBA). After winning a national championship with the Michigan State Spartans in 1979, Johnson was selected first overall in the 1979 NBA draft by the Lakers, then led the team to five NBA championships during their "Showtime" era. Johnson retired abruptly in 1991 after announcing that he had contracted HIV, but returned to play in the 1992 All-Star Game, winning the All-Star MVP Award. He retired again after fellow players protested his return, but returned in 1996, at age 36, to play 32 games for the Lakers before retiring for the third and final time.

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07/11/1990

Mary Robinson becomes the first woman to be elected President of the Republic of Ireland.

Mary Therese Winifred Robinson is an Irish politician who served as the president of Ireland from December 1990 to September 1997. She was the country's first female president. Robinson had previously served as a senator in Seanad Éireann from 1969 to 1989, and as a councillor on Dublin Corporation from 1979 to 1983. Although she had been briefly affiliated with the Labour Party during her time as a senator, she became the first independent candidate to win the presidency and the first not to have had the support of Fianna Fáil. Following her time as president, Robinson became the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights from 1997 to 2002.

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07/11/1989

Douglas Wilder wins the governor's seat in Virginia, becoming the first elected African American governor in the United States.

Lawrence Douglas Wilder is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 66th governor of Virginia from 1990 to 1994. He was the first African American to serve as governor of a U.S. state since the Reconstruction era, and the first African American ever elected as governor. He is currently a professor at the namesake Wilder School at Virginia Commonwealth University.

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David Dinkins becomes the first African American to be elected Mayor of New York City.

David Norman Dinkins was an American politician, lawyer, and author who served as the 107th mayor of New York City from 1990 to 1993.

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East German Prime Minister Willi Stoph, along with his entire cabinet, is forced to resign after huge anti-government protests.

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 1989, it was generally viewed as a communist state and described itself as a socialist workers' and peasants' state.

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07/11/1987

In Tunisia, president Habib Bourguiba is overthrown and replaced by Prime Minister Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares maritime borders with Italy through the islands of Sicily and Sardinia to the north and Malta to the east. It features the archaeological sites of Carthage dating back to the 9th century BC, as well as the Great Mosque of Kairouan. Known for its ancient architecture, souks, and blue coasts, it covers 163,610 km2 (63,170 sq mi), and has a population of 12.1 million. It contains the eastern end of the Atlas Mountains and the northern reaches of the Sahara desert; much of its remaining territory is arable land. Its 1,300 km (810 mi) of coastline includes the African conjunction of the western and eastern parts of the Mediterranean Basin. Tunisia is home to Africa's northernmost point, Cape Angela. Located on the northeastern coast, Tunis is the capital of the country, which is itself named after Tunis. The official language of Tunisia is Arabic. The vast majority of Tunisia's population is Arab and Muslim. Vernacular Tunisian Arabic is the most spoken language, and French serves as an administrative and educational language in some contexts, but has no official status.

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The Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system in Singapore opens for passenger service.

The Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) is a rapid transit system in Singapore and the island country's principal mode of railway transportation. After two decades of planning the system commenced operations in November 1987 with an initial 6 km (3.7 mi) stretch consisting of five stations. The network has since grown to span the length and breadth of the country's main island – with the exception of the forested core and the rural northwestern region – in accordance with Singapore's aim of developing a comprehensive rail network as the backbone of the country's public transportation system, averaging a daily ridership of 3.49 million in 2025.

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07/11/1983

United States Senate bombing: A bomb explodes inside the United States Capitol. No one is injured, but an estimated $250,000 in damage is caused.

The 1983 U.S. Senate bombing was a terrorist attack that took place at the United States Senate on November 7, 1983, as a protest against United States military involvement in Lebanon and Grenada. The attack led to heightened security in the DC metropolitan area, and the inaccessibility of certain parts of the Senate Building. Six members of the Maoist Armed Resistance Unit, also known as Resistance Conspiracy, were arrested in May 1988 and charged with the bombing, as well as related bombings of Fort McNair and the Washington Navy Yard which occurred on April 25, 1983, and April 20, 1984, respectively.

