January 7

Events

• 1325 - Alfonso IV becomes King of Portugal.
• 1558 - France takes Calais, the last continental possession of England.
• 1566 - Pius V becomes Pope.
• 1598 - Boris Godunov seizes the throne of Russia.
• 1601 - Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex leads revolt in London against Queen Elizabeth
• 1610 - Galileo Galilei observes the four largest moons of Jupiter for the first time. He named them and in turn the four are called the Galilean moons.
• 1782 - The first American commercial bank opens (Bank of North America).
• 1785 - Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard and American John Jeffries travel from Dover, England to Calais, France in a gas balloon, becoming the first to cross the English Channel by air.
• 1789 - First nationwide United States election.
• 1835 - HMS Beagle anchors off the Chonos Archipelago.
• 1894 - W.K. Dickson receives a patent for motion picture film.
• 1896 - Fannie Farmer publishes her first cookbook.
• 1901 - Alferd Packer is released from prison after serving 18 years for cannibalism.
• 1904 - The distress signal "CQD" is established only to be replaced two years later by "SOS."
• 1911 - Mary Pickford marries Owen Moore.
• 1924 - George Gershwin completes Rhapsody in Blue.
• 1926 - George Burns marries Gracie Allen.
• 1927 - First international telephone call - New York City to London.
• 1927 - The Harlem Globetrotters play their first game.
• 1935 - World War II: Benito Mussolini and French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval sign the Italo-French agreements.
• 1942 - World War II: Siege of the Bataan Peninsula begins.
• 1945 - British General Bernard Montgomery holds a press conference in which he claims credit for victory in the Battle of the Bulge.
• 1953 - President Harry Truman announces that the United States has developed a hydrogen bomb.
• 1954 - The first public demonstration of a machine translation system was held in New York at the head office of IBM.
• 1959 - The United States recognizes the new Cuban government of Fidel Castro
• 1975 - OPEC agrees to raise crude oil prices by 10%.
• 1979 - Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge are overthrown by Vietnamese troops.
• 1980 - President Jimmy Carter authorizes legislation giving $1.5 billion in loans to bail out Chrysler Corporation.
• 1984 - Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
• 1989 - Akihito becomes Emperor of Japan.
• 1990 - The Leaning Tower of Pisa is closed to the public due to safety concerns.
• 1996 - One of the worst blizzards in American history hits eastern states killing more than 100.
• 1997 - A team of programmers at the University of Regensburg, Germany releases Tibia, one of the earliest graphical MMORPGs.
• 1999 - The impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton begins.

Births

• 1502 - Pope Gregory XIII
• 1539 - Sebastián de Covarrubias Horozco, Spanish Lexicographer
• 1612 - Paul de La Pierre, composer
• 1768 - Joseph Bonaparte, King of Naples (d. 1844)
• 1800 - Millard Fillmore, 13th President of the United States, from 1850-1853 (d. 1874)
• 1831 - Heinrich von Stephan, organizer of the German postal union and founder of the Universal postal union (d. 1897)
• 1834 - Johann Philipp Reis, physicist and inventor (d. 1874)
• 1844 - Bernadette Soubirous, French saint (d. 1879)
• 1871 - Felix Édouard Justin Émile Borel, mathematician, politician, statesmen, member of the French Resistance during World War II (d. 1956)
• 1873 - Adolph Zukor, producer (d. 1976)
• 1875 - Thomas Hicks, American marathon runner
• 1890 - Henny Porten, actress (d. 1960)
• 1891 - Zora Neale Hurston, author (d. 1960)
• 1896 - Arnold Ridley, British playwright and actor (d. 1984)
• 1898 - Rudolf Fernau, actor (d. 1985)
• 1899 - Francis Poulenc, composer (d. 1963)
• 1901? - Zora Neale Hurston, writer (d. 1960)
• 1908 - Red Allen, jazz musician (d. 1967)
• 1910 - Orval Faubus, Governor of Arkansas, segregationist (d. 1994)
• 1911 - Butterfly McQueen, actress (d. 1995)
• 1912 - Charles Addams, cartoonist (d. 1988)
• 1912 - Günther Wand, conductor
• 1915 - Erwin Wickert, narrator
• 1916 - Paul Keres, chess player (d. 1975)
• 1922 - Jean-Pierre Rampal, musician
• 1923 - Pinkas Braun, actor and film director
• 1925 - Gerald Durrell naturalist, zookeeper, author and television presenter (d. 1995)
• 1928 - William Peter Blatty, screenwriter
• 1934 - Charlie Jenkins, American runner
• 1935 - Valeri Kubasov, cosmonaut
• 1942 - Paul Revere, singer and musician
• 1943 - Sadako Sasaki
• 1948 - Kenny Loggins, singer
• 1950 - Erin Gray, actress
• 1956 - David Caruso, actor
• 1957 - Nicholson Baker, novelist
• 1957 - Katie Couric, television host
• 1957 - Julian Solis, world champion boxer
• 1964 - Nicolas Cage, actor
• 1971 - David Yost, actor
• 1976 - Éric Gagné, baseball pitcher
• 1976 - Alfonso Soriano, baseball player
• 1977 - Dustin Diamond, actor (Saved by the Bell)

Deaths

• 312 - Lucianus of Antioch, theologist/saint
• 1325 - King Dinis of Portugal (b. 1261)
• 1536 - Catherine of Aragon, Queen of England (b. 1485)
• 1864 - Caleb Blood Smith, U.S. Secretary of the Interior
• 1872 - James Fisk, entrepreneur (b. 1834)
• 1893 - Jožef Stefan, Slovene physicist, mathematician and poet (b. 1835)
• 1920 - Edmund Barton, first Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1849)
• 1972 - John Berryman, poet (b. 1914)
• 1988 - Trevor Howard, actor (b. 1913)
• 1989 - Hirohito, Emperor of Japan (b. 1901)
• 1990 - Bronko Nagurski, American football star (b. 1908)
• 1995 - Murray Rothbard, economist (b. 1926)
• 1998 - Vladimir Prelog, Croatian chemist, Nobel Prize (b.1906)
• 2002 - Avery Schreiber, actor (b. 1935)

Holidays and observances

• Catholicism - Feast day of St. Raymond of Penafort.
• Julian calendar Christmas

January 6 - January 8 - December 7 - February 7 -- listing of all days