1941 – Japan Imperial Navy launches a surprise attack on the United States Pacific Fleet and its Army and Navy defense forces at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. 2,403 sailors and soldiers, Americans were killed and 1,178 others wounded. This military attack served as a reason for the United States to officially enter World War II.
1962 – Prince Rainier III of Monaco revises the constitution of the principalities, distributing some of his power to the legislature. The Constitution of Monaco, first adopted in 1911, outlines three branches of government, including several administrative offices and a number of councils, which share advisory and legislative power with the prince.
1965 – Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras I simultaneously revoke the mutual communications that had existed since 1054. The Joint Catholic-Orthodox Declaration of 1965 was read simultaneously on December 7, 1965 at a public meeting of the Second Vatican Council in Rome. and at a special ceremony in Istanbul.
1984 – Robert Kubica is born in Krakow, Poland. Kubica, is a car racing pilot. He became the first and only Polish driver to race in Formula 1. Between 2006 and 2009 he raced for the BMW Sauber F1 team. In June 2008, Kubica took his Formula 1 Grand Prix at the Canadian Grand Prix, becoming the first Polish driver to win one.
1988 – A magnitude 6.8 earthquake shakes Armenia, killing 50,000 people and injuring 130,000. The quake occurred in the northern region of Armenia (then part of the Soviet Union) which is susceptible to major and devastating earthquakes and is part of a large seismically active belt stretching from the Alps to the Himalayas.
1995 – The Galileo spacecraft arrives on Jupiter, just over six years after launching from the Space Shuttle Atlantis during the STS-34 Mission. Galileo arrived on Jupiter on December 7, 1995, following the gravitational assistance flights of Venus and Earth and became the first spacecraft to orbit Jupiter. She embarked on her journey to Jupiter, directly measuring its atmosphere.
2006 – Jean Kirkpatrick dies at the age of 80. Kirkpatrick, was an American diplomat and political scientist who played a major role in the foreign policy of the Ronald Reagan administration. Jeane, joined the Republican Party in 1985, having previously joined that Democrat. She became the first woman to serve as United States Ambassador to the United Nations.
