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Pearl Harbor bombed

Born on This Day

Larry Bird

1956 -

Basketball player who helped revitalized the sport in the 1980s and led his Boston Celtic team to three NBA championships.

Ellen Burstyn

1932 -

Actress known for her roles in "The Exorcist," "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore" and "Requiem for a Dream."

Noam Chomsky

1928 -

The "father of modern linguistics" and public intellectual known for his strong liberal political views.

Larry BirdNBAE via Getty Images

Ellen BurstynGetty Images

Noam ChomskyAFP via Getty Images

1909

DEC7

The US Patent Office grants Belgian-born chemist Leo Baekeland a patent for "a method of making insoluble products of phenol and formaldehyde"—the first synthetic plastic. Named Bakelite, after its inventor, it would be marketed as "the material of 1000 uses."

Timeline

Also on This Day in History

Discover more of the major events, famous births, notable deaths and everything else history-making that happened on December 7th

Delaware becomes the first state to ratify the Constitution

In Dover, Delaware, the U.S. Constitution is unanimously ratified by all 30 delegates to the Delaware Constitutional Convention, making Delaware the first state of the modern United States. Less than four months before, the Constitution was signed by 37 of the original 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention meeting in Philadelphia. The Constitution was sent […]

Lewis and Clark temporarily settle in Fort Clatsop

Having spied the Pacific Ocean for the first time a few weeks earlier, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark cross to the south shore of the Columbia River (near modern-day Astoria) and begin building the small fort that would be their winter home. Lewis, Clark, and their men deserved a rest. During the past year, they had […]

Battle of Prairie Grove, Arkansas

On December 7, 1862, northwestern Arkansas and southwestern Missouri are secured for the Union when a force commanded by General James G. Blunt holds off a force of Confederates under General Thomas Hindman at the Battle of Prairie Grove, Arkansas. Hindman assembled a force at Fort Smith, Arkansas, to make an attempt to recapture territory […]

FDR reacts to news of Pearl Harbor bombing

On December 7, 1941, at around 1:30 p.m., President Franklin Roosevelt is conferring with advisor Harry Hopkins in his study when Navy Secretary Frank Knox bursts in and announces that Japan had attacked Pearl Harbor. The attack killed more than 2,400 naval and military personnel. For weeks, a war with Japan had appeared likely since […]

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 […]

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First execution by lethal injection

The first execution by lethal injection takes place at the state penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas. Charles Brooks, Jr., convicted of murdering an auto mechanic, received an intravenous injection of sodium pentathol, the barbiturate that is known as a “truth serum” when administered in lesser doses. Texas, the national leader in executions, adopted the lethal injection […]

Earthquakes wreak havoc in Armenia

Two earthquakes hit Armenia on December 7, 1988, killing 60,000 people and destroying nearly half a million buildings. The two tremors, only minutes apart, were measured at 6.9 and 5.8 in magnitude and were felt as far away as Georgia, Turkey and Iran. It was 11:41 a.m. when the first, more powerful, earthquake hit three […]

Sugar Ray Leonard fights Roberto Duran for the third and final time

On December 7, 1989, the boxer Sugar Ray Leonard triumphs over a lackluster Roberto Duran in a unanimous 12-round decision at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas. Leonard became a sensation in the boxing world during the 1980s, providing a superstar presence that boxing lacked after Muhammad Ali retired in 1981. After a successful amateur […]

Shooter opens fire on Long Island Railroad train

Colin Ferguson opens fire on a Long Island Rail Road commuter train from New York City, killing 6 and injuring 19. Other train passengers stopped the perpetrator by tackling and holding him down. Colin Ferguson was a mentally ill man from Jamaica who spent years on the West Coast before coming to New York in […]

A first-time offender ends up on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List

On December 7, 1996, first-time-offender-turned-fugitive Glen Godwin appears on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List. In August 1981, Godwin, a young business owner, had been convicted of a murder committed one year earlier in Riverside County, California, and sentenced to 26 years to life in prison. According to his roommate’s testimony, Godwin had stomped on, […]

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“Ocean’s Eleven” remake opens in theaters

Ocean’s Eleven, a caper film featuring an all-star ensemble cast including George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Bernie Mac, Don Cheadle, Andy Garcia and Julia Roberts, opens in theaters. Ocean’s Eleven was a remake of the 1960 film of the same name, which featured so-called “Rat Pack” actors Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., […]

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