January 7
January 7 is the
seventh day of the year in the
Gregorian calendar. There are 358 days remaining (359 in
leap years).
*
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.
*
1608 - Fire destroys
Jamestown, Virginia.
*
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*
1797 - It is the birthday of the
flag of Italy.
*
1835 -
HMS Beagle anchors off the
Chonos Archipelago.
*
1861 - Revised
Constitution of the
U.S. state of
Alabama.
*
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."
*
1922 -
Dáil Éireann ratifies the
Anglo-Irish Treaty by 64-57 votes.
*
1924 -
George Gershwin completes
Rhapsody in Blue.
* 1924 - The
International Hockey Federation (FIH) is founded in
Paris by seven member states:
Austria,
Belgium,
Czechoslovakia,
France,
Hungary,
Spain, and
Switzerland.
*
1927 - First transatlantic
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.
*
1950 - A fire at the
Mercy Hospital in
Davenport, Iowa kills 41 people.
*
1953 -
President Harry Truman announces that the
United States has developed a
hydrogen bomb.
*
1954 -
Georgetown-IBM experiment, 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.
*
1979 - Phnom Penh fell 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
Chrysler Corporation.
*
1984 -
Brunei becomes the sixth member of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
*
1989 -
Hirohito,
Emperor of Japan during
World War II, dies.
*
1990 - The
Leaning Tower of Pisa is closed to the public due to safety concerns.
*
1999 - The
impeachment trial of
President Bill Clinton begins.
*
2003 -
Kobe Bryant, of the
Los Angeles Lakers, breaks
NBA record for most 3-point field goals in a
game with
12.
*
2006 - Singaporean composer
Bernard Tan's
Violin Concerto received its world premiere performance by the
Singapore Symphony Orchestra and violinist
Lynnette Seah, conducted by
Lan Shui.
*
1 BC (O.S.) -
Jesus of Nazareth, central figure of
Christianity, date celebrated by
Eastern Orthodox churches as
Christmas (d. circa
30) (
Orthodox Christians celebrate
Christmas on
December 25 according to the
Julian Calendar, which for now coincides with January 7 on the
Gregorian Calendar, but this will eventually shift.)
*
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)
*
1800 -
Millard Fillmore, 13th
President of the United States (d.
1874)
*
1827 -
Sir Sandford Fleming, a Canadian engineer and inventor, known for the introduction of Universal Standard Time
*
1831 -
Heinrich von Stephan, German labor organizer (d.
1897)
*
1834 -
Johann Philipp Reis, German physicist and inventor (d.
1874)
*
1844 -
Bernadette Soubirous, French saint (d.
1879)
*
1860 -
Emanuil Manolov, Bulgarian composer (d.
1902)
*
1871 -
Felix Édouard Justin Émile Borel, French mathematician, politician, and resistance fighter (d.
1956)
*
1873 -
Adolph Zukor, Hungarian producer (d.
1976)
*
1875 -
Thomas Hicks, American runner (d.
1963)
*
1891 -
Zora Neale Hurston, American author (d.
1960)
*
1896 -
Arnold Ridley, British playwright and actor (d.
1984)
*
1899 -
Francis Poulenc, French composer (d.
1963)
*
1903 -
Warren Hull, American actor (d.
1974)
* 1903 -
Alan Napier, English actor (d.
1988)
*
1908 -
Red Allen, American musician (d.
1967)
*
1910 -
Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Pakistani poet (d. (
1984)
* 1910 -
Orval Faubus, Governor of Arkansas (d.
1994)
*
1911 -
Butterfly McQueen, American actress (d.
1995)
*
1912 -
Charles Addams, American cartoonist (d.
1988)
*
1913 -
Johnny Mize, baseball player (d.
1993)
*
1916 -
Paul Keres, Estonian chess player (d.
1975)
*
1922 -
Vincent Gardenia, Italian-born actor (d.
1992)
* 1922 -
Jean-Pierre Rampal, French flutist (d.
2000)
* 1922 -
Alvin Dark, baseball player and manager
*
1923 -
Hugh Kenner, Canadian literary critic (d.
2003)
*
1925 -
Gerald Durrell British naturalist, zookeeper, author, and television presenter (d.
1995)
*
1928 -
William Peter Blatty, American screenwriter
*
1929 -
Terry Moore, American actress
*
1934 -
Charlie Jenkins, American runner
*
1935 -
Kenny Davern, American jazz clarinetist
* 1935 -
Valeri Kubasov, cosmonaut
*
1937 -
Paul Revere, American musician
*
1938 -
Roland Topor, French illustrator (d.
1997)
* 1938 -
Rory Storm, British singer (d.
1972)
*
1939 -
Maury Povich, TV host (Current Affair, Maury)/Connie Chung's husband
*
1941 -
Iona Brown, British violinist and conductor (d.
2004)
* 1941 -
John E. Walker, English chemist,
Nobel Prize laureate
*
1942 -
Vasily Alexeev, Russian weightlifter
*
1945 -
Tony Conigliaro, American baseball player (d.
