Events on May 7 46
Year 351
The Jewish revolt against Constantius Gallus breaks out. After his arrival at Antioch, the Jews begin a rebellion in Palestine.
Year 558
In Constantinople, the dome of the Hagia Sophia collapses. Justinian I immediately orders that the dome be rebuilt.
Year 1274
In France, the Second Council of Lyon opens to regulate the election of the Pope.
Year 1697
Stockholm's royal castle (dating back to medieval times) is destroyed by fire. It is replaced in the 18th century by the current Royal Palace.
Year 1718
The city of New Orleans is founded by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville.
Year 1763
Pontiac's War begins with Pontiac's attempt to seize Fort Detroit from the British.
Year 1794
French Revolution: Robespierre introduces the Cult of the Supreme Being in the National Convention as the new state religion of the French First Republic.
Year 1824
World premiere of Ludwig van Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in Vienna, Austria. The performance is conducted by Michael Umlauf under the composer's supervision.
Year 1840
The Great Natchez Tornado strikes Natchez, Mississippi killing 317 people. It is the second deadliest tornado in United States history.
Year 1846
The Cambridge Chronicle, America's oldest surviving weekly newspaper, is published for the first time in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Year 1864
American Civil War: The Army of the Potomac, under General Ulysses S. Grant, breaks off from the Battle of the Wilderness and moves southwards.
Year 1864
The world's oldest surviving clipper ship, the City of Adelaide is launched by William Pile, Hay and Co. in Sunderland, England, for transporting passengers and goods between Britain and Australia.
Year 1895
In Saint Petersburg, Russian scientist Alexander Stepanovich Popov demonstrates to the Russian Physical and Chemical Society his invention, the Popov lightning detector — a primitive radio receiver. In some parts of the former Soviet Union the anniversary of this day is celebrated as Radio Day.
Year 1915
World War I: German submarine U-20 sinks RMS Lusitania, killing 1,198 people, including 128 Americans. Public reaction to the sinking turns many formerly pro-Germans in the United States against the German Empire
Year 1915
Japanese 21 Demands Ultimatum to China (Commemorated as National Day of Humiliation)
Year 1920
Kiev Offensive: Polish troops led by Józef Piłsudski and Edward Rydz-Śmigły and assisted by a symbolic Ukrainian force capture Kiev only to be driven out by the Red Army counter-offensive a month later.
Year 1920
Treaty of Moscow: Soviet Russia recognizes the independence of the Democratic Republic of Georgia only to invade the country six months later.
Year 1920
The Art Gallery of Ontario, in Toronto, opens the first exhibition by the Group of Seven.
Year 1928
The Jinan incident begins with Japanese forces killing the Chinese negotiating team in Jinan, China, and going on to kill over 2,000 Chinese civilians in the following days.
Year 1930
The 7.1 Mw Salmas earthquake shakes northwestern Iran and southeastern Turkey with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). Up to three-thousand people were killed.
Year 1937
Spanish Civil War: The German Condor Legion, equipped with Heinkel He 51 biplanes, arrives in Spain to assist Francisco Franco's forces.
Year 1940
The Norway Debate in the British House of Commons begins, and leads to the replacement of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain with Winston Churchill three days later.
Year 1942
During the Battle of the Coral Sea, United States Navy aircraft carrier aircraft attack and sink the Imperial Japanese Navy light aircraft carrier Shōhō; the battle marks the first time in the naval history that two enemy fleets fight without visual contact between warring ships.
Year 1945
World War II: General Alfred Jodl signs unconditional surrender terms at Reims, France, ending Germany's participation in the war. The document takes effect the next day.
Year 1946
Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering (later renamed Sony) is founded with around 20 employees.
Year 1952
The concept of the integrated circuit, the basis for all modern computers, is first published by Geoffrey Dummer.
Year 1954
Indochina War: The Battle of Dien Bien Phu ends in a French defeat and a Vietnamese victory (the battle began on March 13).
Year 1960
Cold War: U-2 Crisis of 1960: Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev announces that his nation is holding American U-2 pilot Gary Powers.
Year 1986
Canadian Patrick Morrow becomes the first person to climb each of the Seven Summits.
Year 1992
Michigan ratifies a 203-year-old proposed amendment to the United States Constitution making the 27th Amendment law. This amendment bars the U.S. Congress from giving itself a mid-term pay raise.
Year 1992
Three employees at a McDonald's Restaurant in Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada, are brutally murdered and a fourth permanently disabled after a botched robbery. It is the first "fast-food murder" in Canada.
Year 1994
Edvard Munch's iconic painting The Scream is recovered undamaged after being stolen from the National Gallery of Norway in February.
Year 1998
Mercedes-Benz buys Chrysler for US$40 billion USD and forms DaimlerChrysler in the largest industrial merger in history.
Year 1999
Kosovo War: Three Chinese citizens are killed and 20 wounded when a NATO aircraft apparently inadvertently bombs the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, Serbia.
Year 2002
A China Northern Airlines MD-82 plunges into the Yellow Sea, killing 112 people.
Year 2004
American businessman Nick Berg, is beheaded by Islamic militants. The act is recorded on videotape and released on the Internet.