December 7
1787 - Delaware became the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
1796 - Electors chose John Adams to become the second president of the United States.
1917 - The United States declared war on Austria-Hungary in World War I.
1941 - The Empire of Japan launched an air raid on the U.S. Navy base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii as well as targets in Malaya, Hong Kong, Guam, the Philippines and Wake Island; the United States declared war against Japan the next day.
1972 - America's final manned mission to the moon, Apollo 17, blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
1975 - Indonesia invaded East Timor, leading to a 25-year occupation.
1988 - A 6.9-magnitude earthquake struck Armenia, killing more than 25,000.
2001 - Taliban forces fled Kandahar, their final stronghold in Afghanistan.
2002 - Iraq formally declared to the U.N. it had no weapons of mass destruction.
2004 - Hamid Karzai was sworn in as Afghanistan's first popularly elected president.