THE DAY IN HISTORY · NOVEMBER 7

November 7 in history

What happened on November 7: 4 moments from the Maps of History atlases, in 1914, 1917, 1931 and 1987, each linked to the map that shows it.

1914 — Siege of Tsingtao

7 Nov 1914 — Japan, entering the World War on the Allied side, seizes Germany’s Shandong colony — and means to keep it. When Versailles confirms the transfer in 1919, it is this port, not any battlefield, that brings Chinese students into the streets.

READ THIS MOMENT → · SEE IT ON THE CHINA IN REVOLUTION MAP → · THE FULL STORY →

1917 — October Revolution

7 Nov 1917 — Lenin’s Bolsheviks seize the Winter Palace almost bloodlessly, on the promise of “peace, land, bread.” Russia sues for armistice within weeks — watch this map turn revolution-red and the Eastern Front dissolve.

READ THIS MOMENT → · SEE IT ON THE WWI MAP → · THE FULL STORY →

1931 — Chinese Soviet Republic

7 Nov 1931 — In a Hakka market town the CCP proclaims a state: currency, land law, conscription — three million people under red administration. Land redistribution wins the poor; the terror against “rich peasants” and internal enemies (the Futian purges) is part of the record too.

READ THIS MOMENT → · SEE IT ON THE CHINA IN REVOLUTION MAP → · THE FULL STORY →

1987 — Ben Ali’s medical coup

7 Nov 1987 — Prime Minister Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali has doctors certify the 84-year-old Bourguiba unfit to govern and takes power under Article 57 of the constitution, promising pluralism. Within four years Islamists are crushed and opposition is hollowed out.

READ THIS MOMENT → · SEE IT ON THE PROTEST AND CHANGE MAP → · THE FULL STORY →