December 7th is
International Civil Aviation Day *
National Cotton Candy Day
Special Kids Day *
Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day *
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MORE! Marquis de Lafayette, Willa Cather and Rudolf Friml, click
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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS
Armenia – Earthquake Victims Memorial Day *
Côte d’Ivoire – Felix Houphouet-Boigny
Remembrance Day (first president)
East Timor – National Heroes Day
Guatemala – Guatemala City:
La Quema del Diablo (burning of the devil)
Italy – Milan: Feast of Saint Ambrose
(a Bishop of Milan and city’s patron saint)
Turkmenistan – Good Neighbourliness Day
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On This Day in HISTORY
1637 – Bernardo Pasquini born, Italian organist and composer
1732 – The Royal Opera House opens at Covent Garden, London, England
1776 – Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, becomes an American major general
1787 – Delaware becomes the first state to ratify the United States Constitution
1796 – John Adams is elected second U.S. president
1842 – The New York Philharmonic gives its first concert
1863 – Pietro Mascagni, Italian opera composer, Cavalleria Rusticana
1873 – Willa Cather born, American author and poet
1879 – Rudolf Friml born, Czech-American pianist-composer
1910 – Louis Prima born, American singer-songwriter-trumpet player
1926 – A gas-operated refrigerator is patented by Electrolux Servel Corporation
1928 – Noam Chomsky born, American author, linguist and philosopher
1935 – Armando Manzanero born, Mexican musician-composer
1941 – The Imperial Japanese Navy carries out a surprise attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet and its Army and Marine air forces at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii
1942 – Harry Chapin, born, American singer-songwriter-guitarist
1944 – International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) founded, and the International Services Transit Agreement and the International Air Transport Agreement are signed. In 1994, ICAO starts International Civil Aviation Day * to mark its 50th anniversary
1949 – Tom Waits born, American singer-songwriter-guitarist
1960 – The first episode of Coronation Street airs on the U.K. Granada Television, one of the longest-running soap operas in the world
1971 – Libya announces nationalization of British Petroleum’s assets
1972 – The crew of Apollo 17, the last Apollo moon mission, takes the photograph known as ‘Blue Marble’ as they leave the Earth
1979 – Rhodesia reaches an agreement with the U.K. to gain its independence
1988 – Armenian Earthquake Victims Memorial Day * – the Spitak earthquake in northern Armenia measures 6.8 on the ‘surface wave magnitude’ scale, killing over 25,000 people and injuring tens of thousands more, in addition to causing widespread destruction of housing, commercial buildings and hospitals
1990 – Special Kids Day * created to make more opportunities for children with special needs to participate in chidrens’ events, like visits to Santa Claus, without obstacles
1992 – The U.S. Supreme Court rejects a Mississippi abortion law which requires women to get counseling and wait 24 hours before terminating their pregnancies
1993 – Energy Secretary Hazel O’Leary reveals that the U.S. government had secretly conducted more than 200 nuclear weapons tests at its Nevada test site
1993 – Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders suggests the U.S. government study the impact of drug legalization
1995 – A probe sent from the Galileo spacecraft enters Jupiter’s atmosphere, and sends back data to the mothership before it’s destroyed
1996 – NASA space shuttle Columbia returns from the longest-ever shuttle flight of 17 days, 15 hours and 54 minutes
1998 – U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno declines to seek an independent counsel investigation of President Clinton’s 1996 campaign financing
2003 – A painting of a river landscape and sailing vessel by Martin Johnson Heade sells at auction for $1 million, after being found in suburban Boston home’s attic where it had been stored for more than 60 years
2006 – Vatican archaeologists unearth a sarcophagus that might have the remains of the Apostle Paul in it, buried beneath Rome’s second largest basilica since at least 390 A.D.
2009 – The biggest climate meeting in history opens in Copenhagen, Denmark, with representatives from 192 countries in attendance. Over 1.000 protesters demanding more stringent actions be taken were arrested
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Visuals
- International Civil Aviation Day banner
- The USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor
- International flags
- Noam Chomsky quote
- Blue Marble – Apollo 17 photo attributed to Harrison Schmitt
- 1988 – Spitak Earthquake in Armenia
- Sarcophagus found under Saint Paul church altar in Rome
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