7 November: A look at historic events that happened on this day

Mars Global Surveyor, NASA’s first successful mission to the red planet, was launched on 7 November 1996. The spacecraft started its primary mapping mission in March 1999 after spending a year and a half adjusting its orbit from a looping ellipse to a circular track around the planet. Since then, it had been tracking the planet in a low-altitude, roughly polar orbit. The complete atmosphere, interior, and surface of the planet were investigated by the mission. The Mars Orbital Camera, a wide-angle camera system on board the spacecraft, made some fascinating discoveries, including the fact that the weather on Mars is quite predictable. Some dust storms that reoccur in the same area within a week or two are among the weather patterns the spacecraft had noticed. The spacecraft lost contact with NASA in 2006. 

Jokela High School shooting

On the same day in 2007, a tragic incident occurred at Finland’s Jokela High School, which is infamously known as Jokela High School Shooting. An 18-year-old gunman, recognised as Pekka-Eric Auvinen, stormed into the school that morning with a semi-automatic handgun. Eight people, including two girls, five boys, and the principal of the school in this town in southern Finland, were killed by him. Before shooting himself in the head, the accused also shot another victim in the toe. Twelve more people suffered severe injuries from flying glass during the shootout. Later on that day, Auvinen was declared dead at a hospital in Helsinki.

Obamacare passed in House of Representatives

On 7 November 2009, after nearly a century of failed attempts and broken campaign promises, the House of Representatives finally passed legislation that would provide almost all Americans with proper health care. The final result of the vote on the Affordable Healthcare Act, popularly termed Obamacare, was 220-215, giving US President Barack Obama a tenacious victory. Obama, through a written statement following the vote, praised the House bill as one that would fulfil the goal of high-quality, affordable healthcare for the American people. 

Here are some other note-worthy events that happened on 7 November:

• In 1940, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, which linked the Olympic Peninsula with Washington’s Tacoma, collapsed due to a wind of around 67 km per hour.
• In 1991, America’s Basketball icon Magic Johnson revealed that he was HIV positive and declared his immediate retirement from the game.
• In 2000, after a lengthy legal battle, the U.S. presidential election between Democrats Al Gore and Republicans George W. Bush concluded in a statistical tie.
• In 2000, a popular face in American politics, Hillary Clinton, became the first lady to win elective office as she was elected to the U.S. Senate.

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