Title: January 7 Content: For Orthodox Christians, this is when Christmas is celebrated. ==Events== === Up to 1900 === * 1325 – Alfonso IV becomes King of Portugal. * 1350 - Guttorm Palsson, Bishop of Stavanger in Norway, dies, as the last known death from Europe's 1347-1350 plague epidemic. * 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, 2nd Earl of Essex leads revolt in London against Queen Elizabeth I of England. * 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, becoming the first to cross the English Channel by air. * 1789 - George Washington is elected the first President of the United States, taking office on April 30. * 1797 – The parliament of the Repubblica Cisalpina adopts the Italian green-white-red tricolour as the official flag. It is the birthday of the flag of Italy. * 1835 – HMS Beagle anchors off the Chonos Archipelago. * 1894 – W.K. Dickson receives a patent for movie film. * 1896 – Fannie Farmer publishes her first cookbook. === 1901 1950 === * 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. * 1919 - Montenegrin guerrilla fighters rebel against the planned annexation (take-over) of Montenegro by Serbia, but fail. * 1922 – Dáil Éireann ratifies the Anglo-Irish Treaty by 64-57 votes. * 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 basketball game. * 1931 - Guy Menzies becomes the first person to, on his own, fly non-stop from Australia to New Zealand in 11 hours and 45 minutes, crash-landing on New Zealand's west coast after crossing the Tasman Sea. * 1935 – World War II: Benito Mussolini and French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval sign the Italo-French agreements. * 1940 - Winter War: The Finnish 9th Division stops and completely destroys the overwhelming Soviet forces on the Raate-Suomussalmi road. * 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 Mercy Hospital in Davenport, Iowa kills 41 people. === 1951 2000 === * 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. * 1955 - Contralto Marian Anderson becomes the first African American person to perform at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. * 1958 - Walter Hallstein becomes the first President of the European Commission. * 1959 – The United States recognizes the new Cuban government of Fidel Castro. * 1960 - The UGM-27 Polaris missile is test-launched. * 1968 - The Surveyor 7 spacecraft is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida. * 1972 - While landing on Ibiza, a Sud Caravelle airplane of the Iberia airline crashes, killing 104 people. * 1973 - Mark Essex shoots 10 people dead and injures 13 at a Howard Johnson's hotel in New Orleans, Louisiana, before being shot dead by police. * 1975 – OPEC agrees to raise crude oil prices by 10%. * 1979 – Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia are overthrown by Vietnamese troops. * 1980 – US 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 – Long-serving Japanese Emperor Hirohito dies aged 87; His son Akihito becomes Emperor of Japan. * 1990 – The Leaning Tower of Pisa is closed to the public due to safety concerns. * 1991 – Roger Lafontant attempts a coup in Haiti. * 1993 - The Fourth Republic of Ghana is inaugurated, with Jerry Rawlings as President. * 1993 - The Bosnian Army executes a surprise attack on the village of Kravica in Srebrenica. * 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. * 1999 - A series of landslides in Indonesia kills over 100 people. === From 2001 === * 2006 - In the UK, Charles Kennedy resigns as leader of the Liberal Democrats, having come under pressure after admitting that he had a drink problem. * 2010 - Muslim gunmen in Egypt open fire on a crowd of Coptic Christians, killing 8 of them and one Muslim bystander. * 2012 - A hot-air balloon crashes near Carterton, New Zealand, killing all 11 people on board. * 2015 - A bomb attack in Sana'a, Yemen, kills at least 30 people. * 2015 - Charlie Hebdo shooting: Islamic extremist gunmen storm the offices of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris, killing 12 people, including 2 police officers and several prominent French journalists and cartoonists. 