On This Day in History - December 7 "Day of Infamy" - Pearl Harbor Attacked

Once again, it should be reiterated, that this does not pretend to be a very extensive history of what happened on this day (nor is it the most original - the links can be found down below). If you know something that I am missing, by all means, shoot me an email or leave a comment, and let me know!

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

Dec 7, 1941: "A date which will live in infamy"

On this day, in an early-morning sneak attack, Japanese warplanes bomb the U.S. naval base at Oahu Island's Pearl Harbor—and the United States enters World War II.  

President Roosevelt and Secretary of State Cordell Hull knew a Japanese attack was imminent. Having received intelligence reports of intercepted coded messages from Tokyo to the Japanese ambassador in the United States, the president anticipated Japanese reprisals for his government's refusal to reverse economic sanctions and embargoes against Japan. The Roosevelt administration had remained firm in its demand that the Japanese first withdraw from China and French Indochina, which it had invaded in 1937 and July 1941, respectively, and renounce its alliance with fascist Germany and Italy.  

But Japan refused, demanding that the United States first end the embargo on oil shipments vital for Tokyo's war machine. Although negotiations between the two nations continued up to the very last minute, Roosevelt was aware of a secret November 25 deadline, established by Tokyo, that confirmed military action on the part of the Japanese should they not received satisfaction from the negotiations. While forewarned, Washington could not pinpoint the time or place of an attack.  

Despite initially objecting to war with America, Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto believed that if Prime Minister Hideki Tojo was determined to go to war, it was Japan who had to make a preemptive strike. Yamamoto studied the devastating November 1940 British attack against the Italian fleet at Taranto, and planned and led the sneak attack against the United States. Approximately 360 Japanese warplanes were launched from six aircraft carriers, reinforced by battleships, cruisers, and destroyers. The first dive-bomber was spotted over Pearl Harbor at 7:55 a.m. Hawaii time. It was followed by 200 aircraft, which decimated the American ships anchored there, most of which were only lightly manned because it was Sunday morning. Among the 18 U.S. ships destroyed, sunk, or capsized were the Arizona, Virginia, California, Nevada, and West Virginia. More than 180 planes were destroyed on the ground and another 150 were damaged (leaving but 43 operational). American casualties totaled more than 3,400, with more than 2,400 killed (1,000 on the Arizona alone). The Japanese lost fewer than 100 men.  

In the short term, the Japanese goal of crippling U.S. naval strength in the Pacific, and thereby giving Tokyo free reign to gobble up more of Southeast Asia and the South Pacific in its dream of imperial expansion, was successful. But the war had only just begun.









Dec 7, 1987: Mikhail Gorbachev arrives in United States for summit with Ronald Reagan

Despite protests in Washington concerning Soviet human rights abuses, most Americans get swept up in "Gorbymania" as Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev arrives for his summit with President Ronald Reagan. Gorbachev and his wife, Raisa, charmed the American public and media by praising the United States and calling for closer relations between the Soviet Union and America.  

Aside from the excitement surrounding Gorbachev (whose face was soon plastered on T-shirts, cups, and posters), the summit with Reagan resulted in one of the most significant arms control agreements of the Cold War. Reagan and Gorbachev signed off on the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Force (INF) Treaty, which called for the elimination of all ground cruise and ballistic missiles and launchers in Europe with ranges of 320 to 3,400 miles. By June 1991, the United States had eliminated over 800 missiles and the Soviets had eliminated 1,800 such weapons.  

The INF Treaty was the first arms control agreement that eliminated, rather than simply limited, nuclear weapons. The treaty also required on-site inspections to ensure compliance, part of Reagan's famous "trust but verify" credo. Some critics in the United States denounced the treaty, claiming that it would "de-nuke" Europe and leave America's allies at the mercy of the Soviets' massive conventional forces. Most Americans, however, considered it a monumental step toward the reduction of the risk of nuclear war. The treaty was ratified by the Senate and went into effect in June 1988.











Dec 7, 1975: Indonesia invades East Timor

Early in the morning, Indonesian forces launch a massive invasion of the former Portuguese half of the island of Timor, which lies near Australia in the Timor Sea.  

The Portuguese departed East Timor in August 1975, and Indonesian troops soon began infiltrating the border from Indonesian West Timor. On November 28, the democratically elected government of East Timor, fearing an imminent Indonesian invasion, proclaimed the Democratic Republic of East Timor.  

