Directory

2007 CE

From left to right, top to bottom:; Images of the 2007 South Asian floods; Benazir Bhutto, former prime minister of Pakistan was assassinated; The 2007–2008 Kenyan crisis was a violent political, economic, and humanitarian crisis in Kenya; Hurricane Noel killed 223 and carved a path of destruction across the Atlantic Ocean.; The original iPhone is launched by Apple, marking a new era in cellphones and changing how people use them today; The bronze night surrounding the relocation of the Bronze Soldier of Tallinn, a Soviet-era war memorial; A car of Google Street View, launched that year; Seung-Hui Cho shoots and kills 32 at Virginia Tech before killing himself; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 crashed at Congonhas-São Paulo Airport after overrunning the runway, killing almost 200.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • January 1 – Bulgaria and Romania join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eurozone.source
  • January 4 – Nancy Pelosi becomes the first female speaker of the United States House of Representatives.source
  • March 4 – The First Ivorian Civil War ends with a peace agreement.source
  • March 27 – Latvian Prime Minister Aigars Kalvītis and Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov sign a border treaty between Latvia and Russia, officially demarcating the border between the two.source
  • May 6 – 2007 French presidential election: Nicolas Sarkozy is elected President of France in the second round.source
  • May 10 – As a result of factors including the Blair–Brown deal and falling approval ratings as a result of the Iraq War, British Prime Minister Tony Blair announces his intention to resign as Leader of the Labour Party and Prime Minister, triggering the 2007 Labour Party leadership election, in which Chancellor Gordon Brown ran unopposed. Brown would officially replace Blair as Prime Minister on 27 June.source
  • June 27 – Gordon Brown succeeds Tony Blair and becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom after a leadership election.source
  • August 10 – The UEFA Executive Committee decided to cancel the UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying matches between Armenia and Azerbaijan in Group A, after the proposal to play them on neutral ground was rejected by the federations of the two countries.source
  • September 13 – The United Nations General Assembly adopts the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.source
  • October 22 – Montenegro adopts a new constitution, which among other things changes the country's official name from "Republic of Montenegro" to "Montenegro".source
  • October 28 – 2007 Argentine general election: Cristina Fernández de Kirchner becomes the first directly elected female President of Argentina.source
  • November 24 – 2007 Australian federal election: The Labor Party led by Kevin Rudd defeats the Liberal/National Coalition government led by Prime Minister John Howard. Rudd would be sworn in on December 3.source
  • December 1 – At the age of , Queen Elizabeth II becomes the oldest ever reigning British monarch, surpassing Queen Victoria who was aged upon her death on January 22, 1901.source
  • December 13 – The Treaty of Lisbon is signed by members states of European Union.source
  • December 21 – The Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia join the Schengen border-free zone.source

Conflict & Security

  • January 8 – Russian oil supplies to Poland, Germany, and Ukraine are cut as the Russia–Belarus energy dispute escalates; they are restored three days later.source
  • January 10 – Iraq War: The surge of US troops in Iraq is announced.source
  • February 3 – A truck bomb explodes in Baghdad, Iraq, killing at least 135 people and injures 339 others.source
  • February 26 – The International Court of Justice finds Serbia guilty of failing to prevent genocide in the Srebrenica massacre, but clears it of direct responsibility and complicity in the case.source
  • March 11 – Georgia accuses three Russian helicopters of firing on the Kodori Gorge, then the only part of the break-away autonomous republic of Abkhazia still under Georgian control.source
  • March 23 – Naval forces of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps arrest Royal Navy personnel in disputed Iran-Iraq waters; they were released on April 4.source
  • April 16 – Virginia tech massacre: 23-year-old Seung-Hui Cho fatally shoots 32 people and injured 17 others, before committing suicide as police arrive on the scene.source
  • June 10–15 – Fatah-Hamas conflict: The Battle of Gaza is fought between Fatah and Hamas, and ends with Hamas gaining control of the Gaza Strip.source
  • July 31 – Operation Banner comes to an end, thus ending the longest continuous deployment in British military history.source
  • September 6 – Israeli Air Force airplanes attack a suspected nuclear reactor in Syria in an airstrike.source
  • October 15 – October 21 – The 17th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party is held in Beijing, China.source
  • November 7 – Whistleblower website WikiLeaks leaks the standard US army protocol at Guantanamo Bay.source
  • November 7 – The Jokela school shooting happened in Finland.source
  • November 29 – The Armed Forces of the Philippines lay siege to the Peninsula Manila after soldiers led by Senator Antonio Trillanes stage a mutiny.source
  • December 27 – Riots erupt in Mombasa, Kenya, after Mwai Kibaki is declared the winner of the general election, triggering a political, economic, and humanitarian crisis that killed over 1,000 people.source
  • December 27 – Former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto is assassinated, along with 20 other people, at an election rally in Rawalpindi.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • September 20 – The Universal Forum of Cultures opens in Monterrey, Mexico.source

