2007

From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto is assassinated; 2007 marked the beginning of the Subprime mortgage crisis in the United States; A surge of troops is sent to fight in the Iraq War; a gunman kills 32 people at Virginia Tech; Google Street View is unveiled to the world; The Treaty of Lisbon is signed by member states of the European Union

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 2007.

2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, the 2007th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 7th year of the 3rd millennium and the 21st century, and the 8th year of the 2000s decade.

2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year.

Events

January

• January 1 – Bulgaria and Romania join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eurozone.
• 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.
• January 9 – Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduces the original iPhone at a Macworld keynote in San Francisco, beginning a new era of smartphones with this invention.
• January 31 - Boston 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

February

• February 2 – The IPCC publishes its fourth assessment report, having concluded that global climate change is "very likely" to have a predominantly human cause.
• February 3 – A truck bomb explodes in Baghdad, Iraq, killing at least 135 people and injures 339 others.
• 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.
• February 19 – Microblogging social network Tumblr is launched to the public.
• 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.

March

• 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.
• 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.
• March 11 – According to an accusation by Georgia, three Russian helicopters fire on the Georgian-controlled Kodori Gorge in a break-away autonomous republic of Abkhazia in north-western Georgia.
• March 13 – April 28 – The 2007 Cricket World Cup is held in the West Indies and is won by Australia.
• 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.
• March 23 – Naval forces of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps arrest Royal Navy personnel in disputed Iran-Iraq waters; they were released on April 4.
• March 25 – A 6.7 magnitude earthquake kills at least one in western Japan.
• 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.

April

• April 16 – Virginia tech massacre: 23 year-old Seung-Hui Cho fatally shot 32 people and injured 17 others. He used two semi-automatic pistols to kill them and killed himself as police arrived on the scene.
• April 18 – 18 April 2007 Baghdad bombings: A series of attacks take place across Baghdad, Iraq, killing nearly 200 people.
• April 24 – Gliese 581c, a potentially Earth-like extrasolar planet habitable for life, is discovered in the constellation Libra.
• 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.

May

• May 10 – As a result of factors including the Blair-Brown pact 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.
• 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".
• May 17 – The Russian Orthodox Church Abroad and the Moscow Patriarchate re-unite after 80 years of schism.
• 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.

June

• June 5 – NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft makes its second fly-by of Venus en route to Mercury.
• 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.
• June 29 – The iPhone, the first modern smartphone, is released in the United States. It was later released in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the Republic of Ireland and Austria in November 2007.

July

• July 4 – The International Olympic Committee awards Sochi the right to host the 2014 Winter Olympics.
• July 7 – Live Earth Concerts are held in nine major cities around the world to raise environmental awareness.
• 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 gas station adjacent to the TAM Express building. All 187 passengers and crew are killed instantly. 12 people inside the TAM Express and the Shell gas station are also killed.
• 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".
• July 31 – Operation Banner comes to an end, thus ending the longest continuous deployment in British military history.

August

• August 4 – The Phoenix spacecraft is launched toward Mars to study its north pole.
• August 9 – The French global bank BNP Paribas in the United Kingdom blocks withdrawals from three hedge funds heavily committed in sub-prime mortgages, signaling the financial crisis of 2007–2008.
• August 14 – Multiple suicide bombings kill 572 people in Qahtaniya, northern Iraq.
• 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.

September

• September 6 – Israeli Air Force airplanes attack a suspected nuclear reactor in Syria in an airstrike.
• September 13 – The United Nations General Assembly adopts the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
• September 14 – The SELENE spacecraft launches, with its objective being to study the Moon.
• September 20 – The Universal Forum of Cultures opens in Monterrey, Mexico.
• September 25 – Mount Ruapehu in Tongariro National Park in New Zealand, erupts.

October

• October 22 – Montenegro adopts a new constitution, which among other things changes the country's official name from "Republic of Montenegro" to "Montenegro".
• October 28 – Cristina Fernández de Kirchner becomes the first directly elected female President of Argentina.
• Sports TV Uganda Limited is incorporated in Uganda.