On the morning of December 7, Indonesia responded by initiating a naval bombardment of the city of Dili, followed by landings of paratroopers from the air and of marines on the beaches. On December 10, a second invasion force captured the second largest city, Baucau. Elsewhere, East Timorese resistance continued, but by 1978 the annexation of East Timor by Indonesia was essentially complete.  

During the initial years of the Indonesian invasion and occupation, more than 100,000 East Timorese died as a direct result of the conflict. Most of the dead were civilians killed by the military or starved to death in internment camps or while hiding in the hills from the Indonesian military. Small groups of East Timorese guerrillas continued their resistance for decades. In 1996, Jose Ramos-Horta and Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to win independence for East Timor.  

Indonesian dictator Suharto, who had ordered the 1975 invasion, was ousted from power in 1998, and East Timorese renewed their calls for independence. In 1999, the people of East Timor voted overwhelmingly for independence in a referendum, leading to bloody attacks by Indonesian militia forces. An Australian-led U.N. peacekeeping force was deployed to stop the violence, and in August 2001 East Timor held its first democratic elections to establish an autonomous government.



Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:

43 BC - Marcus Tullius Cicero (b. 106 BC), Roman orator and politician assassinated.

185 - Emperor Lo-Yang, China sees supernova (MSH15-52)

1354 - Margaretha van Bavarian's son earl Willem V signs peace treaty

1696 - Connecticut Route 108, one of the oldest highways in the U.S. is completed to Trumbull.

1724 - Tumult of Thorn - religious unrest was followed by the execution of nine Protestant citizens and the mayor of Thorn (Toruń) by Polish authorities.

1732 - The Royal Opera House opens at Covent Garden, London.

1741 - Elisabeth Petrovna becomes tsarina of Russia

1783 - Theatre Royal opens in Covent Garden, London

1783 - William Pitt Jr (24) becomes British Premier

1787 - Delaware becomes 1st state to ratify constitution

1808 - James Madison elected 4th US President and George Clinton Vice-President

1835 - German railway Neurenberg-Furth opens

1836 - Martin Van Buren elected 8th president

1842 - NY Philharmonic's 1st concert

1862 - Battle of Hartsville, TN

1862 - Battle of Prairie Grove, AR

1864 - Skirmish at Ebenezer Creek/Cypress Swamp, Georgia

1868 - Jesse James gang robs bank in Gallatin Missouri, kills 1

1872 - HMS Challenger sets sail on 3½ year world oceanographic cruise

Outlaw Jesse JamesOutlaw Jesse James 1875 - Natives Sons of the West organized

1876 - NY Mutuals & Phila A's expelled from NL for not completing sked

1877 - Thomas A Edison demonstrates the gramophone

1885 - 49th Congress (1885-87) convenes

1889 - Gilbert & Sullivans "Gondoliers" premieres in London

1891 - 52nd Congress (1st to appropriate $1 billion) holds 1st session

1895 - Battle at Amba Alagi: Abyssinians beat Italian armies

1900 - Max Planck, in his house at Grunewald, on the outskirts of Berlin, discovers the law of black body emission.

1907 - Eugene Corri becomes 1st referee in a boxing ring

1909 - Leo Baekeland, Yonkers, patents 1st thermosetting plastic (Bakelite)

1911 - Leslie J Stuarts musical "Betsy" premieres in NYC

1911 - Natl Hockey Association forms with New Westminster, Vancouver & Victoria

1912 - Bust of Queen Nefertete found in El-Amarna, Egypt

1916 - British government of David Lloyd George forms

1916 - David Lloyd George replaces resigning H H Asquith as British PM

1917 - US becomes 13th country to declare war on Austria during World War I

1920 - NSW make 802 against South Australia, then Mailey takes 8-81

1920 - USPD-KPD parties merge into Vereinigte Communist Party of Germany

1921 - KWG-AM in Stockton CA begins radio transmissions

1924 - German election (Social Democrats win, Nazis & Communists lose)

