January 7

January 7 is the seventh day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 358 days remaining until the end of the year (359 in leap years).

Events

• 1325 – Alfonso IV becomes King of Portugal.
• 1558 – France takes Calais, the last continental possession of England.
• 1598 – Boris Godunov becomes Tsar of Russia.
• 1608 – Fire destroys Jamestown, Virginia.
• 1610 – Galileo Galilei observes three of the four largest moons of Jupiter for the first time. He named them, and in turn the four are called the Galilean moons. Ganymede not discovered by him until January 13.
• 1782 – The first American commercial bank, the Bank of North America, opens.
• 1785 – Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard and American John Jeffries travel from Dover, England, to Calais, France, in a gas balloon.
• 1797 – The modern Italian flag is first used.
• 1835 – HMS Beagle drops anchor off the Chonos Archipelago.
• 1894 – W.K. Dickson receives a patent for motion picture film.
• 1904 – The distress signal "CQD" is established only to be replaced two years later by "SOS".
• 1920 – The New York State Assembly refuses to seat five duly elected Socialist assemblymen.
• 1922 – Dáil Éireann ratifies the Anglo-Irish Treaty by a 64-57 vote.
• 1927 – The first transatlantic telephone call is made – from New York City to London.
• 1931 – Guy Menzies flies the first solo non-stop trans-Tasman flight (from Australia to New Zealand) in 11 hours and 45 minutes, crash-landing on New Zealand's west coast.
• 1935 – Benito Mussolini and French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval sign the Franco–Italian Agreement.
• 1942 – World War II: The siege of the Bataan Peninsula begins.
• 1945 – World War II: British General Bernard Montgomery holds a press conference in which he claims credit for victory in the Battle of the Bulge.
• 1950 – A fire at the Mercy Hospital in Davenport, Iowa, kills 41 people.
• 1952 – President Harry Truman announces that the United States has developed the hydrogen bomb.
• 1954 – Georgetown-IBM experiment: the first public demonstration of a machine translation system, is held in New York at the head office of IBM.
• 1959 – The United States recognizes the new Cuban government of Fidel Castro.
• 1960 – The Polaris missile is test launched.
• 1968 – Surveyor Program: Surveyor 7, the last spacecraft in the Surveyor series, lifts off from launch complex 36A, Cape Canaveral.
• 1972 – Iberia Airlines Caravelle 6-R crashes into Mont San Jose on approach to Ibiza Airport killing all 104 on board.
• 1973 – Mark Essex fatally shoots 10 people and wounds 13 others at Howard Johnson's Hotel in New Orleans, Louisiana before being shot to death by police officers.
• 1979 – Third Indochina War – Cambodian-Vietnamese War: Phnom Penh falls to the advancing Vietnamese troops, driving out Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge.
• 1980 – President Jimmy Carter authorizes legislation giving $1.5 billion in loans to bail out the Chrysler Corporation.
• 1984 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
• 1990 – The interior of the Leaning Tower of Pisa is closed to the public because of safety concerns.
• 1993 – The Fourth Republic of Ghana is inaugurated with Jerry Rawlings as President.
• 1999 – The Senate trial in the impeachment of U.S. President Bill Clinton begins. He had been impeached by the House of Representatives on December 19.

