May 7
is the 127th day of the year in the
Gregorian Calendar (128th in
leap years). There are 238 days remaining.
*
558 - In
Constantinople, the dome of the
Hagia Sophia collapses.
Justinian I immediately orders the dome rebuilt.
*
1274 - In
France, the
Second Council of Lyons opens to regulate the election of the
Pope.
*
1429 -
Joan of Arc ends the
Siege of Orléans, pulling an arrow from her own shoulder and returning wounded to lead the final charge. The victory marks a turning point in the
Hundred Years' War.
*
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).
*
1763 -
Indian Wars:
Pontiac's Rebellion begins -
Chief Pontiac begins the "Conspiracy of Pontiac" by attacking British forces at
Fort Detroit.
*
1824 - World premiere of
Ludwig van Beethoven's
Ninth Symphony in
Vienna,
Austria. Work was conducted by
Michael Umlauf, under the
deaf composer's supervision.
*
1832 -
Greece is recognised independent by the
Treaty of London.
Otto of Wittelsbach, Prince of Bavaria is chosen
King.
*
1836 - The settlement of
Mayagüez, Puerto Rico is elevated to the royal status of
villa by the government of
Spain.
*
1840 - The
Great Natchez Tornado strikes
Natchez, Mississippi, killing 317 people. It is the second deadliest
tornado in
U.S. 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.
*
1895 - In
Saint Petersburg, Russian scientist
Alexander Stepanovich Popov demonstrates to the Russian Physical and Chemical Society his invention - the first in the world radio receiver. In the former
Soviet Union this day is celebrated as Day of Radio.
*
1896 -
H. H. Holmes is hanged in
Philadelphia.
*
1915 -
World War I: a
German submarine U-20 sinks the
RMS Lusitania, killing 1,198 people.
*
1920 -
Kiev Offensive:
Polish troops led by
Józef Piłsudski and
Edward Rydz-Śmigły and assisted by a symbolic
Ukrainian force captured
Kiev only to be driven out by the
Red Army counter-offensive a month later.
*
1937 -
Spanish Civil War: The
German Condor Legion, equipped with
Heinkel He 51 biplanes, arrive in
Spain to assist
Franco's forces.
*
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 all 44 aboard; the
FBI later reports that a cockpit recorder tape indicates that the pilot and co-pilot had been shot by a suicidal passenger.
*
1974 -
West German Chancellor
Willy Brandt resigns.
*
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 raise.
* 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.
*
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
NATO aircraft mistakenly bombs the Chinese embassy in
Belgrade.
* 1999 - In
Guinea-Bissau, President
João Bernardo Vieira is ousted in a military
coup.
*
2002 - A
China Southern Airlines MD-82 plunges into the
Yellow Sea, killing 112 people.
*
2005 - Former Lebanese Prime Minister, General
Michel Aoun returns to
Lebanon after 15 years in exile.
*
2006 -
Rolling Stone Magazine publishes its 1000th cover issue.
*
1328 -
Louis VI the Roman, Duke of Bavaria (d.
1365)
*
1530 -
Louis I de Bourbon, Prince de Condé, French Huguenot general (d.
1569)
*
1643 -
Stephanus Van Cortlandt, American politican (d.
1700)
*
1700 -
Gerard van Swieten, Dutch-born physician (d.
1772)
*
1724 -
Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser, Austrian general (d.
1797)
*
1740 -
Nikolai Arkharov, Russian general (d.
1814)
*
1763 -
Józef Antoni Poniatowski, Polish prince (d.
1813)
*
1812 -
Robert Browning, English poet (d.
1889)
*
1833 -
Johannes Brahms, German composer (d.
1897)
*
1840 -
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Russian composer (d.
1893)
*
1847 -
Archibald Primrose,
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d.
1929)
*
1857 -
William A. MacCorkle, American politican (d.
1930)
*
1861 -
Rabindranath Tagore, Indian writer,
Nobel laureate (d.
1941)
*
1867 -
Władysław Reymont, Polish writer,
Nobel laureate (d.
1925)
*
1882 -
Willem Elsschot, Flemish writer (d.
1960)
*
1885 -
George 'Gabby' Hayes, American actor (d.
1969)
*
1891 -
Harry McShane, Scottish socialist (d.
1988)
*
1892 -
Archibald MacLeish, American
Librarian of Congress (d.
1982)
* 1892 -
Josip Broz Tito,
President of Yugoslavia (d.
1980)
*
1901 -
Gary Cooper, American actor (d.
1961)
*
1909 -
Edwin H. Land, American inventor (d.
1991)
*
1911 -
Ishiro Honda, Japanese film director (d.
1993)
*
1919 -
Eva Peron, Argentinean first lady (d.
1952)
*
1922 -
Darren McGavin, American actor (d.
2006)
*
1923 -
Anne Baxter, American actress (d.
1985)
*
1927 -
Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, German screenwriter
*
1929 -
Babe Parilli, American football player
*
1930 -
Totie Fields, American comedienne (d.
