This Day in History: December 7

December 7 is traditionally remembered as a date which will live in infamy, if Franklin Delano Roosevelt is to be believed. That is due to the attacks that Japan made on the United States in 1941. But what else happened on this day in history? Would this date be infamous even if the U.S. hadn't been attacked?

Let's investigate.

Okay, Delaware ratified the U.S. Constitution on this date, if Wikipedia is to be believed! So that's a pretty big deal. Does it make the date infamous? I'm not sure. It kind of depends which definition of "infamous" you go with. One time my family was playing Apples to Apples and my dad subscribed only to the negative aspects of infamous. Yet I go with the idea that infamous just means well-known. And the thesaurus program on Microsoft Word seems to back me up. But I digress. What other big things happened on this day?

Well, mostly it seems like it was a very bad day for traveling. To wit:
--In 1946, there was a fire at the Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta that killed 119 people, making it the deadliest hotel fire in U.S. history, assuming that this Wikipedia entry is kept reasonably up-to-date.
--In 1983, an Iberia Airlines Boeing 727 collided with another plane because it was foggy and 93 people died.
--Just four years later, Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 1771 crashed in California. 43 people died because a disgruntled passenger shot his ex-boss and the pilots and then himself. Yowza.
--In 1993, those taking the Long Island Rail Road had to endure a guy murdering six people and injuring 19 others.
--In 2005, a guy claimed to have a bomb was shot and killed by a team of U.S. air marshals at Miami International Airport.

Also! In 1917, the United States declared war on Austria-Hungary, as part of a little skirmish known as World War I. Clearly, December 7 is a bad day for travel and a bad day for wars.

Did anything good happen on this date? Well, of interest to me is the fact that December 7, 1598 is Gian Lorenzo Bernini's birthday. Bernini was a sculptor and architect, and I think he is one of my favorites since I spent time studying abroad in Rome. Do you like Saint Peter's? Bernini had a hand in that. Like that fountain of the four rivers in Piazza Navona? That's Bernini. But one of my favorite Roman memories was when it was free museum day in Rome and I was trudging to the Borghese Gallery because I felt like I should. I had no idea what was there. I didn't feel that good. It was purely a trip of obligation. But then I saw some of Bernini's sculptures -- Apollo and Daphne, David, and the Rape of Proserpine -- and it was a good day again. I stared at those three statues for a long, long time.

Well, that concludes my investigation of December 7, mainly because now I would rather look at sculpture online. Tune in tomorrow when I take on December 8.