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Cold War: The command post exercise Able Archer 83 begins, eventually leading to the Soviet Union to place air units in East Germany and Poland on alert, for fear that NATO was preparing for war

The Cold War was a period of international geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc. It began in the aftermath of the Second World War and ended with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. The term cold war is used because there was no direct fighting between the two superpowers, though each supported opposing sides in regional conflicts known as proxy wars. In addition to the struggle for ideological and economic influence and an arms race in both conventional and nuclear weapons, the Cold War was expressed through technological rivalries such as the Space Race, espionage, propaganda campaigns, embargoes, and sports diplomacy.

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07/11/1982

Colonel Saye Zerbo, president of the military government of Upper Volta, is ousted from power in a coup d'état led by Colonel Gabriel Yoryan Somé.

Saye Zerbo was a Burkinabé military officer who was the third President of the Republic of Upper Volta from 25 November 1980 until 7 November 1982.

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07/11/1975

In Bangladesh, a joint force of people and soldiers takes part in an uprising led by Colonel Abu Taher that ousts and kills Brigadier Khaled Mosharraf, freeing the then house-arrested army chief and future president Major General Ziaur Rahman.

Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world and among the most densely populated with a population of over 174 million within an area of 148,460 square kilometres (57,320 sq mi). Bangladesh shares land borders with India to the north, west, and east, and Myanmar to the southeast. It has a coastline along the Bay of Bengal to its south and is separated from Bhutan and Nepal by the Siliguri Corridor, and from China by the Indian state of Sikkim to its north. Dhaka, the capital and largest city, is the nation's political, financial, and cultural centre. Chittagong is the second-largest city and the busiest port of the country.

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07/11/1973

The United States Congress overrides President Richard Nixon's veto of the War Powers Resolution, which limits presidential power to wage war without congressional approval.

The United States Congress is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a bicameral legislature, including a lower body, the U.S. House of Representatives, and an upper body, the U.S. Senate. They both meet in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.

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07/11/1972

United States presidential election: U.S. President Richard Nixon is re-elected in the largest landslide victory at the time.

Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 7, 1972. Incumbent Republican President Richard Nixon and his running mate, incumbent Vice President Spiro Agnew, were elected to a second term in a landslide. They defeated the Democratic ticket of Senator George McGovern and former ambassador to France Sargent Shriver. With 60.7% of the popular vote, Nixon won the largest share of the popular vote for the Republican Party in any presidential election.

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07/11/1967

Carl B. Stokes is elected as Mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, becoming the first African American mayor of a major American city.

Carl Burton Stokes was an American politician and diplomat of the Democratic Party who served as the 51st mayor of Cleveland, Ohio. Elected on November 7, 1967, and taking office on January 1, 1968, he was one of the first black elected mayors of a major U.S. city.

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US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, establishing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Lyndon Baines Johnson, also known as LBJ, was the 36th president of the United States from 1963 until 1969. He was John F. Kennedy's vice president from 1961 to 1963, and a member of Congress for 26 years before. Johnson was a U.S. representative from Texas's 10th congressional district and the elder U.S. senator for Texas as a member of the Democratic Party. Born and raised in the segregationist South, Johnson had to compromise during the height of the civil rights movement.

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07/11/1957

Cold War: The Gaither Report calls for more American missiles and fallout shelters.

The Cold War was a period of international geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc. It began in the aftermath of the Second World War and ended with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. The term cold war is used because there was no direct fighting between the two superpowers, though each supported opposing sides in regional conflicts known as proxy wars. In addition to the struggle for ideological and economic influence and an arms race in both conventional and nuclear weapons, the Cold War was expressed through technological rivalries such as the Space Race, espionage, propaganda campaigns, embargoes, and sports diplomacy.

