US Forces in Kandahar

2001

U.S.-led attack on Afghanistan begins

Born on This Day

Bishop Desmond Tutu In New York

Desmond Tutu

1931 - 2021

South Africa's first Black Anglican archbishop, whose nonviolent campaign against apartheid earned him the Nobel Peace Prize.

Nominations for 8th Annual Soul Train Music Awards

Toni Braxton

1967 -

Grammy-winning R&B singer-songwriter best known for her 1996 ballad "Un-Break My Heart."

Cellist Yo-Yo Ma with His Cello

Yo-Yo Ma

1955 -

Cellist known for his virtuosity and collaborations with non-classical artists.

Desmond Tutu

Getty Images

Toni Braxton

Ron Galella Collection via Getty

Yo-Yo Ma

Bettmann Archive

2015

OCT

7

After a frustrating day of finding just shotgun shells and ring-pulls in Oxfordshire, England, metal-detectorist James Mather stumbles on an ingot, part of what is later called the “Watlington hoard” of 200 Vikings-era coins, jewelry and silver bars.

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 October 7th

1780

Battle of King’s Mountain

During the American Revolution, Patriot irregulars under Colonel William Campbell defeat Tories under Major Patrick Ferguson at the Battle of King’s Mountain. Major Ferguson’s Tory force, made up mostly of American Loyalists from South Carolina and elsewhere, was the western wing of General Lord Cornwallis’ North Carolina invasion force. One thousand American frontiersmen under Colonel […]

1864

Union and Confederate forces clash at Darbytown Road outside Richmond

A Confederate attempt to regain ground that had been lost around Richmond, Virginia, is thwarted when Union troops turn back General Robert E. Lee’s assault at Darbytown Road. In the summer of 1864, the campaign between Lee and Union General Ulysses S. Grant ground to a halt at Petersburg, 25 miles south of Richmond. The […]

1:40m read read

1913

Moving assembly line debuts at Ford factory

For the first time, Henry Ford’s entire Highland Park, Michigan automobile factory is run on a continuously moving assembly line when the chassis—the automobile’s frame—is assembled using the revolutionary industrial technique. A motor and rope pulled the chassis past workers and parts on the factory floor, cutting the man-hours required to complete one “Model T.” […]

1916

Georgia Tech shuts out Cumberland, 222-0, in most lopsided college football game

On October 7, 1916, Georgia Tech defeats Cumberland University, 222-0, in the most lopsided game in college football history. Coached by John Heisman, later namesake of college football’s most famous trophy, Georgia Tech takes a 63-0 lead in the first quarter at Grant Field in Atlanta. “All of Cumberland’s plays were smothered completely,” the Atlanta Constitution […]

1:22m read read

1943

Japanese execute nearly 100 American POWs on Wake Island

On October 7, 1943, Rear Adm. Shigematsu Sakaibara, commander of the Japanese garrison on the island, orders the execution of 98 Americans POWs, claiming they were trying to make radio contact with U.S. forces. In late December 1941, the Japanese reinforced existing forces on Wake Island, part of a coral atoll west of Hawaii, in […]

1944

Hundreds of prisoners revolt at Auschwitz-Birkenau

On October 7, 1944, in a bold act of resistance, several hundred prisoners incarcerated in the Nazi death camps of Auschwitz-Birkenau stage the Sonderkommando revolt, destroying most of the gas chambers and crematoria where they were forced to work. While some of the inmates manage to kill a handful of Nazi officers and briefly escape […]

1949

East Germany created

Less than five months after Great Britain, the United States and France established the Federal Republic of Germany in West Germany, the Democratic Republic of Germany is proclaimed within the Soviet occupation zone. Criticized by the West as an un-autonomous Soviet creation, Wilhelm Pieck was named East Germany’s first president, with Otto Grotewohl as prime […]

0:46m read read

1955

Poet Allen Ginsberg reads “Howl” for the first time

Poet Allen Ginsberg reads his poem “Howl” at a poetry reading at Six Gallery in San Francisco. The poem was an immediate success that rocked the Beat literary world and set the tone for confessional poetry of the 1960s and later. Ginsberg was born in 1926 to a high school English teacher father and Marxist […]

2:16m read read

1960

CBS broadcasts the premiere episode of “Route 66″

On October 7, 1960, the first episode of the one-hour television drama “Route 66” airs on CBS. The program had a simple premise: It followed two young men, Buz Murdock (George Maharis) and Tod Stiles (Martin Milner), as they drove across the country in an inherited Corvette (Chevrolet was one of the show’s sponsors), doing […]

2:10m read read

1960

Kennedy and Nixon debate Cold War foreign policy

In the second of four televised debates, Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kennedy and Vice President Richard Nixon turn their attention to foreign policy issues. Three Cold War episodes, in particular, engendered spirited confrontations between Kennedy and Nixon. The first involved Cuba, which had recently come under the control of Fidel Castro. Nixon argued that […]

1975

A judge reverses John Lennon’s deportation order

On October 7, 1975, a Federal Appeals Court judge reverses a deportation order for John Lennon, allowing him to remain legally in his adoptive home of New York City. Protests against the Vietnam War had escalated significantly following the announcement of the Cambodia invasion on April 30, 1970, and the shooting deaths of four student […]

2:06m read read

1983

“Never Say Never Again,” which brings back Sean Connery as 007, opens in U.S. theaters

On October 7, 1983, Never Say Never Again opens in U.S. theaters, featuring Sean Connery in a reprise of his role as the British secret service agent James Bond—which he had last played in 1971. The film’s title referenced the fact that the Scottish-born actor had previously remarked that he would never play Agent 007 […]

2:00m read read

1985

Lynette Woodard becomes first female Harlem Globetrotters player

On October 7, 1985, Lynette Woodard, captain of the gold-medal-winning U.S. Olympic women’s basketball team in 1984, becomes the first female player for the Harlem Globetrotters. “I got chills, Woodard, 26, says of her selection. “I just shook my head and I said: ‘It’s me, I know it’s me.’” She beats out nine other finalists for […]

1:28m read read

1985

Palestinian terrorists hijack an Italian cruise ship

Four Palestinian terrorists board the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro shortly after it left Alexandria, Egypt, in order to hijack the luxury liner. The well-armed men, who belonged to the Popular Front for the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF), the terrorist wing of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) led by Abu Abbas, easily took control of the […]

2:00m read read

2003

Arnold Schwarzenegger elected California governor

On October 7, 2003, actor Arnold Schwarzenegger is elected governor of California, the most populous state in the nation with the world’s fifth-largest economy. Despite his inexperience, Schwarzenegger came out on top in the 11-week campaign to replace Gray Davis, who had earlier become the first United States governor to be recalled by the people […]

2:22m read read

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