Births

• 1355 – Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester, son of Edward III of England (d. 1397)
• 1502 – Pope Gregory XIII (d. 1585)
• 1528 – Jeanne d'Albret, Queen of Navarre (d. 1572)
• 1647 – Wilhelm Ludwig, Duke of Württemberg (d. 1677)
• 1685 – Jonas Alströmer, Swedish industrialist (d. 1761)
• 1706 – Johann Heinrich Zedler, German publisher (d. 1751)
• 1718 – Israel Putnam, American Revolutionary War general (d. 1790)
• 1768 – Joseph Bonaparte, King of Naples (d. 1844)
• 1786 – John Catron, Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (d. 1865)
• 1796 – Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales (d. 1817)
• 1800 – Millard Fillmore, 13th President of the United States (d. 1874)
• 1827 – Sir Sandford Fleming, Canadian engineer; introduced Universal Standard Time (d. 1915)
• 1831 – Heinrich von Stephan, German labor organizer (d. 1897)
• 1832 – James Munro, Premier of Victoria (d. 1908)
• 1834 – Johann Philipp Reis, German physicist and inventor (d. 1874)
• 1837 – Thomas Henry Ismay, founder of the White Star Line shipping company (d. 1899)
• 1844 – Bernadette Soubirous, French saint (d. 1879)
• 1845 – King Ludwig III of Bavaria (d. 1921)
• 1858 – Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, key figure in the revival of Hebrew as a spoken language (d. 1922)
• 1860 – Emanuil Manolov, Bulgarian composer (d. 1902)
• 1870 – Lord Gordon Hewart, British judge (d. 1943)
• 1871 – Émile Borel, French mathematician and politician (d. 1956)
• 1873 – Charles Péguy, French poet and essayist (d. 1914)
• 1873 – Adolph Zukor, Hungarian producer (d. 1976)
• 1875 – Gustav Flatow, German gymnast (d. 1945)
• 1875 – Thomas Hicks, American runner (d. 1963)
• 1876 – William Hurlstone, English composer (d. 1906)
• 1888 – Vera de Bosset, Russian artist, wife of Igor Stravinsky (d. 1982)
• 1891 – Zora Neale Hurston, American writer (d. 1960)
• 1895 – Clara Haskil, Romanian pianist (d. 1960)
• 1895 – Sir Hudson Fysh, Australian aviator and co-founder of QANTAS (d. 1974)
• 1896 – Arnold Ridley, British playwright and actor (d. 1984)
• 1899 – Al Bowlly, British jazz singer (d. 1941)
• 1899 – Francis Poulenc, French composer (d. 1963)
• 1900 – John Brownlee, Australian tenor (d. 1969)
• 1903 – Alan Napier, English actor (d. 1988)
• 1906 – Bobbi Trout, American aviator (d. 2003)
• 1907 – Nicanor Zabaleta, Spanish harpist (d. 1993)
• 1908 – Red Allen, American musician (d. 1967)
• 1910 – Orval Faubus, Governor of Arkansas (d. 1994)
• 1911 – Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Pakistani poet (d. 1984)
• 1911 – Butterfly McQueen, American actress (d. 1995)
• 1912 – Charles Addams, American cartoonist (d. 1988)
• 1912 – Günter Wand, German conductor, composer (d. 2002)
• 1913 – Johnny Mize, American baseball player (d. 1993)
• 1916 – Paul Keres, Estonian chess player (d. 1975)
• 1917 – Ulysses Kay, American composer (d. 1995)
• 1921 – Chester Kallman, American writer (d. 1975)
• 1922 – Vincent Gardenia, Italian-born actor (d. 1992)
• 1922 – Jean-Pierre Rampal, French flutist (d. 2000)
