THIS DAY IN HISTORY ― NOVEMBER 7

November 7 is the 311th day of the year (312th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 54 days remaining until the end of the year. This date is slightly more likely to fall on a Monday, Wednesday or Saturday (58 in 400 years each) than on Thursday or Friday (57), and slightly less likely to occur on a Tuesday or Sunday (56).

This day marks the approximate midpoint of autumn in the Northern Hemisphere and of spring in the Southern Hemisphere (starting the season at the September equinox).

COLOR THE WORLD ORANGE DAY 

1492 – The Ensisheim Meteorite, the oldest meteorite with a known date of impact, strikes the earth around noon in a wheat field outside the village of Ensisheim, Alsace, France. The fall of the meteorite through the Earth's atmosphere was observed as a fireball for a distance of up to 150 kilometres from where it eventually landed.

1631 – Pierre Gassendi observes transit of Mercury predicted by Kepler. Johannes Kepler appears to be the first astronomer who made detailed predictions for past and future transits of Venus, In a chapter on mutual occultations of the heavenly bodies in his Optical Part of Astronomy (Frankfurt, 1604), Kepler stated that no transit of Venus would take place during the 17th century although it had been possible two centuries before his time.

1733 – France (Louis XV) and Spain (Phillips V) sign the Treaty of the Escorial (the first 'Pacte de Famille' between the Bourbon kings of France and Spain). Philip V was the grandson of Louis XIV and had become the first Bourbon King of Spain in 1700 upon the extinction of Spanish Habsburgs. 

1776 – On this day in 1776, Congress chooses Richard Bache to succeed his father-in-law, Benjamin Franklin, as postmaster general. Franklin had sailed for France on behalf of the Continental Congress the previous month.

1805 – The Lewis and Clark Expedition (Core of Discovery Expedition) sighted the Pacific Ocean for the first time on November 7, 1805, arriving two weeks later. 

1861 – Union forces under Ulysses S. Grant overrun a Confederate camp at the Battle of Belmont, Missouri, but are forced to flee when additional Confederate troops arrive. Although Grant claimed victory, the Union gained no ground and left the Confederates in firm control of that section of the Mississippi River. This engagement was part of Grant's plan to capture the Confederate stronghold at Columbus, Kentucky, just across the river from Belmont, by first driving away the Confederate garrison at Belmont.

1916 – On this day in 1916, Montana suffragist Jeannette Rankin is elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. She is the first woman in the history of the nation to win a seat in the federal Congress.

1940 –  Only four months after its completion, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington State suffers a spectacular collapse. On November 7, with a steady wind blowing at 42 mph, the roadway began to twist back and forth in an increasingly violent fashion. Before closing the span, the toll keeper on the bridge's west side let one last motorist pass, Tacoma News Tribune copy editor Leonard Coatsworth. Halfway across the bridge, Coatsworth lost control of his car. When the roadway tipped so sharply that it seemed his car would topple off, he decided to flee on foot. He tried to retrieve his daughter's black cocker spaniel from the back seat of the car, but the dog snapped at him and refused to budge. Coatsworth ran to safety and called the Tribune,who dispatched a reporter and photographer to the scene.

1944 – On this day in 1944, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt is elected to an unprecedented fourth term in office. FDR remains the only president to have served more than two terms.

1957 – The final report from a special committee called by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to review the nation's defense readiness indicates that the United States is falling far behind the Soviets in missile capabilities, and urges a vigorous campaign to build fallout shelters to protect American citizens. 

1983 – The 1983 U.S. Senate bombing was a bomb explosion at the United States Senate on November 7, 1983. Six members of the "Resistance Conspiracy" were arrested in May 1988 and charged with the bombing, as well as related bombings of Fort McNairand the Washington Navy Yard. After a five-year investigation, federal agents arrested six members of the Resistance Conspiracy, on May 12, 1988, and charged them with bombings of the Capitol, Fort McNair, and the Washington Navy Yard. On December 7, 1990, federal judge Harold H. Greene sentenced Laura Whitehorn and Linda Evans to lengthy prison terms for conspiracy and malicious destruction of government property. The court dropped charges against three co-defendants, already serving extended prison sentences for related crimes. Whitehorn was sentenced to 20 years; Evans, to 5 years, concurrent with 35 years for illegally buying guns. On January 20, 2001, the day he left office, President Bill Clinton commuted Evans's sentence.

 

2000 – The United States presidential election of 2000 was the 54th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 7, 2000. The contest was between Republican candidate George W. Bush, the incumbent governor of Texas and son of former president George H. W. Bush, and Democratic candidate Al Gore, the incumbent Vice President.

2004 – Iraq War: The interim government of Iraq calls for a 60-day "state of emergency" as U.S. forces storm the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah.



TODAY'S BIRTHS

994 – Ibn Hazm, Arabian philosopher and scholar (d. 1069)

1832 – Andrew Dickson White, American historian, academic, and diplomat, co-founded Cornell University (d. 1918)

1867 – Marie Curie, Polish chemist and physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1934)

1879 – Leon Trotsky, Russian theorist and politician, founded the Red Army (d. 1940)

1943 – Joni Mitchell, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 1997)

From Wikipedia and Google, except as noted.