Today in History: Dec. 7

Today is Saturday, Dec. 7, the 342nd day of 2024. There are 24 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Dec. 7, 1941, the Empire of Japan launched an air raid on the U.S. Navy base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, killing more than 2,300 Americans. The United States declared war against Japan the following day.

Also on this date:

In 1787, Delaware became the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

In 1972, America’s last crewed moon mission to date was launched as Apollo 17 blasted off from Cape Canaveral.

In 1982, convicted murderer Charlie Brooks Jr. became the first U.S. prisoner to be executed by lethal injection, at a prison in Huntsville, Texas.

In 1988, a major earthquake in the Soviet Union devastated northern Armenia, killing at least 25,000 people.

In 1993, six people were killed and 19 wounded in a mass shooting aboard a Long Island Rail Road train in New York.

In 2004, Hamid Karzai was sworn in as Afghanistan’s first popularly elected president.

In 2018, James Alex Fields Jr., who drove his car into a crowd of counterprotesters at a 2017 white nationalist rally in Virginia, was convicted of first-degree murder.

Today’s Birthdays: Linguist and political philosopher Noam Chomsky is 96. Actor Ellen Burstyn is 92. Baseball Hall of Famer Johnny Bench is 77. Singer-songwriter Tom Waits is 75. Sen. Susan M. Collins, R-Maine, is 72. Basketball Hall of Famer Larry Bird is 68. Actor Jeffrey Wright is 59. Actor C. Thomas Howell is 58. Football Hall of Famer Terrell Owens is 51. Football Hall of Famer Alan Faneca is 48. Actor Shiri Appleby is 46. Singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles is 45. Actor Nicholas Hoult is 35. MLB All-Star Pete Alonso is 30. Olympic swimming gold medalist Torri Huske is 22.