1925 - Biltmore Theater opens at 261 W 47th St NYC

1925 - Noel Coward's "Easy Virtue" premieres in NYC

1926 - Gas refrigerator patented

1929 - Bradman scores 124 for Woodfull's XI against Ryder's XI 166 mins

1929 - Leo Diegel wins PGA golf tournament

1930 - 13th PGA Championship: Tommy Armour at Fresh Meadows CC Flushing

1931 - Bradman scores 219 NSW v South Africa, 234 mins, 15 fours

1932 - 1st gyro-stabilized vessel to cross Atlantic arrives in NY

1934 - Wiley Post discovers jet stream

1935 - CFL Grey Cup: Winnipeg Blue Bombers beat Ham Tigers, 18-12 at Hamilton

1937 - Dutch Minister Romme proclaims married women are forbidden to work

Baseball Player Ted WilliamsBaseball Player Ted Williams 1937 - Red Sox acquire the contract of 19-year-old Ted Williams

1937 - Russian chess player Alekhine recaptures world title from Max Euwe

1938 - Philip Barry's "Here Come the Clowns" premieres in NYC

1938 - W9XZY broadcasts facsimile of St Louis Post-Dispatch by radio

1939 - Lou Gehrig, 36, is elected to Baseball's Hall of Fame

1939 - William Walton's violinist concert premieres in Cleveland

1940 - 28th CFL Grey Cup (Game 2): Toronto Balmy Beach defeats Ottawa, 12-5

1940 - North Africa: British counter offensive under general O'Connor

1940 - The first prototype Fairey Barracuda flew

1941 - Australian bombers land on Timor/Ambon

1941 - Futshida's air fleet passes coastline of Oahu

1941 - German siege of Tobruk after 8 months ends

1941 - Japanese attack on the US at Pearl Harbour Naval Base, Hawaii

1941 - Nacht & Nebel Erlass, resistance fighter sent to concentration camps

1941 - 1st Japanese midget submarine (No. 20) attacked by a US ship (USS Ward)

1943 - Cairo: president Roosevelt travels back to the US

1944 - Convention on International Civil Aviation drawn up in Chicago

1944 - General Radescu forms Romanian government

1945 - Microwave oven patented

1946 - Fire at Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta, kills 119

1949 - 15th Heisman Trophy Award: Leon Hart, Notre Dame (E)

1949 - Chiang Kai-shek flees to Taiwan

1952 - KKTV TV channel 11 in Colorado Spgs-Pueblo, CO (CBS) 1st broadcast

1953 - Israel's PM Ben-Gurion retires

1953 - WCCB TV channel 18 in Charlotte, NC (IND/ABC) begins broadcasting

1954 - Japanese government of Joshida resigns

1954 - KCTS TV channel 9 in Seattle, WA (PBS) begins broadcasting

1956 - Helen O'Connell joins Today Show panel

1957 - Tony Kubek of the Yanks selected as AL Rookie of the Year

1958 - Romulo Betancourt elected pres of Venezuela

1959 - "Saratoga" opens at Winter Garden Theater NYC for 80 performances

1960 - Ivory Coast claims independence from France

1962 - Great Britain performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

1963 - Ian Meckiff no-balled for throwing against the South Africans

1963 - Instant replay is used for the first time in a Army-Navy game.

1964 - George Harrison changes his company's name from Mornyork to Harrisongs

1965 - Pope Paul VI & Orthodox Patriarch Athenagoras I simultaneously lift mutual excommunications that led to split of 2 churches in 1054

1966 - A fire at an army barracks in Erzurum, Turkey kills 68 people.

1967 - "How Now, Dow Jones" opens at Lunt Fontanne Theater NYC for 220 perfs

1967 - Otis Redding records "Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay"

1968 - M Dodd returns a library books his Great grandfather took out in 1923

1968 - Orbiting Astronomical Observatory 2 launched into Earth orbit

1968 - Richard Dodd returns a library book his great grandad took out in 1823

1970 - Taizan Maezumi Roshi, head of LA Zen Center, receives dharma

1970 - West Germany & Poland normalize relations

1971 - "Wild & Wonderful" opens/closes at Lyceum Theater NYC

1971 - Wings release their 1st album "Wild Life"

1972 - Apollo 17 (US), final manned lunar landing mission, launched

1972 - Philippine's 1st lady Imelda Marcos stabbed & wounded by an assailant

1973 - Orioles sell pitcher Eddie Watt to the Phillies

1973 - Phillies sell infielder-outfielder Cesar Tovar to the Texas Rangers

1973 - Wings release "Band on the Run"