• 1922 – Eric Jupp, British-born Australian composer, arranger, conductor (d. 2003)
• 1922 – Alvin Dark, American baseball player and manager
• 1923 – Hugh Kenner, Canadian literary critic (d. 2003)
• 1924 – Pablo Birger, Argentine racing driver (d. 1966)
• 1924 – Geoffrey Bayldon, British actor
• 1925 – Gerald Durrell, British naturalist (d. 1995)
• 1928 – William Peter Blatty, American screenwriter
• 1929 – Terry Moore, American actress
• 1932 – Joe Berinson, Australian politician
• 1933 – Elliott Kastner, U.S. film producer
• 1934 – Tassos Papadopoulos, President of Cyprus (d. 2008)
• 1934 – Jean Corbeil, Canadian politician (d. 2002)
• 1934 – Charlie Jenkins, American runner
• 1935 – Kenny Davern, American jazz clarinetist (d. 2006)
• 1935 – Tommy Johnson, American tubist (d. 2006)
• 1935 – Valeri Kubasov, Soviet cosmonaut
• 1936 – Ben Cropp, Australian shark hunter and photographer
• 1936 – G. Robert Blakey, American attorney
• 1938 – Roland Topor, French illustrator (d. 1997)
• 1938 – Lou Graham, American golfer
• 1939 – Prince Michael of Greece and Denmark
• 1941 – Iona Brown, British violinist and conductor (d. 2004)
• 1941 – Manfred Schellscheidt, German American soccer coach
• 1941 – John E. Walker, English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1941 – Frederick D. Gregory, NASA astronaut
• 1942 – Danny Williams, South African singer (d. 2005)
• 1942 – Vasily Alexeev, Russian weightlifter
• 1942 – Jim Lefebvre, American baseball player and manager
• 1943 – Sadako Sasaki, Japanese child victim of the Hiroshima atomic bomb (d. 1955)
• 1943 – Sir Richard Armstrong, British conductor
• 1944 – Arne Scheie, Norwegian sports commentator
• 1944 – Tony Whitlam, Australian judge
• 1945 – Tony Conigliaro, American baseball player (d. 1990)
• 1945 – Gilles Marotte, French Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2005)
• 1945 – Dick Marty, Swiss politician
• 1945 – Raila Odinga, Prime Minister of Kenya
• 1946 – Jann Wenner, American publisher
• 1947 – Shobha De, Indian writer
• 1948 – Kenny Loggins, American singer
• 1949 – Marshall Chapman, American singer/songwriter
• 1949 – Anne Schedeen, American actress
• 1949 – Steven Williams, American actor
• 1950 – Juan Gabriel, Mexican singer and songwriter
• 1950 – Erin Gray, American actress
• 1950 – Ross Grimsley, American baseball player
• 1950 – Johnny Lever, Indian actor
• 1951 – Helen Worth, British actress
• 1952 – Sammo Hung, Hong Kong actor
• 1953 – Morris Titanic, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1954 – José María Vitier, Cuban music composer and pianist.
• 1956 – David Caruso, American actor
• 1956 – Mike Liut, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1956 – Uwe Ochsenknecht, German actor and singer
• 1957 – Nicholson Baker, American novelist
• 1957 – Katie Couric, American television host
• 1957 – Julian Solis, Puerto Rican boxer
• 1957 – Reena Roy, Indian actress
• 1958 – Linda Kozlowski, American actress
• 1958 – Donna Rice, American sex scandal figure
• 1959 – Jon Larsen, Norwegian musician and composer