1990)
* 1945 -
Dick Marty, Swiss politician
*
1946 -
Jann Wenner, American publisher
*
1947 -
Shobha De, Indian writer
* 1947 -
Hristo Spasov Tsanoff, Bulgarian composer
*
1948 -
Kenny Loggins, American singer
*
1949 -
Steven Williams, American actor
*
1950 -
Erin Gray, American actress
*
1951 -
Helen Worth, British actress
* 1951 -
James Beard, American wrestling referee
*
1956 -
David Caruso, American actor
*
1957 -
Nicholson Baker, American novelist
* 1957 -
Katie Couric, American television host
* 1957 -
Julian Solis, Puerto Rican boxer
*
1959 -
Kathy Valentine, American musician (
The Go-Gos)
*
1964 -
Nicolas Cage, American actor, director, and producer
*1964 -
Kenneth Wajda, American filmmaker
*
1966 -
Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, American publicist (d.
1999)
*
1967 -
Mark Lamarr, British comedian and broadcaster
* 1967 -
Guy Hebert, American professional hockey goaltender
*
1970 -
Doug E. Doug, American actor
*1970 -
Joao Ricardo, Angolan footballer
*
1971 -
David Yost, American actor
* 1971 -
C.W. Anderson, American professional wrestler
*
1972 -
Donald Brashear, American ice hockey player (
Philadelphia Flyers)
*
1976 -
Eric Gagné, Canadian baseball player
* 1976 -
Alfonso Soriano, Dominican
Major League Baseball player
*
1977 -
Michelle Behennah, British model
* 1977 -
Dustin Diamond, American actor
*
1979 -
Bipasha Basu, Indian model and actress
*
1980 -
Mariangel Ruiz, Venezuelan hostess, actress, and model
*
1988 -
Julian Rodriguez, Asian artist and
Shane Daniel, musician
*
1990 -
Liam Aiken, American actor
*
1990 -
Elene Gedevanishvili, Georgian figure skater
*
1400 -
Thomas Holland, 1st Duke of Surrey, English politician (executed) (b.
1374)
*
1536 -
Catherine of Aragon, first wife of
Henry VIII of England (b.
1485)
*
1566 -
Louis de Blois, Flemish mystic (b.
1506)
*
1619 -
Nicholas Hilliard, English painter (bc.
1547)
*
1625 -
Ruggiero Giovannelli, Italian composer (bc.
1560)
*
1658 -
Theophilus Eaton, Connecticut colonist (b.
1590)
*
1694 -
Charles Gerard, 1st Earl of Macclesfield, English royalist general (bc.
1618)
*
1700 -
Raphael Fabretti, Italian antiquarian (b.
1618)
*
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)
*
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)
*
1878 -
François-Vincent Raspail, French chemist (b.
1794)
*
1892 -
Tewfik Pasha, Khedive of Egypt (b.
1852)
*
1893 -
Jožef Stefan, Slovenian physicist, mathematician, and poet (b.
1835)
*
1913 -
Jack Boyle, Baseball player (b.
1866)
*
1919 -
Henry Ware Eliot American industrialist and philantropist (b.
1843)
*
1920 -
Edmund Barton, 1st
Prime Minister of Australia (b.
1849)
*
1943 -
Nikola Tesla, Serbian-born inventor and electrical engineer (b.
1856)
*
1951 -
René Guénon, French-Egyptian author (b.
1886)
*
1964 -
Cyril Davies, American musician (b.
1932)
*
1972 -
John Berryman, American poet (b.
1914)
*
1984 -
Alfred Kastler, French physicist,
Nobel Prize laureate (b.
1902))
*
1986 -
Juan Rulfo, Mexican novelist (b.
1917)
*
1988 -
Trevor Howard, English actor (b.
1913)
*
1989 -
Hirohito,
Emperor of Japan (b.
1901)
*
1990 -
Bronko Nagurski, American football player (b.
1908)
*
1995 -
Murray Rothbard, American economist (b.
1926)
*
1996 -
Károly Grósz, Hungarian politician (b.
1930)
*
1998 -
Vladimir Prelog, Croatian chemist,
Nobel Prize laureate (b.
1906)
*
2000 -
Gary Albright, Professional wrestler (b.
1963)
*
2002 -
Jon Lee, Welsh drummer (
Feeder) (suicide) (b.
1968)
* 2002 -
Avery Schreiber, American actor (b.
1935)
*
2005 -
Pierre Daninos, French novelist (b.
1913)
* 2005 -
Eileen Desmond, Irish politician (b.
1932)
*
2006 -
Heinrich Harrer, Austrian mountaineer and explorer (b.
1912)
*
Catholicism - Feast day of
St. Raymond of Peñafort.
*
Christmas Day in the
Julian calendar. This is the day on which Christmas is celebrated in most
Eastern and
Oriental Orthodox Churches.
* European traditional -
Distaff day: women's traditional work begins again after
Epiphany.
*
BBC: On This Day*
NY Times: On this dayJanuary 6 -
January 8 -
December 7 -
February 7 â€"
listing of all days
