Today in History: December 7

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On this day in Bahamian history in 1912, Eugene Aubrey Pyfrom Dupuch was born in Nassau. The Eugene Dupuch Law School is named after the famed politician and lawyer, who began his career as a journalist before moving on to politics and law.

Dupuch was called to the bar at Lincoln’s Inn, London and in Nassau in 1948. He was made a Queen’s Counsel in 1964 and served as a member of the House of Assembly, representing the Crooked Island district from 1950–1962 and the East Central district of New Providence from 1962–1967.

On this day in 1950, Robert Arthur Ross Neville became governor and commander-in-chief of the Bahama Islands, serving as governor until 1953.

On December 7, 1971, The Bahamas’ current Coat of Arms was adopted after being approved by Queen Elizabeth II.

The preliminary design, prepared by Hervis Bain, was selected and submitted to the College of Arms, London, after a national competition to produce a new coat of arms was launched the year before.

Fast forward to December 7, 2016, Dr. Hubert Minnis was removed as leader of the Official Opposition after a vote of no confidence in the House of Assembly.

Seven of the ten Opposition Members of Parliament voted to remove Dr. Minnis and expressed their intention to nominate Loretta Butler-Turner to become the new leader of the Official Opposition.

In world history on this day in 1941, the world saw the Pearl Harbor attack by Japanese bombers who launched a surprise aerial attack on the United States Naval Base in Hawaii. The move precipitating the entry of the U.S. into World War II.

Then in 1972, the U.S. launched Apollo 17, the last Apollo mission, on its way to the moon. American astronaut Eugene Andrew Cernan commanded the last crewed flight to the moon.

Twenty-three years later in 1995, a probe from the spacecraft Galileo successfully entered the atmosphere of the planet Jupiter.

Four years after that, in 1999 NASA admitted that the $165 million Mars polar lander was almost certainly lost.

In 2020 American aviator Chuck Yeager, the first person to exceed the speed of sound in flight, died at age 97.