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07/11/1956

Suez Crisis: The United Nations General Assembly adopts a resolution calling for the United Kingdom, France and Israel to immediately withdraw their troops from Egypt.

The Suez Crisis, also known as the second Arab–Israeli war, the Tripartite Aggression in the Arab world and the Sinai War in Israel, was a British–French–Israeli invasion of Egypt in 1956. Israel invaded on 29 October, with the primary objective of re-opening the Straits of Tiran and the Gulf of Aqaba as the recent tightening of the eight-year-long Egyptian blockade further prevented Israeli passage. After issuing a joint ultimatum for a ceasefire, the United Kingdom and France joined the Israelis on 31 October, seeking to depose Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser and regain control of the Suez Canal, which Nasser had nationalised earlier in the year.

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Hungarian Revolution: János Kádár returns to Budapest in a Soviet armored convoy, officially taking office as the next Hungarian leader. By this point, most armed resistance has been defeated.

The Hungarian Revolution of 1956, also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was an attempted countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the policies caused by the government's subordination to the Soviet Union (USSR). The uprising lasted 15 days before being crushed by Soviet tanks and troops on 7 November 1956. Thousands were killed or wounded, and nearly a quarter of a million Hungarians fled the country.

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07/11/1949

The first oil was taken in Oil Rocks (Neft Daşları), the world's oldest offshore oil platform.

Neft Daşları is an industrial settlement in Baku, Azerbaijan. The settlement forms part of the municipality of Çilov-Neft Daşları in the Pirallahy raion. It lies 86 km (53 mi) away from the Azerbaijani capital Baku and 39 km (24 mi) from the nearest mainland shore in the Caspian Sea. A full town on the sea, it was the first oil platform in Azerbaijan, and the first operating offshore oil platform in the world, incorporating numerous drilling platforms. It is featured in Guinness World Records as the world's first offshore oil platform.

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07/11/1944

Soviet spy Richard Sorge, a half-Russian, half-German World War I veteran, is hanged by his Japanese captors along with 34 of his ring.

Richard Gustavovich Sorge was a German-Russian journalist and Soviet military intelligence officer who was active before and during World War II and worked undercover as a German journalist in both Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan. His codename was "Ramsay" (Рамза́й).

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Franklin D. Roosevelt is elected for a record fourth term as President of the United States.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president and the only one to have served more than two terms. His first two terms were centered on combating the Great Depression, while his third and fourth focused on US involvement in World War II. A member of the Democratic Party, Roosevelt served in the New York State Senate from 1911 to 1913 and as the 44th governor of New York from 1929 to 1932.

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07/11/1941

World War II: Soviet hospital ship Armenia is sunk by German planes while evacuating refugees and wounded military and staff of several Crimean hospitals. It is estimated that over 5,000 people died in the sinking.

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 roles, the latter enabling the strategic bombing of cities and delivery of the only nuclear weapons used in war. World War II was the deadliest conflict in history, causing the death of 60 to 75 million people. Millions died as a result of massacres, starvation, disease, and genocides including the Holocaust. After the Allied victory, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Korea were occupied, and German and Japanese leaders were tried for war crimes.

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07/11/1940

In Tacoma, Washington, the original Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapses in a windstorm, a mere four months after the bridge's completion.

Tacoma is a city in and the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along the Puget Sound roughly 30 miles (48 km) from Seattle and Olympia, and 58 miles (93 km) northwest of Mount Rainier National Park. Tacoma is the second-largest city in the Puget Sound area and the third-most populous city in the state with a population of 219,346 at the 2020 census. Tacoma is the economic and cultural center of the South Sound region, which has a population of about 1 million.

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07/11/1936

Spanish Civil War: The Madrid Defense Council is formed to coordinate the Defense of Madrid against nationalist forces.

