On this day …
December 7, 2016
- In 1703, a storm with wind gusts up to 120 mph hit Great Britain, killing 9,000.
- In 1732, the Royal Opera House opened in London.
- In 1776, the Marquis de Lafayette arranged to enter the American military as a major general.
- In 1787, Delaware became the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
- In 1941, Japan launched a sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, resulting in 2,403 deaths–the worst attack on American soil until Sept. 11, 2001.
- In 1972, the last manned mission to the moon, Apollo 17, was launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla.
- In 1982, Charles Brooks Jr. became the first person in the United States to be executed by lethal injection, by the state of Texas.