November

• November 7 – Whistleblower website WikiLeaks leaks the standard US army protocol at Guantanamo Bay.
• November 16 – Up to 15,000 people are believed to have been killed after Cyclone Sidr hits Bangladesh.
• 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.

December

• December 1 – At the age of 81 years, 244 days, Queen Elizabeth II becomes the oldest ever reigning British monarch, surpassing Queen Victoria who was aged 81 years, 243 days upon her death on January 22, 1901.
• December 13 – The Treaty of Lisbon is signed by members states of European Union.
• 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.
• December 21 – The Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia join the Schengen border-free zone.
• December 27
  • Former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto is assassinated, along with 20 other people, at an election rally in Rawalpindi.
  • 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.

Unknown date

• Mauritania is the last country to criminalise slavery (officially "abolished" in 1981), making the practice illegal everywhere in the world.

Births

• January 10 – Maléna (singer), Armenian singer and songwriter, winner of Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2021
• April 10 – Princess Ariane of the Netherlands, daughter of King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima
• April 21 – Princess Isabella of Denmark, daughter of Crown Prince Frederick and Crown Princess Mary of Denmark
• April 29 – Infanta Sofía of Spain, daughter of Felipe, Prince of Asturias (now King Felipe VI) and Letizia, Princess of Asturias.
• July 10 – Viki Gabor, Polish singer, winner of Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2019.
• July 18 – JD McCrary (Jaydon McCrary), American actor, dancer and singer.
• August 30 – Momiji Nishiya, Japanese Olympic skateboarder
• September 19 Neo Rapelang Kevin Lechwenyo from South Africa is 15 as from 2022

]] – James, Viscount Severn, grandson of Elizabeth II, son of The Earl and Countess of Wessex

Deaths

January

Yvonne De Carlo

Ryszard Kapuściński

• January 4 – Marais Viljoen, 5th State President of South Africa (b. 1915)
• January 5 – Momofuku Ando, Japanese inventor (b. 1910)
• January 8 – Yvonne De Carlo, Canadian-born American actress, dancer and singer (b. 1922)
• January 10 – Carlo Ponti, Italian film producer (b. 1912)
• January 11 – Robert Anton Wilson, American author and conspiracy researcher (b. 1932)
• January 12 – Alice Coltrane, American jazz musician (b. 1937)
• January 13 – Michael Brecker, American jazz musician (b. 1949)
• January 15
  • Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, Iraqi politician (b. 1951)
  • Bo Yibo, Chinese politician (b. 1908)
• January 17 – Art Buchwald, American humorist (b. 1925)
• January 19
  • Hrant Dink, Turkish-Armenian journalist (b. 1954)
  • Denny Doherty, Canadian musician (b. 1940)
• January 22
  • Ngô Quang Trưởng, South Vietnamese Army general (b. 1929)
  • Abbé Pierre, French priest and founder of Emmaus (b. 1912)
• January 23 – Ryszard Kapuściński, Polish journalist and author (b. 1932)
• January 30 – Sidney Sheldon, American author and screenwriter (b. 1917)

February

Alan MacDiarmid

Anna Nicole Smith

• February 1 – Gian Carlo Menotti, Italian-born composer and librettist (b. 1911)
• February 6 – Frankie Laine, American singer (b. 1913)
• February 7 – Alan MacDiarmid, New Zealand chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1927)
• February 8 – Anna Nicole Smith, American model and television personality (b. 1967)
• February 9 – Ian Richardson, Scottish actor (b. 1934)
• February 13 – Johanna Sällström, Swedish actress (b. 1974)
• February 15 – Robert Adler, Austrian-born inventor (b. 1913)
• February 22
  • Lothar-Günther Buchheim, German author, painter, and art collector (b. 1918)
  • Fons Rademakers, Dutch actor, film director, producer and screenwriter (b. 1920)
• February 23 – Pascal Yoadimnadji, Chadian politician, 12th Prime Minister of Chad (b. 1950)
• February 28
  • Princess Marie Adelaide of Luxembourg, Princess of Luxembourg (b. 1924)
  • Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., American historian and political commentator (b. 1917)