The Spanish Civil War was fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republicans and the Nationalist rebels. Republicans were loyal to the left-leaning Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic and included socialists, anarchists, communists, and separatists, supported by the Soviet Union. The opposing Nationalists were an alliance of fascist Falangists, monarchists, conservatives, and traditionalists, supported by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy and initially led by a military junta, until General Francisco Franco was appointed supreme leader on 1 October 1936 for what he called the Spanish State. Due to the international political climate at the time, the war was variously viewed as class struggle, religious struggle, or struggle between republican democracy and dictatorship, revolution and counterrevolution, or fascism and communism. The Nationalists won the war in early 1939, and ruled Spain until Franco's death in November 1975.

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07/11/1933

Fiorello H. La Guardia is elected the 99th mayor of New York City.

Fiorello Henry La Guardia was an American attorney and politician who served as the 100th mayor of New York City from 1934 to 1946. He previously represented New York in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1917 to 1919 and again from 1923 to 1933. He was known for his irascible, energetic, and charismatic personality and diminutive, rotund stature. A member of the Republican Party, La Guardia was frequently cross-endorsed by parties other than his own, especially parties on the left under New York's electoral fusion laws. A panel of 69 scholars in 1993 ranked him as the best big city mayor in American history.

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07/11/1931

The Chinese Soviet Republic is proclaimed on the anniversary of the October Revolution.

The Chinese Soviet Republic (CSR) was a state within the Republic of China, proclaimed on 7 November 1931 by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leaders Mao Zedong and Zhu De in the early stages of the Chinese Civil War. The discontiguous territories of the CSR included 18 provinces and 4 counties under the Communists' control. The CSR's government was located in its largest component territory, the Jiangxi Soviet in southeastern China, with its capital city at Ruijin. Due to the importance of the Jiangxi Soviet in the CSR's early history, the name "Jiangxi Soviet" is sometimes used to refer to the CSR as a whole. Other component territories of the CSR included the Minzhegan, Xianggan, Xiang'egang, Honghu, Xiang'echuanqian, Eyuwan, Eyushan, Shaanxi-Gansu, Sichuan-Shaanxi, and Hailufeng Soviets.

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07/11/1929

In New York City, the Museum of Modern Art opens to the public.

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, and includes over 200,000 works of architecture and design, drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, prints, illustrated and artist's books, film, as well as electronic media. The museum has been instrumental in shaping the history of modern art, particularly modern art from Europe.

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07/11/1920

Patriarch Tikhon of Moscow issues a decree that leads to the formation of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia.

Tikhon of Moscow, born Vasily Ivanovich Bellavin, was a bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC). On 5 November 1917 (OS) he was selected the 11th Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, after a period of about 200 years of the Synodal rule in the ROC. He was canonised as a confessor by the ROC in 1989.

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07/11/1919

The first Palmer Raid is conducted on the second anniversary of the Russian Revolution. Over 10,000 suspected communists and anarchists are arrested in 23 U.S. cities.

The Palmer Raids were a series of raids conducted in November 1919 and January 1920 by the United States Department of Justice under the administration of President Woodrow Wilson to capture and arrest suspected socialists, especially anarchists and communists, and deport them from the United States. The raids particularly targeted Italian immigrants and Eastern European Jewish immigrants with alleged leftist ties, with particular focus on Italian anarchists and immigrant leftist labor activists. The raids and arrests occurred under the leadership of United States Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, with 6,000 people arrested across 36 cities. Though 556 foreign citizens were deported, including a number of prominent leftist leaders, Palmer's efforts were largely frustrated by officials at the U.S. Department of Labor, which had authority for deportations and objected to Palmer's methods.

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07/11/1918

The 1918 influenza epidemic spreads to Western Samoa, killing 7,542 (about 20% of the population) by the end of the year.

The 1918–1920 flu pandemic, also known as the Great Influenza epidemic or by the misleading name Spanish flu, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 subtype of the influenza A virus. The earliest probable cases were documented in March 1918 in Haskell County, Kansas, United States, with further cases recorded in France, Germany and the United Kingdom in April. Two years later, nearly a third of the global population, or an estimated 500 million people, had been infected. Estimates of deaths range from 17 million to 50 million, and possibly as high as 100 million, making it one of the deadliest pandemics in history.