11 people are seriously injured. ==Births== === Up to 1900 === * 889 - Li Bian, Emperor of Southern Tang, China (d. 943) * 1355 – Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester (d. 1397) * 1434 - Adolf, Duke of Bavaria (d. 1441) * 1502 – Pope Gregory XIII (d. 1585) * 1528 – Jeanne d'Albret, Queen of Navarre (d. 1572) * 1624 - Guarino Guarini, Italian architect (d. 1683) * 1634 - Adam Krieger, German composer (d. 1666) * 1685 – Jonas Alströmer, Swedish agriculture and industry pioneer (d. 1761) * 1713 - Giovanni Battista Locatelli, Italian opera director and impresario (d. 1785) * 1718 - Israel Putnam, American Revolutionary War general (d. 1790) * 1768 – Joseph Bonaparte, King of Naples (d. 1844) * 1796 – Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales (d. 1817) * 1797 – Mariano Paredes, Mexican military and politician (d. 1849) * 1800 – Millard Fillmore, 13th President of the United States (d. 1874) * 1800 - Moritz Daniel Oppenheim, German painter (d. 1882) * 1827 – Sandford Fleming, Canadian engineer (d. 1915) * 1830 – Albert Bierstadt, German- American painter (d. 1902) * 1831 - Heinrich von Stephan, German postman, founded the Universal Postal Union (d. 1897) * 1832 - James Munro, Australian politician, Premier of Victoria (d. 1908) * 1833 - Josep Manyanet i Vives, Catalan priest (d. 1901) * 1834 – Johann Philipp Reis, German physicist and inventor (d. 1874) * 1837 - Thomas Henry Ismay, English businessman (d. 1899) * 1844 – Bernadette Soubirous, French saint (d. 1879) * 1845 – Ludwig III of Bavaria (d. 1921) * 1858 - Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, Russian-Israeli journalist and promoter of Hebrew (d. 1922) * 1860 - Emanuil Manolov, Bulgarian composer (d. 1902) * 1864 - Seo Jae-pil, Korean-American journalist and activist (d. 1951) * 1871 - Emile Borel, French mathematician and politician (d. 1956) * 1873 – Adolph Zukor, Hungarian producer (d. 1976) * 1875 - Thomas Hicks, American runner (d. 1963) * 1875 - Gustav Flatow, German gymnast (d. 1945) * 1877 - William Clarence Matthews, American athlete and lawyer (d. 1928) * 1880 - Santiago Copello, Archbishop of Buenos Aires (d. 1967) * 1883 - Andrew Cunningham, 1st Viscount Cunningham of Hyndhope, British admiral (d. 1963) * 1885 - Edwin Swatek, American swimmer and water polo player (d. 1966) * 1887 - Oskar Luts, Estonian author and playwright (d. 1953) * 1888 – Vera de Bosset, Russian artist (d. 1915) * 1891 - Zora Neale Hurston, American writer (d. 1960) * 1895 - Clara Haskill, Romanian pianist (d. 1960) * 1895 - Hudson Fysh, Australian pilot and businessman, co-founder of Qantas (d. 1974) * 1896 - Arnold Ridley, British playwright and actor (d. 1984) * 1899 - Francis Poulenc, French pianist and composer (d. 1963) === 1901 1950 === * 1903 - Alan Napier, British actor (d. 1988) * 1903 - Carlos Di Sarli, Argentine tango musician (d. 1960) * 1907 – Nicanor Zabaleta, Spanish harpist (d. 1993) * 1908 - Red Allen, American trumpeter (d. 1967) * 1910 - Frank Lubin, American- Lithuanian basketball player (d. 1999) * 1910 – Orval Faubus, American politician, Governor of Arkansas (d. 1994) * 1911 - Butterfly McQueen, American actress (d. 1995) * 1912 - Charles Addams, American cartoonist (d. 1988) * 1915 - Chano Poco, Cuban singer, dancer and jazz musician (d. 1948) * 1916 - Paul Keres, Estonian chess player (d. 1975) * 1916 – Elena Ceausescu, First Lady of Romania (d. 1989) * 1918 - Alessandro Natta, Italian politician (d. 2001) * 1920 - Vincent Gardenia, American actor (d. 1992) * 1922 – Francisco Aramburu, Brazilian footballer (d. 1997) * 1922 - Jean-Pierre Rampal, French flautist (d. 2000) * 1922 - Eric Jupp, British-born Australian composer, arranger and conductor (d. 2003) * 1922 - Alvin Dark, American baseball player (d. 2014) * 1924 - Ralph Miliband, Belgian-born sociologist, father of David and Ed Miliband (d. 1994) * 1924 - Edwin Reinecke, American politician (d. 2016) * 1925 – Gerald Durrell, British naturalist and writer (d. 1995) * 1925 - Robert Cormier, American writer (d. 2000) * 1926 - Kim Jong-pil, 11th Prime Minister of South Korea * 1928 - William Peter Blatty, American writer, screenwriter and director (d. 2017) * 1929 - Terry Moore, American actress * 1930 - Eddie LeBaron, American football player (d. 2015) * 1931 - Mirja Hietamies, Finnish skier (d. 2013) * 1932 - Tormod Knutsen, Norwegian Nordic combined athlete * 1934 – Tassos Papadopoulos, President of Cyprus (d. 2008) * 1934 - Charles Jenkins Sr., American sprinter * 1935 - Valeri Kubasov, Soviet cosmonaut (d. 2014) * 1936 - Hunter Davies, Scottish author and journalist * 1937 - Ali Soilih, President of the Comoros (d. 1978) * 1937 - Carlos Westendorp, Spanish diplomat * 1938 - Patrick John, 2nd Prime Minister of Dominica * 1938 - Paul Revere, American musician (Paul Revere and the Raiders) (d. 2014) * 1939 – Prince Michael of Greece and Denmark * 1939 - Tom Kiernan, Irish rugby player and coach * 1941 – John E. Walker, British chemist * 1941 - Frederick D. Gregory, American astronaut * 1942 – Vasily Alekseyev, Russian weightlifter (d. 2011) * 1943 – Sadako Sasaki, Japanese victim of the Hiroshima atomic bomb (d. 1955) * 1943 - Richard Armstrong, English conductor * 1944 – Mario Bertini, Italian footballer * 1945 – Raila Odinga, Kenyan politician, former Prime minister of Kenya * 1945 - Jay Lynch, American cartoonist (d. 2017) * 1946 – Vann Nath, Cambodian painter (d. 2011) * 1946 - Jann Wenner, American publisher * 1947 - Mohammad-Reza Lotfi, Iranian classical musician (d. 2014) * 1948 – Ichiro Mizuki, Japanese singer * 1948 – Kenny Loggins, American singer * 1950 - Erin Gray, American actress * 1950 - Juan Gabriel, Mexican singer and composer (d. 2016) === 1951 1975 === * 1951 - Talgat Musabayev, Kazakhstani cosmonaut * 1951 - Helen Worth, English actress * 1953 - Jenis av Rana, Faroese physician and politician * 1953 - Dieter Hoeness, German footballer * 1956 – Uwe Ochsenknecht, German actor and singer * 1956 – David Caruso, American actor * 1957 – Katie Couric, American newscaster * 1958 – Linda Kozlowski, American actress * 1959 - Angela Smith, Baroness Smith of Basildon, English politician * 1960 - Loretta Sanchez, American politician * 1962 – Abigail Johnson, American businesswoman * 1963 - Rand Paul, American politician * 1964 - Christian Louboutin, French fashion designer * 1964 – Nicolas Cage, American actor * 1965 - Alessandro Lambruschini, Italian hurdler * 1965 - John Ondrasik, American singer- songwriter * 1965 - José Manuel Imbamba, Angolan archbishop * 1966 - Corrie Sanders, South African boxer (d. 2012) * 1966 – Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, American publicist (d. 1999) * 1967 – Nick Clegg, British politician, former Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom * 1967 - Guy Hebert, American ice hockey player * 1967 - Mark Lamarr, English comedian and radio host * 1969 - David Yost, American actor * 1970 – Andy Burnham, British politician, Mayor of Greater Manchester * 1970 – Doug E. Doug, American actor * 1970 – Joao Ricardo, Angolan footballer * 1971 – DJ Otzi, Austrian DJ, musician and rapper * 1971 – Jeremy Renner, American actor and singer * 1971 - David Longoria, American trumpeter, composer, producer and songwriter * 1972 – Donald Brashear, American-Canadian