March–April

Jean Baudrillard

Mstislav Rostropovich

• March 1 – Manuel Bento, Portuguese professional footballer (b. 1948)
• March 2 – Henri Troyat, French writer and historian (b. 1911)
• March 6 – Jean Baudrillard, French philosopher and sociologist (b. 1929)
• March 9 – Brad Delp, American musician (Boston) (b. 1951)
• March 11 – Betty Hutton, American actress (b. 1921)
• March 14 – Lucie Aubrac, French World War II Resistance fighter (b. 1912)
• March 17 – Freddie Francis, English cinematographer and film director (b. 1917)
• March 20 – Taha Yassin Ramadan, Vice President of Iraq (b. 1938)
• March 25 – Andranik Margaryan, 14th Prime Minister of Armenia (b. 1951)
• March 30 – Chrisye, Indonesian pop singer and songwriter (b. 1949)
• April 6 – Luigi Comencini, Italian film director (b. 1916)
• April 7 – Barry Nelson, American actor (b. 1917)
• April 11 – Kurt Vonnegut, American novelist and playwright (b. 1922)
• April 16 – Seung-Hui Cho, South Korean terrorist (b. 1984)
• April 17 – Kitty Carlisle, American singer, actress & talk show panelist (b. 1910)
• April 19 – Jean-Pierre Cassel, French actor (b. 1932)
• April 23
  • David Halberstam, American journalist and historian (b. 1934)
  • Boris Yeltsin, 1st President of the Russian Federation (b. 1931)
• April 25 – Alan Ball Jr., English footballer and manager (b. 1945)
• April 27 – Mstislav Rostropovich, Russian cellist and conductor (b. 1927)
• April 28 – Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, German physicist and philosopher (b. 1912)
• April 29 – Ivica Račan, 7th Prime Minister of Croatia (b. 1944)
• April 30 – Gordon Scott, American actor (b. 1926)

May–June

Wally Schirra

Chris Benoit

• May 3 – Wally Schirra, American astronaut (b. 1923)
• May 5 – Theodore Maiman, American physicist (b. 1927)
• May 7 – Diego Corrales, American professional boxer (b. 1977)
• May 11 – Malietoa Tanumafili II, Samoan head of state (b. 1913)
• May 12 – Mullah Dadullah Akhund, Afghan Taliban military leader (b. 1966)
• May 16 – Mary Douglas, British anthropologist (b. 1921)
• May 17 – Lloyd Alexander, American author (b. 1924)
• May 18 – Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, French physicist and Nobel Prize for Physics laureate (b. 1932)
• May 20 – Stanley Miller, American chemist and biologist (b. 1930)
• May 27 – Izumi Sakai, Japanese singer (Zard) (b. 1967)
• May 30 – Jean-Claude Brialy, French actor and director (b. 1933)
• June 2 – Huang Ju, Chinese politician (b. 1938)
• June 8 – Aden Abdullah Osman Daar, first President of Somalia (b. 1908)
• June 11 – Tito Gómez, Puerto Rican salsa singer (b. 1948)
• June 14 – Kurt Waldheim, Austrian politician and diplomat, former United Nations Secretary-General (b. 1918)
• June 17 – Gianfranco Ferré, Italian designer (b. 1944)
• June 18 – Vilma Espín, Cuban revolutionary, feminist, and chemical engineer (b. 1930)
• June 19 – Antonio Aguilar, Mexican singer and actor (b. 1919)
• June 24
  • Chris Benoit, Canadian professional wrestler (b. 1967)
  • Derek Dougan, Northern Irish footballer (b. 1938)
• June 26 – Jupp Derwall, German footballer and coach (b. 1927)
• June 28 – Kiichi Miyazawa, 78th Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1919)