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Kurt Eisner overthrows the Wittelsbach dynasty in the Kingdom of Bavaria.

Kurt Eisner was a German politician, revolutionary, journalist, and theatre critic. As a socialist journalist, he organized the socialist revolution that overthrew the Wittelsbach monarchy in Bavaria in November 1918, which led to him being described as "the symbol of the Bavarian revolution". Eisner subsequently proclaimed the People's State of Bavaria but was assassinated by far-right Bavarian nationalist Anton Graf von Arco auf Valley in Munich on 21 February 1919.

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07/11/1917

The October Revolution, which gets its name from the Julian calendar date of 25 October, occurs, according to the Gregorian calendar; on this date, the Bolsheviks storm the Winter Palace.

The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution, October coup, Bolshevik coup, Bolshevik Revolution, and occasionally the November Revolution, was the second of two revolutions in Russia in 1917. It was led by Vladimir Lenin's Bolsheviks as part of the broader Russian Revolution of 1917–1923. It began through an insurrection in Petrograd on 7 November 1917 [O.S. 25 October]. It was the precipitating event of the Russian Civil War. The initial stage of the October Revolution, which involved the assault on Petrograd, occurred largely without any casualties.

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World War I: The Third Battle of Gaza ends, with British forces capturing Gaza from the Ottoman Empire.

World War I, or the First World War, also known as The Great War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Central Powers. Major areas of conflict included Europe and the Middle East, as well as parts of Africa and the Asia-Pacific. The war saw important developments in weaponry including tanks, aircraft, artillery, machine guns, and chemical weapons. One of the deadliest conflicts in history, it resulted in an estimated 15 to 22 million military and civilian casualties and genocide. The movement of large numbers of people was a major factor in the deadly Spanish flu pandemic.

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07/11/1916

Jeannette Rankin is the first woman elected to the United States Congress.

Jeannette Pickering Rankin was an American politician and women's rights advocate who became the first woman to hold federal office in the United States. She was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as a Republican from Montana in 1916 for one term, then was elected again in 1940. Rankin remains the only woman ever elected to Congress from Montana.

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Woodrow Wilson is reelected as President of the United States.

Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th president of the United States, serving from 1913 to 1921. He was the only Democrat to serve as president during the Progressive Era, when Republicans dominated the presidency and legislative branches. As president, Wilson made significant economic reforms and led the United States through World War I. He was the leading architect of the League of Nations, and his stance on foreign policy came to be known as Wilsonianism.

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Boston Elevated Railway Company's streetcar No. 393 smashes through the warning gates of the open Summer Street drawbridge in Boston, Massachusetts, plunging into the frigid waters of Fort Point Channel, killing 46 people.

The Boston Elevated Railway (BERy) was a streetcar and rapid transit railroad operated on, above, and below, the streets of Boston, Massachusetts and surrounding communities. Founded in 1894, it eventually acquired the West End Street Railway via lease and merger to become the city's primary mass transit provider. Its modern successor is the state-run Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), which continues to operate in part on infrastructure developed by BERy and its predecessors.

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07/11/1914

The German colony of Kiaochow Bay and its centre at Tsingtao are captured by Japanese forces. This leaves Germany without a far east base.

The German Empire, also referred to as Imperial Germany, the Second Reich, or simply Germany, was the period of the German Reich from the unification of Germany in 1871 until the November Revolution in 1918, when Germany changed its form of government to a republic. The German Empire consisted of 25 states, each with its own nobility: four constituent kingdoms, six grand duchies, five duchies, seven principalities, three free Hanseatic cities, and one imperial territory. While Prussia was only one of the four kingdoms in the realm, it contained about two-thirds of the Empire's population and territory, and Prussian dominance was also constitutionally established, since the King of Prussia was also the German Emperor.