ice hockey player === From 1976 === * 1976 – Marcelo Bordon, Brazilian footballer * 1977 – Dustin Diamond, American actor * 1977 - Sofi Oksanen, Finnish author * 1978 – Emilio Palma, first person to be born on the continent of Antarctica * 1978 – Jean Charles de Menezes, Brazilian electrician, shot dead by police in London (d. 2005) * 1979 - Christian Lindner, German politician * 1982 - Lauren Cohan, American actress * 1982 - Camilo Villegas, Colombian golfer * 1983 – Natalie Gulbis, American golfer * 1985 – Lewis Hamilton, English racecar driver, two-time Formula One world champion * 1985 - Wayne Routledge, English footballer * 1986 – Grant Leadbitter, English footballer * 1987 - Davide Astori, Italian footballer (d. 2018) * 1987 - Lyndsy Fonseca, American actress * 1988 - Haley Bennett, American singer and actress * 1988 - Hardwell, Dutch DJ and producer * 1989 - Emiliano Insua, 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 – Caster Semenya, South African athlete * 1991 - Eden Hazard, Belgian footballer * 1991 - Max Morrow, Canadian actor * 1991 - Roberto Pereyra, Argentine footballer * 1992 - Erik Gudbranson, Canadian ice hockey player * 1997 - Ayumi Ishida, Japanese singer (Morning Musume) ==Deaths== === Up to 1900 === * 312 – Lucianus of Antioch, theologist/saint * 672 - Emperor Tenji of Japan (b. 626) * 1131 - Canute Lavard, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein and saint (b. 1096) * 1285 - King Charles I of Naples (b. 1226) * 1325 – King Dinis of Portugal (b. 1261) * 1355 - Ines de Castro, Castilian royal (b. 1320) * 1451 - Antipope Felix V (b. 1383) * 1536 – Catherine of Aragon, Queen of England (b. 1485) * 1609 - Nicholas Hilliard, English painter (b. 1547) * 1625 - Ruggiero Giovanelli, Italian composer (b. 1560) * 1655 - Pope Innocent X (b. 1574) * 1658 - Theophilus Eaton, American farmer and politician (b. 1590) * 1730 - Arni Magnusson, Icelandic scholar (b. 1663) * 1758 - Allan Ramsay, Scottish poet (b. 1686) * 1770 - Carl Gustaf Tessin, Swedish politician (b. 1695) * 1830 – Thomas Lawrence, English painter (b. 1769) * 1830 - Carlota Joaquina of Spain, Queen of Portugal (b. 1775) * 1864 – Caleb Blood Smith, U.S. Secretary of the Interior (b. 1808) * 1872 – James Fisk, American entrepreneur (b. 1834) * 1882 - Ignacy Lukasiewicz, Polish inventor and chemist (b. 1822) * 1892 - Tewfik Pasha, Khedive (ruler) of Egypt (b. 1852) * 1893 – Jožef Stefan, Slovene physicist, mathematician and poet (b. 1835) === 1901 2000 === * 1913 - Jack Boyle, American baseball player (b. 1866) * 1920 – Edmund Barton, 1st Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1849) * 1927 - Nikolaos Kalogeropoulos, Greek politician (b. 1851) * 1932 - André Maginot, French civil servant, soldier and politician (b. 1877) * 1943 – Nikola Tesla, Serbian-born inventor and electrical engineer (b. 1856). * 1944 - Lou Henry Hoover, First Lady of the United States (b. 1874) * 1945 - Alexander Stirling Calder, American sculptor (b. 1870) * 1951 – René Guénon, French-Egyptian writer (b. 1886) * 1963 - Arthur Moore, Australian politician, Premier of Queensland (b. 1876) * 1964 – Cyril Davies, blues musician (b. 1932) * 1972 – John Berryman, American poet (b. 1914) * 1973 - Mark Essex, American spree killer (b. 1949) * 1975 – Sinéad de Valera, wife of Irish statesman Éamon de Valera (b. 1878) * 1980 - Larry Williams, American singer-songwriter, pianist and producer (b. 1935) * 1984 - Alfred Kastler, French physicist (b. 1902) * 1986 - P. D. Eastman, American writer and illustrator (b. 1909) * 1988 – Trevor Howard, English actor (b. 1913) * 1989 – Hirohito, Emperor of Japan (b. 1901) * 1989 - Frank Adams, English mathematician (b. 1930) * 1990 – Bronko Nagurski, American football player (b. 1908) * 1992 - Richard Hunt, American puppeteer (b. 