July–August

Alfonso López Michelsen

Mohammed Zahir Shah

Ingmar Bergman

• July 3
  • Claude Pompidou, French philanthropist (b. 1912)
  • Boots Randolph, American saxophonist (b. 1927)
• July 5 – Régine Crespin, French soprano (b. 1927)
• July 8 – Chandra Shekhar, Indian politician and eighth Prime Minister (b. 1927)
• July 11
  • Lady Bird Johnson, former First Lady of the United States (b. 1912)
  • Alfonso López Michelsen, 32nd Colombian President (b. 1913)
• July 20 – Kai Siegbahn, Swedish physicist (b. 1918)
• July 22
  • László Kovács, Hungarian-American cinematographer (b. 1933)
  • Ulrich Mühe, German actor (b. 1953)
  • Jean Stablinski, French cyclist of Polish origin (b. 1932)
• July 23
  • Ernst Otto Fischer, German chemist (b. 1918)
  • Mohammed Zahir Shah, last King of Afghanistan (b. 1914)
• July 24 – Albert Ellis, American psychologist (b. 1913)
• July 28 – Isidore Isou, French poet, film critic and artist (b. 1925)
• July 30
  • Michelangelo Antonioni, Italian film director (b. 1912)
  • Teoctist Arăpaşu, Ex-Romanian Orthodox Church Patriarch (b. 1915)
  • Ingmar Bergman, Swedish film director (b. 1918)
• August 1 – Ryan Cox, South African professional road racing cyclist (b. 1979)
• August 4 – Lee Hazlewood, American country and pop singer, songwriter, and record producer (b. 1929)
• August 5 – Jean-Marie Lustiger, French Cardinal Archbishop of Paris (b. 1926)
• August 10 – Tony Wilson, English broadcaster, nightclub manager, and record label owner (b. 1950)
• August 12 – Merv Griffin, American television personality (b. 1925)
• August 16 – Max Roach, American percussionist, drummer, and composer (b. 1924)
• August 20 – Leona Helmsley, American hotel operator and real estate investor (b. 1920)
• August 24 – Abdul Rahman Arif, 3rd President of Iraq (b. 1916)
• August 25 – Raymond Barre, French politician and economist (b. 1924)
• August 26 – Gaston Thorn, Luxembourger politician, 19th Prime Minister of Luxembourg (b. 1928)
• August 28 – Miyoshi Umeki, Japanese actress (b. 1929)
• August 29 – Pierre Messmer, French politician (b. 1916)

September–October

Luciano Pavarotti

Marcel Marceau

Deborah Kerr

• September 3 – Steve Fossett, American businessman, aviator, sailor, and adventurer (b. 1944)
• September 6
  • Madeleine L'Engle, American writer (b. 1918)
  • Luciano Pavarotti, Italian tenor (b. 1935)
• September 7 – John Compton, Prime Minister of Saint Lucia (b. 1925)
• September 10
  • Anita Roddick, English entrepreneur (b. 1942)
  • Jane Wyman, American actress (b. 1917)
• September 11 – Joe Zawinul, Austrian musician (b. 1932)
• September 15 – Colin McRae, Scottish world rally champion (b. 1968)
• September 16 – Robert Jordan, American author (b. 1948)
• September 21 – Petar Stambolić, Serbian politician, 5th President of the Presidency of Yugoslavia (b. 1912)
• September 22
  • André Gorz, Austrian-born French social philosopher (b. 1923)
  • Marcel Marceau, French mime artist (b. 1923)
• September 29 – Lois Maxwell, Canadian actress (b. 1927)
• October 1 – Al Oerter, American athlete (b. 1936)
• October 7 – Norifumi Abe, Japanese motorcycle road racer (b. 1975)
• October 9 - Carol Bruce, American singer and actress (b. 1919)
• October 11 – Sri Chinmoy, Indian philosopher (b. 1931)
• October 12
  • Soe Win, Burmese politician, 10th Prime Minister of Myanmar (b. 1947)
  • Kisho Kurokawa, Japanese architect (b. 1934)
• October 16
  • Deborah Kerr, Scottish actress (b. 1921)
  • Toše Proeski, Macedonian singer (b. 1981)
• October 17 – Joey Bishop, American entertainer (b. 1918)
• October 19 – Jan Wolkers, Dutch author, sculptor and painter (b. 1925)
• October 22 – Ève Curie, French author, daughter of Pierre and Marie Curie (b. 1904)
• October 26
  • Nicolae Dobrin, Romanian footballer (b. 1947)
  • Arthur Kornberg, American biochemist and Nobel laureate (b. 1918)
  • Khun Sa, Burmese warlord (b. 1934)
• October 30 – John Woodruff, American athlete (b. 1915)