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07/11/1913

The first day of the Great Lakes Storm of 1913, a massive blizzard that ultimately killed 250 and caused over $5 million (about $159,243,000 in 2024 dollars) damage. Winds reach hurricane force on this date.

The Great Lakes Storm of 1913, historically referred to as the Big Blow, the Freshwater Fury and the White Hurricane, was a blizzard with hurricane-force winds that devastated the Great Lakes Basin in the Midwestern United States and Southwestern Ontario, Canada, between November 7 and 10, 1913. The storm was at its most powerful on November 9, battering and overturning ships on four of the five Great Lakes, particularly Lake Huron.

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07/11/1912

The Deutsche Opernhaus (now Deutsche Oper Berlin) opens in the Berlin neighborhood of Charlottenburg, with a production of Beethoven's Fidelio.

The Deutsche Oper Berlin is a German opera company located in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin. The resident building is the country's second largest opera house and also home to the Berlin State Ballet.

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07/11/1910

The first air freight shipment (from Dayton, Ohio, to Columbus, Ohio) is undertaken by the Wright brothers and department store owner Max Morehouse.

Air cargo is any property carried or to be carried in an aircraft. Air cargo comprises air freight, air express and airmail.

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07/11/1907

Jesús García saves the entire town of Nacozari de García by driving a burning train full of dynamite six kilometres (3.7 miles) away before it can explode.

Jesús García Corona was a Mexican railroad brakeman who died while preventing a train loaded with dynamite from exploding near Nacozari, Sonora, in 1907. As "el héroe de Nacozari", he is revered as a national hero and many streets, plazas, and schools across Mexico are named after him.

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07/11/1900

Second Boer War: The Battle of Leliefontein takes place, during which the Royal Canadian Dragoons win three Victoria Crosses.

The Second Boer War, also known as the Boer War, Transvaal War, Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the Boer republics over Britain's influence in Southern Africa.

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07/11/1893

Women's suffrage: Women in the U.S. state of Colorado are granted the right to vote, the second state to do so.

Women's suffrage, or the right of women to vote, was established in the United States over the course of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, first in various states and localities, then nationally in 1920 with the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution.

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An anarchist throws two bombs in Barcelona's Liceu opera house, killing 20.

The Liceu bombing was a terrorist attack by the Spanish anarchist Santiago Salvador, who killed 20 to 30 people at Barcelona's Grand Lyceum Theatre on 7 November 1893. The bombing was in response to the execution of Paulí Pallàs, who had himself attempted to assassinate the Captain General of Catalonia, Arsenio Martínez Campos.

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07/11/1885

The completion of Canada's first transcontinental railway is symbolized by the Last Spike ceremony at Craigellachie, British Columbia.

A ceremonial final spike was driven into the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) at Craigellachie, British Columbia, at 9:22 am on November 7, 1885. It was driven in by CPR railway financier Donald Smith, Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal, marking the end to a saga of natural disasters, financial crises, and even rebellion that plagued Canada's first transcontinental railway from its beginning.

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07/11/1881

Mapuche uprising of 1881: Mapuche rebels destroy the Chilean settlement of Nueva Imperial after defenders fled to the hills.

The last major rebellion of the indigenous Mapuches of Araucanía took place in 1881, during the last phase of the Occupation of Araucanía (1861–1883) by the Chilean state. It was planned by Mapuche chiefs in March 1881 to be launched in November the same year. Mapuche support for the uprising was not unanimous: Some Mapuche factions sided with the Chileans and others declared themselves neutral. The organizers of the uprising did however succeed in involving Mapuche factions that had not previously been at war with Chile. With most of the attacks repelled within a matters of days Chile went on the next years to consolidate its conquests.

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07/11/1874

A cartoon by Thomas Nast in Harper's Weekly, is considered the first important use of an elephant as a symbol for the United States Republican Party.

A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently animated, in an unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or series of images intended for satire, caricature, or humor; or a motion picture that relies on a sequence of illustrations for its animation. Someone who creates cartoons in the first sense is called a cartoonist, and in the second sense they are usually called an animator.