1951) * 1995 – Murray Rothbard, American economist (b. 1926) * 1998 – Vladimir Prelog, Croatian chemist (b.1906) === 2001 2015 === * 2002 – Avery Schreiber, American actor (b. 1935) * 2004 - Ingrid Thulin, Swedish actress (b. 1926) * 2005 – Pierre Daninos, French novelist (b. 1913) * 2005 – Rosemary Kennedy, third child and first daughter of Joseph and Rose Kennedy (b. 1918) * 2005 – Eileen Desmond, Irish politician, former Minister for Health & Social Welfare (b. 1932) * 2007 - Magnus Magnusson, Icelandic television presenter (b. 1929) * 2008 - Alwyn Schlebusch, South African politician (b. 1917) * 2013 - Carl Berner, German-American supercentenarian (b. 1902) * 2013 - Huell Howser, American television host (b. 1945) * 2013 - David R. Ellis, American director, actor and stuntman (b. 1952) * 2014 - Run Run Shaw, Hong Kong movie producer and entrepreneur (b. 1907) * 2015 - People killed in the Charlie Hebdo shooting: **Cabu, French cartoonist (b. 1938) **Elsa Cayat, French psychiatrist, psychoanalyst and columnist (b. 1960) **Charb, French cartoonist and journalist, Editor-in-Chief of Charlie Hebdo (b. 1967) **Philippe Honoré, French cartoonist (b. 1941) **Bernard Maris, French economist and journalist (b. 1946) **Tignous, French cartoonist (b. 1957) **Georges Wolinski, French cartoonist (b. 1934) * 2015 - Tadeusz Konwicki, Polish writer and filmmaker (b. 1926) * 2015 - Rod Taylor, Australian actor (b. 1930) * 2015 - Mompati Merafhe, former Vice President of Botswana (b. 1947) * 2015 - B. S. Abdur Rahman, Indian business executive (b. 1947) * 2015 - Arch A. Moore, Jr., American politician, 28th and 30th Governor of West Virginia (b. 1923) * 2015 - Jethro Pugh, American football player (b. 1944) * 2015 - J. P. Parisé, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1941) * 2015 - David Rolfe, Australian swimmer (b. 1964) * 2015 - José Arias, Spanish skier (b. 1922) === From 2016 === * 2016 - Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, Indian politician (b. 1936) * 2016 - Sergey Shustikov, Russian footballer (b. 1970) * 2016 - Robert M. Cundick, American organist and composer (b. 1926) * 2016 - Judith Kaye, American lawyer (b. 1938) * 2016 - Kitty Kallen, American singer (b. 1921) * 2016 - Klaas Bakker, Dutch footballer (b. 1926) * 2016 - Sol Polansky, American diplomat (b. 1926) * 2016 - Richard Libertini, American actor (b. 1933) * 2016 - Anton Srholec, Slovakian writer and priest (b. 1929) * 2016 - Ashraf Pahlavi, Iranian princess (b. 1919) * 2016 - Valerio Zanone, Italian politician (b. 1936) * 2017 - Mario Soares, President of Portugal (b. 1924) * 2017 - Nat Hentoff, American political philosopher, columnist and music critic (b. 1925) * 2017 - Jerzy Kossela, Polish guitarist and singer (b. 1942) * 2017 - Lech Trzeciakowski, Polish historian (b. 1931) * 2017 - Lelio Lagorio, Italian politician (b. 1925) * 2017 - Lucina da Costa Gomez-Matheeuws, Prime Minister of the Netherlands Antilles (b. 1929) * 2017 - Ramanuja Devnathan, Indian Sanskrit scholar (b. 1959) * 2017 - John Deely, American philosopher (b. 1942) * 2018 - Jim Anderton, New Zealand politician (b. 1938) * 2018 - France Gall, French singer (b. 1947) * 2018 - Anna Mae Hays, American military officer and nurse (b. 1920) * 2018 - Markku Into, Finnish poet (b. 1945) * 2018 - Peter Sutherland, Irish businessman (b. 1946) * 2019 – Moshe Arens, Lithuanian-born Israeli aeronautical engineer, diplomat, and politician (b. 1925) * 2019 – Jocelyne Saab, Lebanese film director (b. 1948) * 2020 - Neil Peart, Canadian drummer (Rush) (b. 1952) * 2021 - Tommy Lasorda, American baseball player/manager for the L.A. Dodgers (b. 1927) ==Observances== * Christmas in Eastern Orthodox Churches that still use the Julian calendar * Tricolour Day (Italy) * Victory from Genocide Day (Cambodia) 01-07