1978)
*
1931 -
Teresa Brewer, American singer
*
1933 -
Johnny Unitas, American football player (d.
2002)
* 1933 -
Nexhmije Pagarusha, Albanian singer
*
1939 -
Sidney Altman, Canadian molecular biologist,
Nobel laureate * 1939 -
Ruud Lubbers,
Prime Minister of the Netherlands* 1939 -
Jimmy Ruffin, American singer
*
1940 -
Angela Carter, English novelist and journalist (d.
1992)
*
1943 -
Harvey Andrews, English singer and songwriter
*
1945 -
Christy Moore, Irish Folk Artist
*
1946 -
Thelma Houston, American singer
* 1946 -
Bill Kreutzmann, American drummer (
Grateful Dead)
*
1950 -
Randall 'Tex' Cobb, American boxer and actor
* 1950 -
Tim Russert, American television host
*
1954 -
Philippe Geluck, Belgian cartoonist
* 1954 -
Amy Heckerling, American director
*
1955 -
Ben Poquette, American basketball player
* 1955 -
Tim Richmond, American race car driver.
* 1955 -
Kevin Reed, American theologian
*
1956 -
Jan Peter Balkenende,
Prime Minister of the Netherlands* 1956 -
Anne Dudley, British composer
*
1957 -
Ray Fernandez, wrestler (d.
2004)
*
1965 -
Owen Hart, Canadian professional wrestler (d.
1999)
*
1968 -
Traci Lords, American actress
*
1969 -
Eagle Eye Cherry, Swedish musician
*
1973 -
Kristian Lundin, Swedish songwriter
* 1973 -
Paolo Savoldelli, Italian cyclist
*
1975 -
Jason Tunks,
Canadian Olympic
discus thrower
*
1978 -
Brian Clevinger, American author
*
1980 -
Johan Kenkhuis, Dutch swimmer
*
1984 -
Alex Smith, American football player
*
1986 -
Rianne ten Haken, Dutch model
*
1987 -
Asami Konno, Japanese singer (
Morning Musume)
*
973 -
Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor (b.
912)
*
1427 -
Thomas la Warr, 5th Baron De La Warr, English churchman
*
1523 -
Franz von Sickingen, German soldier (b.
1481)
*
1539 -
Guru Nanak Dev, Pakistani founder of Sikhism (b.
1469)
* 1539 -
Ottaviano Petrucci, Italian printer (b.
1466)
*
1615 -
Sanada Yukimura, Japanese samurai (b.
1567)
*
1617 -
David Fabricius, German astronomer (b.
1564)
*
1667 -
Johann Jakob Froberger, German composer (b.
1616)
*
1682 - Tsar
Feodor III of Russia (b.
1661)
*
1718 -
Mary of Modena, wife of
James II of England (b.
1658)
*
1793 -
Pietro Nardini, Italian composer (b.
1722)
*
1800 -
Niccola Piccinni, Italian composer (b.
1728)
*
1825 -
Antonio Salieri, Italian composer (b.
1750)
*
1840 -
Caspar David Friedrich, German painter (b.
1774)
*
1868 -
Henry Peter Brougham,
Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain (b.
1778)
*
1896 -
H. H. Holmes, American serial killer (b.
1861)
*
1925 -
William Hesketh Lever, First Viscount Leverhulme (b.
1851)
*
1941 -
Sir James George Frazer, Scottish anthropologist (b.
1854)
*
1942 -
Felix Weingartner, Yugoslavian conductor (b.
1863)
*
1951 -
Warner Baxter, American actor (b.
1889)
*
1998 -
Allan McLeod Cormack, South African physicist,
Nobel laureate (b.
1924)
* 1998 -
Eddie Rabbitt, American musician (b.
1941)
*
2000 -
Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., American actor (b.
1909)
*
2004 -
Waldemar Milewicz, Polish reporter (b.
1956)
*
2005 -
Tristan Egolf, American writer (b.
1971)
* 2005 -
Otilino Tenorio, Ecuadorian football (soccer) player (b.
1980)
*
2006 -
Richard Carleton, Australian news reporter (b.
1943)
* 2006 -
Lillian Gertrud Asplund,
RMS Titanic survivor (b.
1907)
* 2006 -
Joan C. Edwards, American philanthropist (b.
1918)
* 2006 -
Machiko Soga, Japanese actress, singer, and tokusatsu legend (b.
1943)
*
Russia -
Radio Day (commemorating the work of
Alexander Popov)
*
Bulgaria - Radio and Television Day (see above)
*
USA -
National Masturbation Day (Declared by
Good Vibrations (sex toy business)) Now in its 11th year - [
1][
2][
3][
4][
5]
Liturgcal feasts
*
Saint Domitian of Huy, apostle of the Meuse valley
*
Saint Flavia Domitilla*
Blessed Gisela (died 1060)
*
BBC: On This Day*
The New York Times: On This DayMay 6 -
May 8 -
April 7 -
June 7 --
listing of all days