• 1959 – Kathy Valentine, American musician (The Go-Go's)
• 1960 – David Marciano, American actor
• 1960 – Loretta Sanchez, American politician
• 1961 – Andrew Thomson, Australian politician
• 1961 – Supriya Pathak, Indian actress
• 1961 – John Thune, American politician, junior senator of South Dakota
• 1962 – Aleksandr Dugin, Russian politician
• 1962 – Hallie Todd, American actress
• 1963 – Clint Mansell, English musician and composer
• 1963 – Rand Paul, American politician
• 1964 – Nicolas Cage, American actor
• 1966 – Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, American publicist (d. 1999)
• 1966 – Ehab Tawfik, Egyptian singer
• 1967 – Guy Hebert, American ice hockey player
• 1967 – Mark Lamarr, British comedian and broadcaster
• 1967 – Nick Clegg, British Liberal Democrat Leader
• 1969 – David Yost, American actor
• 1970 – Doug E. Doug, American actor
• 1970 – Joao Ricardo, Angolan footballer
• 1971 – C.W. Anderson, American professional wrestler
• 1971 – Tina Anderson, American comic book writer
• 1971 – Jeremy Renner, American actor
• 1972 – Donald Brashear, American ice hockey player
• 1973 – Baiba Broka, Latvian actress
• 1973 – Jonna Tervomaa, Finnish singer
• 1974 – Alenka Bikar, Slovenian athlete
• 1974 – John Rich, American musician (Big & Rich)
• 1976 – Éric Gagné, Canadian baseball player
• 1976 – Alfonso Soriano, Dominican baseball player
• 1977 – Michelle Behennah, British model
• 1977 – Dustin Diamond, American actor
• 1977 – John Gidding, American architect and TV host (Designed to Sell)
• 1978 – Kevin Mench, American baseball player
• 1978 – Emilio Palma, first person born on the Antarctic continent
• 1978 – Jean Charles de Menezes, Brazilian shooting victim (d. 2005)
• 1979 – Bipasha Basu, Indian model & actress
• 1979 – Ricardo Maurício, Brazilian racing driver
• 1979 – Mariangel Ruiz, Venezuelan actress and model
• 1980 – Zöe Salmon, Northern Irish television presenter
• 1981 – Alex Auld, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1981 – Marquis Daniels, American basketball player
• 1982 – Francisco Rodriguez, Venezuelan baseball player
• 1982 – Hannah Stockbauer, German swimmer
• 1982 – Ianina Zanazzi, Argentine racing driver
• 1983 – Edwin Encarnación, Dominican baseball player (raised in Puerto Rico)
• 1983 – Natalie Gulbis, American golfer
• 1983 – Robert Ri'chard, American actor (Cousin Skeeter)
• 1983 – Liesbeth Mouha, Belgian beach volleyball player
• 1984 – Diego Balbinot, Italian footballer
• 1984 – Jon Lester, American baseball player
• 1985 – Lewis Hamilton, English F1 racing driver
• 1986 – Grant Leadbitter, English footballer
• 1987 – Lyndsy Fonseca, American actress
• 1988 – Haley Bennett, American singer and sctress
• 1988 – Scott Pendlebury, Australian footballer
• 1988 – Robert Sheehan, Irish actor
• 1989 – Emiliano Insúa, Argentine footballer
• 1990 – Liam Aiken, American actor
• 1990 – Elene Gedevanishvili, Georgian figure skater
• 1990 – Camryn Grimes, American actress
• 1990 – Gregor Schlierenzauer, Austrian ski jumper
• 1991 – Max Morrow, Canadian actor