Religion & Belief

  • May 17 – The Russian Orthodox Church Abroad and the Moscow Patriarchate re-unite after 80 years of schism.source
  • May 20 – Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum of Dubai makes the largest single charitable donation in modern history, committing €7.41 billion to an educational foundation in the Middle East.source
  • September 12 - Daniel Ciobotea is elected as the 6th Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church since the Church was elevated to this status in 1925.source

Economy & Finance

  • June 24 – American rapper T.I was involved in a physical altercation with Chaka Zulu, the manager of Ludacris, at the Sunset Tower Hotel in West Hollywood, California.source
  • August 9 – Subprime mortgage crisis: The French global bank BNP Paribas in the United Kingdom blocks withdrawals from three hedge funds heavily committed in subprime lendings, signaling the 2008 financial crisis.source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • January 9 – Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduces the original iPhone at a Macworld keynote in San Francisco, California; starting the new era of smartphones with this invention. The phone would be released in June.source
  • January 30 – Windows Vista is released to consumers by Microsoft.source
  • February 19 – Microblogging social network Tumblr is launched to the public.source
  • May 3 – British three-year-old Madeleine McCann disappears in Praia da Luz, Lagos, Portugal, described by The Daily Telegraph as "the most heavily reported missing-person case in modern history".source
  • June 15 – Bob Barker hosts his final episode of The Price Is Right after 35 years of hosting.source
  • June 29 – The iPhone, the first modern smartphone, is released in the United States. It is later released in the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Germany, and Austria, in November 2007.source

Science & Discovery

  • March 3 – A total lunar eclipse occurs and is visible in the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia. It is the 52nd lunar eclipse of Lunar Saros series 123 occurring at the moon's descending node. The moon is just 3.2 days before apogee, making it fairly small.source
  • March 19 – The first solar eclipse of the year 2007 is a partial solar eclipse occurring just 0.7 days before perigee, making it very large. The Moon covers 87.558% of the Sun. In this partial solar eclipse, the best visibility occurs at 61º02'55" N, 55º28'04" E. It is the 20th solar eclipse of Solar Saros series 149, at ascending node. The Sun is its zenith just 83 km south of the Equator, so the Northern Hemisphere was in winter and the Southern Hemisphere was in summer on March 19, 2007.source
  • April 24 – Gliese 581c, a potentially Earth-like extrasolar planet habitable for life, is discovered in the constellation Libra.source
  • June 5 – NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft makes its second fly-by of Venus on route to Mercury.source
  • July 17 – The dwarf planet Gonggong is discovered by astronomers Megan Schwamb, Michael Brown, and David Rabinowitz from the Palomar Observatory.source
  • August 4 – The Phoenix spacecraft is launched toward Mars to study its north pole.source
  • September 14 – The SELENE spacecraft launches, with its objective being to study the Moon.source

Health & Medicine

  • July 24 – Five Bulgarian nurses are released from Libyan prison after eight and a half years spent behind bars in Benghazi and Tripoli, marking the end of the so-called "HIV trial in Libya".source
  • October 10 – Valve Software releases The Orange Box on Windows and Xbox 360.source