1975 - 10th Islander shut-out opponent-Glenn Resch 3-0 vs Sabres

1975 - Archbishop Makarios returns Cyprus

1975 - Indonesian army occupies East Timor

1975 - Pat Bradley wins Colgate-Far East Ladies Tournament Golf Tournament

1976 - UN Security Council endorses Kurt Waldheim, sec-gen for 2nd 5 yr term

1977 - Islander Billy Smith's 10th shut-out opponent-Black Hawks 4-0

1978 - Islander's Mike Bossy's 1st career hat trick

1981 - Spain becomes a member of the NATO

1982 - Suriname army under Desi Bouterse fires on radio station building

1982 - In Texas, Charles Brooks, Jr. becomes the first person to be executed by lethal injection in the US.

1983 - 2 jets collided at Madrid Airport killing 93

1983 - France performs nuclear test at Muruora Island

1984 - Allan Border's 1st Test Cricket match as captain (v WI Adelaide)

1985 - 51st Heisman Trophy Award: Bo Jackson, Auburn (RB)

1985 - Atlantis returns to Kennedy Space Center via Kelly AFB

1986 - Juli Inkster/Tom Purtzer wins LPGA J C Penney Golf Classic

1986 - Pres Jean-Claude Duvalier flees Haiti

1987 - 43 die in Pacific Southwest Airline crash in California (man shot pilots)

1987 - Gorbachev arrives in US for a summit meeting

1987 - Palestinian uprising against Israel in West Bank

1988 - 6.9 earthquake in Spitak, Armenia (>25,000 killed, 5,000,000 homeless)

1988 - Gorbachev announces 10% unilateral Soviet troop reductions at UN

General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Mikhail GorbachevGeneral Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev 1988 - Mikhail Gorbachev cheered by Wall St crowds upon arrival in NYC

1988 - NY Islanders fire Simpson, Arbour new coach

1988 - Rangers sign free-agent pitcher Nolan Ryan to a one-year contract

1989 - C Coleman & D Zippel's musical "City of Angels" premieres in NYC

1990 - Iraqi parliment endorses Saddam Hussein's decision to free hostages

1990 - Ted Turner & Jane Fonda announce their engagement

1991 - A J Kitt, US, wins World Skiing Cup

1992 - Galileo spacecraft passes North Pole of Moon (Peary Crater)

1993 - Henri Konan Bedie names himself President of Ivory coast

1993 - Robert Goulet undergoes prostate cancer surgery

1993 - The Long Island Rail Road massacre: Passenger Colin Ferguson murders six people and injures 19 others on the LIRR in Nassau County, New York.

1994 - 5th Billboard Music Awards

1994 - Radio personality Howard Stern talks a man out of attempting suicide

1995 - NBA settles strike of referees, refs to return on Dec 12

1995 - US space probe Galileo begins orbiting Jupiter

Radio shock jock Howard SternRadio shock jock Howard Stern 1996 - Space Shuttle STS 80 (Columbia 21), lands

1997 - Amy Fruhwirth & Clarence Rose win LPGA J C Penney Classic

1999 - The RIAA files a lawsuit against the Napster file-sharing client, on charges of copyright infringement.

2003 - The Conservative Party of Canada is officially recognized after the merger of the Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservative Party of Canada.

2005 - Rigoberto Alpizar, a passenger on American Airlines Flight 924 who allegedly claimed to have a bomb, is shot and killed by a team of US federal air marshals at Miami International Airport.

2006 - A tornado struck Kensal Green, North West London, seriously damaging around 150 properties.

2007 - The Hebei Spirit oil spill began in South Korea after a crane barge being towed by tug collided with the very large crude carrier, Hebei Spirit.

