October 7

• 1908 - Crete revolts against the Ottoman Empire and aligns with Greece.
• 1912 - The Helsinki Stock Exchange saw its first transaction.
• 1913 - Henry Ford introduces the assembly line.
• 1919 - KLM of Netherlands was founded. It is the oldest airline still operating under its original name.
• 1940 - Germany invades Romania.
• 1943 - Japan executes 100 American prisoners on Wake Island.
• 1949 - German Democratic Republic (East Germany) formed.
• 1949 - One of the earliest television shows, Ford Theater debuts
• 1950 - United States forces invade Korea by crossing the 38th parallel.
• 1951 - Malayan Emergency: Malay Races Liberation Army (MRLA) ambushes and kills British High Commissioner Sir Henry Gurney.
• 1957 - Dick Clark's American Bandstand debuts.
• 1957 - A fire in the Windscale plutonium production reactor, north of Liverpool, England, cause the release of radioactive material, which is later blamed for 39 cancer deaths.
• 1958 - President of Pakistan Iskander Mirza, with the support of General Ayub Khan and the army, suspends the 1956 constitution, imposes martial law, and cancels the elections scheduled for January 1959.
• 1960 - Kennedy & Nixon debate Cold War foreign policy - Second of four scheduled debates.
• 1968 - Hollywood adopts the Movie ratings system.
• 1970 Richard Nixon announces a new five point peace proposal to end the Vietnam War.
• 1977 - The adoption of the Fourth Soviet Constitution.
• 1982 - Cats opens on Broadway and runs for nearly 18 years. The show closed on September 10th, 2000
• 1984 - Running Back Walter Payton breaks Jim Brown's rushing record.
• 1985 - Achille Lauro hijacked by Palestinian terrorists.
• 1992 - Tevfik Esenç, the last fluent speaker of the Ubykh language, died in his sleep.
• 1998 - Matthew Shepard, beaten the night before, is left tied to a fence and dies in Laramie, Wyoming.

• 2001 - Start of U.S. invasion of Afghanistan with an air assault and covert operations on the ground.
• 2002 - Maher Arar was deported by the US government by mistake to Syria, where he was tortured and held without charge for a year before being returned home in Canada.
• 2003 - California recall: California governor Gray Davis is recalleded from office and replaced by Arnold Schwarzenegger.
• 2004 - King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia abdicated.
  

  Births

• 1573 - William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1645)
• 1748 - King Charles XIII / Carl II of Sweden-Norway (d. 1818)
• 1769 - Solomon Sibley, Delegate, Michigan Territory, 1820-1823 (d. 1846)
• 1835 - Felix Draeseke, German composer (d. 1913)
• 1841 - King Nicholas I of Montenegro (d. 1921)
• 1853 - James Whitcomb Riley, poet (d. 1916)
• 1885 - Niels Bohr, Danish physicist (d.1962)
• 1888 - Henry A. Wallace, American politician and Vice President of the United States (d. 1965)
• 1894 - Del Lord, pioneer Hollywood director (d. 1970)
• 1897 - Elijah Muhammad, Black Muslim leader (d. 1975)
• 1900 - Heinrich Himmler, Nazi official and leader of the SS (d. 1945)

• 1905 - Andy Devine, actor (d. 1977)
• 1911 - Vaughn Monroe, singer (d. 1973)
• 1914 - Alfred Drake, actor (d. 1992)
• 1917 - June Allyson, actress
• 1921 - Raymond Goethals, Belgian National Soccer Trainer (d. 2004)
• 1931 - Cotton Fitzsimmons, NBA basketball coach (d. 2004)
• 1931 - Desmond Tutu, South African archbishop and anti-apartheid activist
• 1934 - Amiri Baraka, playwright, poet (born LeRoi Jones)
• 1935 - Thomas Keneally, Australian author
• 1936 - Charles Dutoit, Swiss conductor
• 1939 - John Hopcroft, American theoretical computer scientist
• 1939 - Harold Kroto, British chemist
• 1939 - Bill Snyder, football coach at Kansas State University
• 1943 - Oliver North, United States Marine involved in Iran-Contra affair
• 1947 - France Gall, French singer, Eurovision Song Contest winner
• 1950 - Jakaya Kikwete, foreign minister of Tanzania
• 1951 - John Cougar Mellencamp, singer
• 1952 - Vladimir Putin, Russian politician and president
• 1954 - Kenneth Atchley, composer and noise artist
• 1955 - Yo-Yo Ma, cellist
• 1957 - Jayne Torvill, figure skater
• 1959 - Simon Cowell, Pop Idol and American Idol judge
• 1960 - Viktor Lazlo, French singer
• 1960 - Kyosuke Himuro, Japanese rock singer
• 1968 - Thom Yorke, singer
• 1975 - Terry Gerin (Rhyno), professional wrestler
• 1977 - Meighan Desmond, actress
• 1979 - Simona Amânar, Romanian gymnast
• 1989 - Marisa Lorion, world record-holder for number of pastries consumed in five minutes
  

  Deaths

• 336 - Pope Marcus
• 1708 - Guru Gobind Singh (b. 1666)
• 1792 - George Mason, American patriot
• 1849 - Edgar Allan Poe, American writer (b. 1809)
• 1894 - Oliver Wendell Holmes, American poet
• 1919 - Alfred Deakin, second Prime Minister of Australia
• 1925 - Christy Mathewson, baseball player
• 1926 - Emil Kraepelin, German psychologist
• 1943 - Eugeniusz Bodo, Polish actor
• 1943 - Radclyffe Hall, British author
• 1959 - Mario Lanza, American singer
• 1981 - Albert Cohen, Swiss novelist
• 1991 - Leo Durocher, baseball player and manager
• 1992 - Tevfik Esenc, last speaker of the Ubykh language

  Holidays

• UN - Universal Children's Day
• Feast day of Saint Osyth
• East Germany - Republic Day
  

  External links

• BBC: On This Day

October 6 - October 8 - September 7 - November 7 — listing of all days