Today in History, October 7th
On October 7, 2001, U.S. and British forces began striking Taliban and al-Qaeda targets in Afghanistan. Plus Lepanto and the birth of East Germany.
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October 7 is best known for 2001, when U.S. and British forces began bombing Taliban and al-Qaeda targets in Afghanistan, opening what became the longest war in U.S. history. The date also saw the Battle of Lepanto in 1571 and the founding of East Germany in 1949.
The big story: The war in Afghanistan begins (2001)
After the September 11 attacks, the U.S. and the United Nations Security Council demanded that Afghanistan’s Taliban government hand over Osama bin Laden, whose al-Qaeda network it had sheltered. The Taliban offered alternatives, including a trial in an Islamic court, and Washington turned them down. On October 7, 2001, American and British warplanes struck Taliban and al-Qaeda sites in Kabul, Kandahar, Jalalabad, Konduz and Mazar-e-Sharif. The U.S. military called it Operation Enduring Freedom. Allies such as France, Germany, Australia and Canada helped with logistics, and Afghanistan’s anti-Taliban Northern Alliance supplied fighters on the ground. The Taliban, in power since 1996, collapsed fast: its forces left Kabul on November 12 and lost their last stronghold, Kandahar, by early December. The war itself dragged on for about two decades. Navy SEALs killed bin Laden in Pakistan in 2011, the U.S. and the Taliban signed a deal in February 2020, and the Taliban retook Kabul in August 2021, weeks before Washington declared the war over.
More events on October 7
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1571 | A Christian alliance defeated the Ottoman fleet in the naval Battle of Lepanto. |
| 1765 | The Stamp Act Congress met in New York City to draft the colonies’ complaints and claims of rights. |
| 1780 | Patriot militia beat Loyalist forces under Maj. Patrick Ferguson at the Battle of Kings Mountain. |
| 1826 | The Granite Railway, the first chartered railroad in the U.S., began running. |
| 1849 | Edgar Allan Poe died in Baltimore, Maryland. |
| 1913 | Henry Ford’s Highland Park plant ran its first continuously moving assembly line, building Model T chassis. |
| 1916 | Georgia Tech beat Cumberland 222–0, the most lopsided score in college football history. |
| 1949 | The German Democratic Republic, better known as East Germany, was proclaimed in the Soviet occupation zone. |
| 1955 | Allen Ginsberg read his poem “Howl” in public for the first time, at San Francisco’s Six Gallery. |
| 1985 | Palestinian militants hijacked the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro after it left Alexandria, Egypt. |
| 2003 | California voters recalled Gov. Gray Davis and elected Arnold Schwarzenegger to replace him. |
| 2023 | Hamas launched the deadliest attack in Israel’s history, killing nearly 1,200 people and taking hundreds of hostages. |
Born on October 7
- 1931: Desmond Tutu, South African archbishop and Nobel Peace Prize winner who campaigned against apartheid, born in Klerksdorp.
- 1934: Amiri Baraka, poet and playwright, born Everett Leroy Jones in Newark, New Jersey.
- 1952: Vladimir Putin, president of Russia, born in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg).
- 1955: Yo-Yo Ma, cellist, born in Paris, France.
Sources
- U.S.-led attack on Afghanistan begins, History.com
- This Day in History: October 7, History.com
- On This Day: October 7, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Edgar Allan Poe, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Desmond Tutu: Biographical, NobelPrize.org
- Amiri Baraka, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Vladimir Putin, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Yo-Yo Ma, Encyclopaedia Britannica