Deaths

• 1285 – King Charles I of Naples (b. 1226)
• 1325 – King Dinis of Portugal (b. 1261)
• 1400 – Thomas Holland, 1st Duke of Surrey, English politician (b. 1374)
• 1451 – Count Amadeus VIII of Savoy (b. 1383)
• 1536 – Catherine of Aragon, consort of Henry VIII of England (b. 1485)
• 1566 – Louis de Blois, Flemish mystic (b. 1506)
• 1619 – Nicholas Hilliard, English painter (b. c.1547)
• 1625 – Ruggiero Giovannelli, Italian composer (b. c.1560)
• 1655 – Pope Innocent X (b. 1574)
• 1658 – Theophilus Eaton, American colonist (b. 1590)
• 1694 – Charles Gerard, 1st Earl of Macclesfield, English general (b. c.1618)
• 1700 – Raffaello Fabretti, Italian antiquarian (b. 1618)
• 1715 – François Fénelon, French-Catholic theologian and writer (b. 1651)
• 1758 – Allan Ramsay, Scottish poet (b. 1686)
• 1767 – Thomas Clap, 1st president of Yale University (b. 1703)
• 1770 – Carl Gustaf Tessin, Swedish politician (b. 1695)
• 1783 – William Tans'ur, English hymnist (b. 1700)
• 1786 – Jean-Étienne Guettard, French physician and scientist (b. 1715)
• 1812 – Joseph Dennie, American writer (b. 1768)
• 1830 – Thomas Lawrence, English painter (b. 1769)
• 1864 – Caleb Blood Smith, 6th U.S. Secretary of the Interior (b. 1808)
• 1872 – James Fisk, American entrepreneur (b. 1834)
• 1876 – Juste Olivier, Swiss poet (b. 1807)
• 1878 – François-Vincent Raspail, French chemist (b. 1794)
• 1892 – Tewfik Pasha, Khedive of Egypt (b. 1852)
• 1893 – Jožef Stefan, Slovenian physicist and mathematician (b. 1835)
• 1913 – Jack Boyle, American baseball player (b. 1866)
• 1919 – Henry Ware Eliot American industrialist and philanthropist (b. 1843)
• 1920 – Edmund Barton, 1st Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1849)
• 1932 – André Maginot, French eponym of the Maginot Line (b. 1877)
• 1936 – Guy d'Hardelot, French composer, best known for Because (b. 1858)
• 1943 – Nikola Tesla, Serbian-born inventor and electrical engineer (b. 1856)
• 1944 – Lou Hoover, U.S. First Lady (b. 1874)
• 1944 – Napoleon Lapathiotis, Greek poet (b. 1888)
• 1946 – Adamo Didur, Polish tenor (b. 1874)
• 1951 – René Guénon, French-Egyptian author (b. 1886)
• 1953 – Osa Johnson, American explorer (b. 1894)
• 1960 – Dorothea Douglass Chambers (aka Katharine Lambert Chambers), UK tennis player (b. 1878)
• 1963 – Arthur Moore, Premier of Queensland (b. 1876)
• 1964 – Cyril Davies, English musician (b. 1932)
• 1966 – Allan Chapman, Scottish politician (b. 1897)
• 1967 – Carl Schuricht, German conductor (b. 1880)
• 1967 – David Goodis, American writer (b. 1917)
• 1968 – Prof James Smith, South African ichthyologist (b. 1897)
• 1972 – John Berryman, American poet (b. 1914)
• 1972 – Eftichia Papagianopoulos, Greek lyricist (b. 1893)
• 1980 – Larry Williams, American singer and songwriter (b. 1935)
• 1981 – Alvar Lidell, UK radio broadcaster (b. 1908)
• 1981 – Eric Robinson, Australian politician (b. 1926)
• 1984 – Alfred Kastler, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1902)
• 1985 – Mary Hardy, Australian radio and television presenter (b. 1931)
• 1986 – Philip D. Eastman, American children's book writer and illustrator (b. 1909)
• 1986 – Juan Rulfo, Mexican novelist (b. 1917)
• 1988 – Trevor Howard, English actor (b. 1913)
• 1988 – Michel Auclair, French actor (b. 1922)
• 1989 – Hirohito, Emperor of Japan (b. 1901)
• 1990 – Horace Stoneham, American baseball executive (b. 1903)
• 1990 – Bronko Nagurski, American football player (b. 1908)
• 1992 – Richard Hunt, American puppeteer (The Muppets) (b. 1951)
• 1995 – Murray Rothbard, American economist (b. 1926)
• 1996 – Tarō Okamoto, Japanese avant-garde artist (b. 1911)
• 1996 – Károly Grósz, Hungarian politician (b. 1930)
• 1998 – Vladimir Prelog, Croatian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1906)
• 1998 – Owen Bradley, American record producer (b. 1915)
• 2000 – Gary Albright, American professional wrestler (b. 1963)
• 2001 – James Carr, American Rhythm & Blues and soul musicians (b. 1942)
• 2002 – Avery Schreiber, American actor (b. 1935)
• 2002 – Jon Lee, Welsh musician (Feeder) (b. 1968)
• 2004 – Ingrid Thulin, Swedish actress (b. 1926)
• 2005 – Pierre Daninos, French novelist (b. 1913)
• 2005 – Eileen Desmond, Irish politician (b. 1932)
• 2006 – Heinrich Harrer, Austrian mountaineer (b. 1912)
• 2007 – Magnús Magnússon, Icelandic-born television presenter (b. 1929)
• 2007 – Bobby Hamilton, NASCAR team owner (b. 1957)
• 2008 – Alwyn Schlebusch, South African vice state president (b. 1917)
• 2009 – Maria Dimitriadi, Greek singer (b. 1950)
• 2010 – Willie Mitchell, American soul singer (b. 1928)
• 2010 – John A. Thorburn, American war hero (b. 1946)

Holidays and observances

• Christian Feast Day
  • Canute Lavard
  • Charles of Sezze
  • Lucian of Antioch
  • Raymond of Peñafort
  • January 7 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
• Christmas (Eastern Orthodox Churches and Oriental Orthodox Churches using the Julian Calendar)
• Distaff Day (medieval Europe)
• Festival of Seven Herbs or Nanakusa no sekku (Japan)
• Synaxis of John the Forerunner & Baptist (Julian Calendar)
• Tricolour day or Festa del Tricolore (Italy)
• Victory from Genocide Day (Cambodia)

External links

• BBC: On This Day
• The New York Times: On This Day
• On This Day in Canada