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07/11/1861

American Civil War: Battle of Belmont: In Belmont, Missouri, Union forces led by General Ulysses S. Grant overrun a Confederate camp but are forced to retreat when Confederate reinforcements arrive.

The American Civil War was a civil war in the United States between the Union and the Confederacy, which was formed in 1861 by states that had seceded from the Union to preserve slavery in the United States, which they saw as threatened because of the election of Abraham Lincoln and the growing abolitionist movement in the North. The war lasted a little over four years, ending with Union victory, the dissolution of the Confederacy and the abolition of slavery, freeing four million African Americans.

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The first Melbourne Cup horse race is held in Melbourne, Australia.

The Melbourne Cup is an annual Group 1 Thoroughbred horse race held in Melbourne, Australia, at the Flemington Racecourse. It is a 3200-metre race for three-year-olds and older, conducted by the Victoria Racing Club that forms part of the Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival. It is the richest two-mile handicap in the world and one of the richest turf races. The event starts at 3:00 pm on the first Tuesday of November and is known locally as "the race that stops the nation".

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07/11/1837

In Alton, Illinois, abolitionist printer Elijah P. Lovejoy is shot dead by a mob while attempting to protect his printing shop from being destroyed a third time.

Alton is a city on the Mississippi River in Madison County, Illinois, United States, about 18 miles (29 km) north of St. Louis, Missouri. The population was 25,676 at the 2020 census. It is a part of the River Bend area in the Metro-East region of the Greater St. Louis metropolitan area.

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07/11/1811

Tecumseh's War: The Battle of Tippecanoe is fought near present-day Battle Ground, Indiana, United States.

Tecumseh's War or Tecumseh's Rebellion was a conflict between the United States and Tecumseh's confederacy, led by the Shawnee leader Tecumseh in the Indiana Territory. Although the war is often considered to have climaxed with William Henry Harrison's victory at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811, Tecumseh's War essentially continued into the War of 1812 and is frequently considered a part of that larger struggle. The war lasted for two more years, until 1813, when Tecumseh died fighting Harrison's Army of the Northwest at the Battle of Moraviantown in Upper Canada, near present-day Chatham, Ontario, and his confederacy disintegrated. Tecumseh's War is viewed by some academic historians as the final conflict of a longer-term military struggle for control of the Great Lakes region of North America, encompassing a number of wars over several generations, referred to as the Sixty Years' War.

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07/11/1786

The oldest musical organization in the United States is founded as the Stoughton Musical Society.

Organized in 1786 as The Stoughton Musical Society, it is America's oldest performing musical organization. For over two centuries it has had many distinguished accomplishments. In 1908, when incorporated under the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the name was changed to Old Stoughton Musical Society and it has retained that designation.

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07/11/1775

John Murray (also known as Lord Dunmore), the Royal Governor of the Colony of Virginia, starts the first mass emancipation of slaves in North America by issuing Lord Dunmore's Offer of Emancipation, which offers freedom to slaves who abandoned their colonial masters to fight with Murray and the British.

John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore was a British Army officer and colonial administrator who served as the governor of Virginia from 1771 to 1776. Dunmore was named governor of New York in 1770. He succeeded to the same position in the colony of Virginia the following year after the death of Norborne Berkeley, 4th Baron Botetourt. As Virginia's governor, Dunmore directed a series of campaigns against the trans-Appalachian Indians, known as Lord Dunmore's War. He is noted for issuing a 1775 document, Dunmore's Proclamation, offering freedom to slaves who fought for the British Crown against Patriot rebels in Virginia. Dunmore fled to New York after the burning of Norfolk in 1776 and later returned to Britain. He was Governor of the Bahamas from 1787 to 1796.

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07/11/1723

O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort, BWV 60, a dialogue cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach for Leipzig, was first performed.

