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May 7 is the 127th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (128th in leap years). There are 238 days remaining.

Events

• 558 - In Constantinople, the dome of the Hagia Sophia collapses. Justinian I immediately orders the dome rebuilt.
• 1274 - In France, the Second Council of Lyons opens to regulate the election of the Pope.
• 1429 - Joan of Arc leads a French attack on English bridgeheads on the south side of the Loire River.
• 1697 - Stockholm's royal castle (dating back to medieval times) is destroyed in a huge fire (in the 18th century, it is replaced with the current Royal Palace).
• 1763 - Indian Wars: Pontiac's Rebellion begins - Chief Pontiac begins the "Conspiracy of Pontiac" by attacking British forces at Fort Detroit.
• 1824 - World premiere of Ludwig van Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in Vienna, Austria. Work was conducted by Michael Umlauf, under the deaf composer's supervision.
• 1832 - Greece is recognised independent by the Treaty of London. Otto of Wittelsbach, Prince of Bavaria is chosen King.
• 1840 - The Great Natchez Tornado strikes Natchez, Mississippi, killing 317 people. It is the second deadliest tornado in U.S. history.
• 1847 - In Philadelphia, the American Medical Association (AMA) is founded.
• 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.
• 1895 - In Saint Petersburg, Russian scientist Alexander Stepanovich Popov demonstrates to the Russian Physical and Chemical Society his invention - the first in the world radio receiver. In the former Soviet Union this day is celebrated as Day of Radio.
• 1896 - H. H. Holmes is hanged in Philadelphia.
• 1915 - World War I: a German U-boat sinks the RMS Lusitania, killing 1,198 people.
• 1920 - Polish-Bolshevik War: Polish-Ukrainian troops capture Kyiv during the Kiev Offensive.
• 1937 - Spanish Civil War: The German Condor Legion, equipped with Heinkel He 51 biplanes, arrive in Spain to assist Franco's forces.
• 1945 - World War II: General Alfred Jodl signs unconditional surrender terms at Reims, France, ending Germany's participation in the war. The document will take effect the next day.
• 1946 - Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering (later renamed Sony) is founded with about 20 employees.
• 1947 - Kraft Television Theater debuts, running for the next 11 years.
• 1948 - The Council of Europe is founded during the Hague Congress.
• 1952 - The concept for the integrated circuit, the basis for all modern computers, is first published by Geoffrey W.A. Dummer.
• 1954 - Indochina War: The Battle of Dien Bien Phu ends in a French defeat (the battle began on March 13).
• 1960 - Cold War: U-2 Crisis - Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev announces that his nation is holding American U-2 pilot Gary Powers.
• 1964 - A Pacific Air Lines Fairchild F-27 airliner crashes near San Ramon, California, killing all 44 aboard; the FBI later reports that a cockpit recorder tape indicates that the pilot and co-pilot had been shot by a suicidal passenger.
• 1974 - West German Chancellor Willy Brandt resigns.
• 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 rise.
• 1992 - Space Shuttle Endeavour is launched on its maiden voyage.
• 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.
• 1998 - Apple Computer unveils the iMac.
• 1998 - Mercedes-Benz buys Chrysler for US$40 billion and forms DaimlerChrysler in the largest industrial merger in history.
• 1999 - Pope John Paul II travells to Romania becoming the first pope that had visited a predominantly Eastern Orthodox country since the Great Schism in 1054.
• 1999 - A jury finds The Jenny Jones Show and Warner Bros. liable in the shooting death of Scott Amedure, after the show purposely deceived Jonathan Schmitz to appear on a secret same-sex crush episode. Schmitz later killed Amedure and the jury awarded Amedure's family US$25 million.
• 1999 - Kosovo War: In Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, three Chinese embassy workers are killed and 20 wounded when a NATO aircraft mistakenly bombs the Chinese embassy in Belgrade.
• 1999 - In Guinea-Bissau, President João Bernardo Vieira is ousted in a military coup.
• 2002 - A China Southern Airlines MD-82 plunges into the Yellow Sea, killing 112 people.