Crime & Justice

  • January 31 – Boston, Massachusetts, United States faces a hoax bomb scare, as a result of LED placards of Ignignokt and Err from Aqua Teen Hunger Force being mistaken as an improvised explosive device.source
  • April 26–27 – "Bronze Night": Ethnic Russian riot in Tallinn and other cities in Estonia against the moving of the Bronze Soldier of Tallinn, a Soviet World War II memorial statue. 2007 cyberattacks on Estonia begin.source
  • June 22–June 24 – Canadian professional wrestler Chris Benoit commits a double-murder suicide on his wife and youngest son at their home in Fayetteville, Georgia, United States.source
  • December 20 – The Pablo Picasso painting Portrait of Suzanne Bloch, together with Candido Portinari's O Lavrador de Café, is stolen from the São Paulo Museum of Art.source
  • Mauritania is the last country to criminalise slavery (officially abolished in 1981), making the practice illegal everywhere in the world.source

Disasters & Accidents

  • January 1 – Adam Air Flight 574, en route to Manado, Indonesia, from Surabaya, Indonesia, crashes into the Makassar Strait; killing all 102 on board.source
  • April 18 – 18 April 2007 Baghdad bombings: A series of attacks take place across Baghdad, Iraq, killing nearly 200 people.source
  • May 5 – Kenya Airways Flight 507, on a scheduled passenger flight from Doula, Cameroon, to Nairobi, Kenya, crashes after takeoff, killing all 114 crew and passengers on board.source
  • July 17 – TAM Airlines Flight 3054 an Airbus A320-233 overruns the runway of São Paulo–Congonhas Airport runway 35L, flies over Avenida Washington Luís and crashes into TAM Express building and a Shell filling station adjacent to the TAM Express building. All 187 passengers and crew are killed instantly. 12 people inside the TAM Express and the Shell filling station are also killed.source
  • August 14 – Multiple suicide bombings kill 572 people in Qahtaniya, northern Iraq.source

Climate & Environment

  • February 2 – The IPCC publishes its fourth assessment report, having concluded that global climate change is "very likely" to have a predominantly human cause.source
  • February 13 – North Korea agrees to shut down its nuclear facilities in Yongbyon by April 14 as a first step towards complete denuclearization, receiving in return energy aid equivalent to 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil.source
  • May 4 – The 2007 Greensburg tornado moves through Kiowa County, Kansas, United States, striking the town of Greensburg and killing eleven residents. 95% of the town was destroyed, and the tornado was the first to be rated EF5 on the Enhanced Fujita scale.source
  • June 22 – The 2007 Ellie tornado becomes the only F5 tornado recorded under the use of the Fujita scale in Canada, reaching windspeeds up to 320 mph (510 km/h).source
  • June 28 – 2007 European heat wave: in the aftermath of Greece's worst heat wave in a century, at least 11 people are reported dead from heatstroke, approximately 200 wildfires break out nationwide, and the country's electricity grid nearly collapses due to record breaking demand.source
  • August 15 – An 8.0 earthquake strikes Peru, killing at least 519 people, injuring more than 1,300, and causing tsunami warnings in the Pacific Ocean.source
  • September 25 – Mount Ruapehu in Tongariro National Park in New Zealand, erupts.source
  • November 16 – Up to 15,000 people are believed to have been killed after Cyclone Sidr hits Bangladesh.source

Culture & Society

  • March 1 – The fourth International Polar Year, a $1.73 billion research program to study both the North Pole and South Pole, is launched in Paris.source
  • March 13–April 28 – The 2007 Cricket World Cup is held in the West Indies with Australia defeating Sri Lanka in the final.source
  • May 10–12 – The Eurovision Song Contest 2007 takes place in Helsinki, Finland, and is won by Serbian entrant Marija Šerifović with the song "Molitva".source
  • July 4 – The International Olympic Committee awards Sochi the right to host the 2014 Winter Olympics.source
  • July 7 – Live Earth Concerts are held in nine major cities around the world to raise environmental awareness.source
  • September 7 – October 20 – The 2007 Rugby World Cup takes place in France. South Africa beat defending champions England in the final.source
  • September 11 – Ethiopia celebrates the third millennium in Ethiopian calendar.source
  • October 21 – Finnish racing driver Kimi Räikkönen won his first Formula One World Championship, driving for Scuderia Ferrari at the Brazilian Grand Prix.source
  • Sports TV Uganda Limited is incorporated in Uganda.source

Deaths

  • May 11 – Malietoa Tanumafili II, the head of state of Samoa since its independence, dies in office at the age of 94. His death triggers the first election for the office of Samoan head of state.source