O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort, BWV 60, is a church cantata for the 24th Sunday after Trinity composed by Johann Sebastian Bach. It was first performed in Leipzig on 7 November 1723, and is part of Bach's first cantata cycle. It is one of Bach's dialogue cantatas: its topic, fear of death and hope of salvation, plays out mainly through a conversation between two allegorical figures, Fear and Hope.

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07/11/1665

The London Gazette, the oldest surviving journal, is first published.

The London Gazette, known generally as The Gazette, is one of the official journals of record or government gazettes of the Government of the United Kingdom, and the most important among such official journals in the United Kingdom, in which certain statutory notices are required to be published.

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07/11/1619

Elizabeth Stuart is crowned Queen of Bohemia.

Elizabeth Stuart was Electress of the Palatinate and briefly Queen of Bohemia as the wife of Frederick V of the Palatinate. The couple's selection for the crown by the nobles of Bohemia was part of the political and religious turmoil that set off the Thirty Years' War. Since her husband's reign in Bohemia lasted over only one winter, she is called "The Winter Queen".

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07/11/1504

Christopher Columbus returns from his fourth and last voyage.

Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer and navigator from the Republic of Genoa who completed four Spanish-based voyages across the Atlantic Ocean sponsored by the Catholic Monarchs, opening the way for the widespread European exploration and colonization of the Americas. His expeditions were the first known European contact with the Caribbean and Central and South America.

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07/11/1492

The Ensisheim meteorite, the oldest meteorite with a known date of impact, strikes the Earth in a wheat field outside the village of Ensisheim, Alsace, France.

The Ensisheim meteorite is a stony meteorite that fell on November 7, 1492 in a wheat field outside the walled town of Ensisheim in then Alsace, Further Germany. The meteorite can still be seen in Ensisheim's museum, the sixteenth-century Musée de la Régence. It is the oldest recorded stony European meteorite fall from which there is still some meteoritic material preserved.

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07/11/1426

Lam Sơn uprising: Lam Sơn rebels emerge victorious against the Ming army in the Battle of Tốt Động – Chúc Động taking place in Đông Quan, in now Hanoi.

The Lam Sơn uprising was a rebellion against Ming China led by Vietnamese leader Lê Lợi. The uprising began in early 1418 and ended in late 1427 with the victory of the Lam Sơn rebels, the retreat of the Ming army after the Đông Quan oath, and the establishment of the Later Lê dynasty.

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07/11/0921

Treaty of Bonn: The Frankish kings Charles the Simple and Henry the Fowler sign a peace treaty or 'pact of friendship' (amicitia) to recognize their borders along the Rhine.

On 7 November 921, the Treaty of Bonn, the text of which calls itself a "pact of friendship" (amicitia), was signed between Charles III of France and Henry I of Germany in a minimalist ceremony aboard a ship in the middle of the Rhine not far from Bonn. The use of the river, which was the border between their two kingdoms, as a neutral territory had extensive Carolingian precedents and was also used in classical antiquity and in contemporary Anglo-Saxon England.

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07/11/0680

The Sixth Ecumenical Council commences in Constantinople.

The Third Council of Constantinople, counted as the Sixth Ecumenical Council by the Eastern Orthodox and Catholic Churches, and by certain other Western Churches, met in 680–681 and condemned monoenergism and monothelitism as heretical and defined Jesus Christ as having two energies and two wills.

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07/11/0335

Athanasius, 20th pope of Alexandria, is banished to Trier on the charge that he prevented a grain fleet from sailing to Constantinople.

Athanasius I of Alexandria, also called Athanasius the Great, Athanasius the Confessor, or, among Coptic Christians, Athanasius the Apostolic, was a Christian theologian and the 20th patriarch of Alexandria. His intermittent episcopacy spanned 45 years, of which over 17 encompassed five exiles, when he was replaced on the order of four different Roman emperors. Athanasius was a Church Father, the chief proponent of Trinitarianism against Arianism, and a noted Egyptian Christian leader of the fourth century.

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