12 History Lessons + 7 Births & 7 Deaths for December 7, 2025
Today’s History:
- 1703 – The Great Storm of 1703, one of the most powerful windstorms ever recorded in southern Britain, reaches peak intensity, killing thousands and wrecking ships along the coast.
- 1787 – Delaware becomes the first U.S. state to ratify the Constitution, earning its nickname “The First State.”
- 1842 – The New York Philharmonic gives its first concert in New York City, eventually becoming one of the world’s leading orchestras.
- 1904 – The Royal Navy begins fuel trials with HMS Spiteful, helping usher in the shift from coal-fired to oil-powered warships.
- 1917 – The United States declares war on Austria-Hungary, widening its involvement in World War I.
- 1941 – Japan launches a surprise air attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, killing over 2,300 Americans and bringing the United States into World War II.
- 1972 – Apollo 17, the last crewed U.S. mission to the Moon, blasts off from Cape Canaveral.
- 1982 – In Texas, convicted murderer Charlie Brooks Jr. becomes the first U.S. prisoner executed by lethal injection.
- 1988 – A powerful earthquake devastates northern Armenia in the then-Soviet Union, killing at least 25,000 people.
- 1993 – A gunman opens fire on a Long Island Rail Road commuter train in New York, killing six and wounding many others.
- 2004 – Hamid Karzai is sworn in as Afghanistan’s first popularly elected president after the country’s landmark elections.
- 2024 – Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris officially reopens to the public after extensive restoration work from the devastating 2019 fire.
Today’s Birthdays:
- 1928 – Noam Chomsky, linguist and political philosopher known for transformational-grammar theory and decades of political commentary (97).
- 1932 – Ellen Burstyn, award-winning American actor from films like The Exorcist and Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (93).
- 1947 – Johnny Bench, Hall of Fame Major League Baseball catcher for the Cincinnati Reds’ “Big Red Machine” era (78).
- 1949 – Tom Waits, American singer-songwriter and actor known for his gravelly voice and genre-bending albums (76).
- 1952 – Susan Collins, U.S. Senator from Maine and long-serving moderate Republican voice in the Senate (73).
- 1956 – Larry Bird, Basketball Hall of Famer and Boston Celtics legend, three-time NBA MVP (69).
- 1989 – Nicholas Hoult, British actor known for roles in About a Boy, X-Men, and The Great (36).
Today’s Deaths:
- 43 BC – Marcus Tullius Cicero, Roman statesman, lawyer, and orator, one of the most influential writers on rhetoric and republican government (about 63).
- 1817 – William Bligh, British naval officer best known for the Mutiny on the Bounty, later a colonial governor (63).
- 1970 – Rube Goldberg, American cartoonist famous for drawings of comically over-engineered “Rube Goldberg machines” (87).
- 2011 – Harry Morgan, American actor best known as Colonel Sherman T. Potter on the TV series MASH* (96).
- 2016 – Greg Lake, English singer-songwriter and bassist with King Crimson and Emerson, Lake & Palmer (69).
- 2020 – Natalie Desselle-Reid, American actor noted for roles in B.A.P.S., Eve, and other film and TV work (53).
- 2020 – Chuck Yeager, U.S. Air Force officer and test pilot who became the first person to break the sound barrier in level flight (97).
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