Births

• 1328 - Louis VI the Roman, Duke of Bavaria and Elector of Brandenburg (d. 1365)
• 1530 - Louis I de Bourbon, Prince de Condé, French Huguenot general (d. 1569)
• 1643 - Stephanus Van Cortlandt, first native Mayor of New York (d. 1700)
• 1700 - Gerard van Swieten, Dutch-born physician (d. 1772)
• 1711 - David Hume, English philosopher (d. 1776)
• 1724 - Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser, Alsatian-born Austrian general (d. 1797)
• 1763 - Józef Antoni Poniatowski, Polish prince and Marshal of France (d. 1813)
• 1812 - Robert Browning, English poet (d. 1889)
• 1833 - Johannes Brahms, German composer (d. 1897)
• 1840 - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Russian composer (d. 1893)
• 1847 - Archibald Primrose, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1929)
• 1857 - William A. MacCorkle, Governor of West Virginia (d. 1930)
• 1861 - Rabindranath Tagore, Indian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1941)
• 1867 - Władysław Reymont, Polish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1925)
• 1882 - Willem Elsschot, Flemish writer (d.1960)
• 1885 - George 'Gabby' Hayes, American actor (d. 1969)
• 1892 - Archibald MacLeish, American poet and Librarian of Congress (d. 1982)
• 1892 - Josip Broz Tito, President of Yugoslavia (d. 1980)
• 1901 - Gary Cooper, American actor (d. 1961)
• 1909 - Edwin H. Land, American inventor (d. 1991)
• 1911 - Ishiro Honda, Japanese film director
• 1919 - Eva Peron, wife of Argentine President Juan Peron (d. 1952)
• 1922 - Darren McGavin, American actor
• 1923 - Anne Baxter, American actress (d. 1985)
• 1927 - Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, German screenwriter
• 1930 - Totie Fields, American comedienne (d. 1978)
• 1931 - Teresa Brewer, American singer
• 1933 - Johnny Unitas, American football player (d. 2002)
• 1939 - Sidney Altman, Canadian-born chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1939 - Ruud Lubbers, Prime Minister of the Netherlands
• 1939 - Jimmy Ruffin, American singer
• 1940 - Angela Carter, English novelist and journalist (d. 1992)
• 1943 - Harvey Andrews, English singer and songwriter
• 1946 - Thelma Houston, American singer
• 1946 - Bill Kreutzmann, American drummer (Grateful Dead)
• 1950 - Randall 'Tex' Cobb, American boxer and actor
• 1950 - Tim Russert, American television host
• 1951 - Janis Ian, American singer and songwriter
• 1954 - Amy Heckerling, American director
• 1956 - Jan Peter Balkenende, Prime Minister of the Netherlands
• 1956 - Anne Dudley, British composer and musician
• 1965 - Owen Hart, Canadian professional wrestler (d. 1999)
• 1968 - Traci Lords, American actress
• 1969 - Eagle Eye Cherry, Swedish musician
• 1973 - Kristian Lundin, Swedish Songwriter/Producer
• 1980 - Johan Kenkhuis, Dutch swimmer
• 1987 - Asami Konno, Japanese singer (Morning Musume and Tanpopo)
• 1989 - Jason Pasnak, Philippino-Canadian

Deaths

• 973 - Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 912)
• 1427 - Thomas la Warr, 5th Baron De La Warr, English churchman
• 1523 - Franz von Sickingen, German soldier (b. 1481)
• 1539 - Guru Nanak Dev, Pakistani founder of Sikhism (b. 1469)
• 1539 - Ottaviano Petrucci, Italian printer (b. 1466)
• 1615 - Sanada Yukimura, Japanese samurai (b. 1567)
• 1617 - David Fabricius, German astronomer (b. 1564)
• 1667 - Johann Jakob Froberger, German composer (b. 1616)
• 1682 - Tsar Feodor III of Russia (b. 1661)
• 1718 - Mary of Modena, queen of James II of England (b. 1658)
• 1793 - Pietro Nardini, Italian composer (b. 1722)
• 1800 - Niccola Piccinni, Italian composer (b. 1728)
• 1825 - Antonio Salieri, Italian composer (b. 1750)
• 1840 - Caspar David Friedrich, German painter (b. 1774)
• 1868 - Henry Peter Brougham, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain (b. 1778)
• 1896 - H. H. Holmes, American serial killer (b. 1861)
• 1925 - William Hesketh Lever (First Viscount Leverhulme), Founder of Unilever (b. 1851)
• 1941 - Sir James George Frazer, Scottish anthropologist (b. 1854)
• 1942 - Felix Weingartner, Yugoslavian conductor (b. 1863)
• 1951 - Warner Baxter, American actor (b. 1889)
• 1998 - Allan McLeod Cormack, South African-born physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1924)
• 1998 - Eddie Rabbitt, American musician (b. 1941)
• 2000 - Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., American actor (b. 1909)
• 2004 - Waldemar Milewicz, Polish reporter (b. 1956)
• 2005 - Tristan Egolf, American writer (b. 1971)

Holidays and observances

• Russia - Radio Day (see Alexander Popov)
• Bulgaria - Radio and Television Day

External links

• BBC: On This Day
• The New York Times: On This Day

May 6 - May 8 - April 7 - June 7 -- listing of all days