1431 - In Paris, Henry VI of England was crowned King of France.   1732 - The original Covent Garden Theatre Royal (now the Royal Opera House) was opened.   1787 - Delaware became the first state to ratify the U.S. constitution becoming the first of the United States.   1796 - John Adams was elected to be the second president of the United States.   1836 - Martin Van Buren was elected the eighth president of the United States.   1889 - The first of 554 performances of "The Gondoliers" took place.   1907 - At London's National Sporting Club, Eugene Corri became the first referee to officiate from inside a boxing ring.   1925 - Swimmer Johnny Weissmuller set a world record in the 150-yard freestyle with a time of 1 minute, 25 and 2/5 seconds. He went on to play "Tarzan" in several movies.   1926 - The gas operated refrigerator was patented by The Electrolux Servel Corporation.   1941 - Pearl Harbor, located on the Hawaiian island of Oahu was attacked by nearly 200 Japanese warplanes. The attack resulted in the U.S. entering into World War II.   1946 - A fire at the Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta killed 119 people. It was America's worst hotel fire disaster. The hotel founder, W. Frank Winecoff, was also killed in the fire.   1971 - Libya announced the nationalization of British Petroleum's assets.   1972 - Apollo 17 was launched at Cape Canaveral. It was the last U.S. moon mission.   1972 - Imelda Marcos, wife of Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos, was stabbed and seriously wounded by an assailant. The man was then shot and killed by her bodyguards.   1974 - President Makarios returned to Cyprus after five months in exile.   1980 - General Antonio Ramlho Eanes was reelected president of Portugal. His right-wing opposition was thrown into disarray by the death of Premier Francisco Sa Carneiro in a plane crash.   1982 - Charlie Brooks Junior, a convicted murderer, became the first prisoner in the U.S. to be executed by injection, at a prison in Huntsville, TX.   1983 - Madrid, Spain, an Aviaco DC-9 collided on a runway with an Iberia Air Lines Boeing 727 that was accelerating for takeoff. The collision resulted in the death of all 42 people aboard the DC-9 and 51 on the Iberia jet.   1987 - Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev set foot on American soil for the first time. He had come to the U.S. for a Washington summit with U.S. President Reagan.   1987 - 43 people were killed when a gunman opened fire on a fellow passenger and the two pilots aboard a Pacific Southwest Airlines jetliner.   1988 - An estimated 25,000 people were killed when a major earthquake hit northern Armenia in the Soviet Union. The quake measured 6.9 on the Richter Scale.   1988 - Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev announced the reduction of the number of Soviet military troops by half a million.   1989 - East Germany's Communist Party agreed to cooperate with the plan for free elections and a revised constitution.   1992 - The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a Mississippi abortion law which, required women to get counseling and then wait 24 hours before terminating their pregnancies.   1993 - Six people were killed and 17 were injured when a gunman opened fire on a Long Island Rail Road commuter train.   1993 - Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary revealed that the U.S. government had conducted more than 200 nuclear weapons tests in secret at its Nevada test site.   1993 - Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders suggested that the U.S. government study the impact of drug legalization.   1995 - A probe sent from the Galileo spacecraft entered into Jupiter's atmosphere. The probe sent back data to the mothership before it was presumably destroyed.   1996 - The space shuttle Columbia returned from the longest-ever shuttle flight of 17 days, 15 hours and 54 minutes.   1998 - The U.N. evacuated 14 peacekeepers that were trapped by fighting between army and rebel forces in central Angola.   1998 - U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno declined to seek an independent counsel investigation of President Clinton over 1996 campaign financing.   1999 - A U.S. federal grand jury indicted a former convict in the 1995 disappearance of atheist leader Madalyn Murray O'Hair.   2002 - In Amsterdam, Netherlands, two Van Gogh paintings were stolen from the Van Gogh Museum. The two works were "View of the Sea st Scheveningen" and "Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen." On July 26, 2004, two men were convicted for the crime and were sentenced to at least four years in prison each.   2002 - In Mymensingh, Bangladesh, four movies theaters were bombed within 30 minutes of each other. At least 15 people were killed and over 200 were injured.   2003 - A 12-inch by 26-inch painting of a river landscape and sailing vessel by Martin Johnson Heade was sold at auction for $1 million. The painting was found in the attic of a suburban Boston home where it had been stored for more than 60 years.







1787 Delaware became the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution. 1917 The U.S. declared war on Austria-Hungary in World War I. 1941 The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. 1972 America's final moon mission, Apollo 17, blasted off from Cape Canaveral. 1975 Indonesia invaded East Timor, leading to a 25-year occupation. 1988 A 6.9 magnitude earthquake hit Armenia, killing 25,000. 2001 Taliban forces fled from Kandahar, their last stronghold in Afghanistan. 2002 Iraq formally declared to the UN that it had no weapons of mass destruction. 2004 Hamid Karzai was sworn in as Afghanistan's first popularly elected president.



The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:

http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php

http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/dec07.htm

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory