A calendar of Chinese history
14 events
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Death
Death of Xuanzang
Buddhist monk Xuanzang, one of the greatest translators of sutras in Chinese history, dies on 7 March 664. He had set out on a pilgrimage to India in 629 in search of Buddhist texts and returned in April 645 with a large number of Sanskrit sutras, whose translation greatly enriched the Buddhist literature available in China.
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War
Operation Ripper begins in Korea
During the Korean War, United Nations troops led by General Matthew Ridgway launch Operation Ripper on 7 March 1951, an assault against the Chinese forces fighting alongside North Korea.
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Birth
Birth of Lei Sheng
Foil fencer Lei Sheng is born in Tianjin on 7 March 1984. At the 2012 London Olympics he becomes the first Chinese fencer to win Olympic gold in men's foil, and he carries China's flag at the 2016 Games.
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Birth
Birth of Coching Chu
Geologist and meteorologist Coching Chu, also romanised as Zhu Kezhen, is born on 7 March 1890. Regarded as the founder of modern meteorology and geography in China, he dies on 7 February 1974.
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Birth
Birth of Verda Majo
Teru Hasegawa, a Japanese Esperantist and pacifist known by her pen name Verda Majo, is born on 7 March 1912. During the Sino-Japanese War she fights her own country's imperialism from China, writing in Japanese and Esperanto and broadcasting appeals to Japanese soldiers over the radio.
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Birth
Birth of Bo Yang
Writer, historian and poet Bo Yang is born in Kaifeng, Henan, on 7 March 1920. He dies in Taipei on 19 April 2008.
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Birth
Birth of Li Han-hsiang
Film director Li Han-hsiang is born in Jinxi on 7 March 1926. One of the most important figures of Hong Kong cinema, known for his historical dramas and erotic comedies, he dies in Beijing on 17 December 1996.
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Birth
Birth of Zheng Haixia
Basketball player Zheng Haixia is born in Zhecheng, Henan, on 7 March 1967. A 2.04 m centre, she plays for the Chinese national team and later in the WNBA before turning to coaching.
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Birth
Birth of Agnes Lam
Agnes Lam, a poet, journalist and politician from Macau, is born on 7 March 1972. A journalism professor at the University of Macau, she wins a seat in the Legislative Assembly in 2017, the only member of her centrist party to be elected.
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Birth
Birth of Li Ching
Table tennis player Li Ching is born in Doumen District on 7 March 1975. Competing for Hong Kong, he wins the men's doubles silver medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics and reaches a career-high world ranking of tenth.
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Event
Lieyu massacre
On 7 and 8 March 1987, in Donggang Bay on the island of Lieyu in Taiwan's Kinmen archipelago, nineteen unarmed Vietnamese refugees landing on the beach are killed by Taiwanese troops, according to the diary of General Hau Pei-tsun, then chief of the general staff. The sergeant guarding the site later testifies that he counted more bodies.
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Disaster
Collapse of the Xinjia Express Hotel in Quanzhou
The Xinjia Express Hotel in Quanzhou, Fujian, collapses on 7 March 2020 while being used to quarantine COVID-19 patients. The collapse, caused by overloading from illegal construction, kills 29 people and injures 42.
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Birth
Birth of Liu Guozheng
Table tennis player Liu Guozheng is born in Wuhan, Hubei, on 7 March 1980.
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Birth
Birth of Xu Xiaofei
Footballer Xu Xiaofei is born in Zhengzhou on 7 March 1982.