November–December

Ian Smith

Oscar Peterson

Benazir Bhutto

• November 1 – Paul Tibbets, American pilot of the Enola Gay (b. 1915)
• November 2 – Witold Kiełtyka, Polish musician (b. 1984)
• November 5 – Nils Liedholm, Swedish footballer and coach (b. 1922)
• November 8 – Stephen Fumio Hamao, Japanese cardinal (b. 1930)
• November 9 – Luis Herrera Campins, 56th President of Venezuela (b. 1925)
• November 10
  • Laraine Day, American actress (b. 1920)
  • Norman Mailer, American writer (b. 1923)
• November 11 – Delbert Mann, American film and television director (b. 1920)
• November 12 – Ira Levin, American novelist (b. 1929)
• November 16 – Grethe Kausland, Norwegian singer and actress (b. 1947)
• November 19 – Magda Szabó, Hungarian writer (b. 1917)
• November 20 – Ian Smith, Prime Minister of Rhodesia (b. 1919)
• November 21 – Fernando Fernán Gómez, Spanish actor, director, and playwright (b. 1921)
• November 22 – Maurice Béjart, French-born dancer, choreographer and opera director (b. 1927)
• November 23 – Vladimir Kryuchkov, Russian Soviet-era secret service chief (b. 1924)
• November 26 – Herb McKenley, Jamaican athlete (b. 1922)
• November 28 – Elly Beinhorn, German pilot and author (b. 1907)
• November 30 – Evel Knievel, American motorcycle daredevil (b. 1938)
• December 1 – Ken McGregor, Australian tennis player (b. 1929)
• December 5 – Karlheinz Stockhausen, German composer (b. 1928)
• December 7 - Sartono Kartodirdjo, Indonesian historian. (b. 1921)
• December 12 – Ike Turner, American musician, songwriter, record producer, and bandleader (b. 1931)
• December 16 – Dan Fogelberg, American singer and songwriter (b. 1951)
• December 22 – Julien Gracq, French writer (b. 1910)
• December 23 – Oscar Peterson, Canadian jazz pianist and composer (b. 1925)
• December 27
  • Benazir Bhutto, Pakistani politician, Prime Minister of Pakistan (b. 1953)
  • Jerzy Kawalerowicz, Polish film director and politician (b. 1922)
  • Jaan Kross, Estonian writer (b. 1920)
• December 31 – Muhammad Osman Said, Former Libyan prime minister (b. 1922)

Nobel Prizes

• Chemistry – Gerhard Ertl
• Economics – Leonid Hurwicz, Eric Maskin, and Roger Myerson
• Literature – Doris Lessing
• Peace – Albert Gore Jr, and the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
• Physics – Albert Fert, Peter Grünberg
• Physiology or Medicine – Mario Capecchi, Oliver Smithies, and Sir Martin Evans

New English words and terms

• additive manufacturing
• colony collapse disorder
• hashtag
• listicle
• netbook
• sharing economy
• tweep