On this day in History - Jan. 7

• 1 BC (O.S.) - Jesus of Nazareth was born. Central figure of Christianity, (date celebrated by Eastern Orthodox churches as Christmas)
• 1325 - Dinis de Portugal dies (b. 1261). King of Portugal and Alfonso IV becomes King of Portugal.
• 1355 - Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester was born (d. 1397). Son of Edward III of England
• 1355 - Inês de Castro dies (assassinated), mistress of the future King Peter I of Portugal
• 1400 - Thomas Holland, 1st Duke of Surrey dies executed (d. 1374). English politician.
• 1451 - Count Amadeus VIII of Savoy dies (b. 1383)
• 1470 - Gil Vicente was born. Great Portuguese writer. Great personality of theater
• 1502 - Pope Gregory XIII was born (d. 1585)
• 1528 - Jeanne d'Albret was born (d. 1572). Queen of Navarre.
• 1536 - Catherine of Aragon dies (b. 1485). Queen of Henry VIII of England.
• 1537 - Alessandro de' Medici of Florence dies assassinated.
• 1539 - Sebastián de Covarrubias Horozco was born, Spanish lexicographer.
• 1558 - France takes Calais, the last continental possession of England.
• 1566 - Pius V becomes Pope.
• 1566 - Louis de Blois dies (b. 1506). Flemish mystic.
• 1598 - Boris Godunov seizes the throne of Russia.
• 1601 - Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex leads revolt in London against Queen Elizabeth
• 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.
• 1619 - Nicholas Hilliard dies. English painter
• 1625 - Ruggiero Giovannelli dies. Italian composer
• 1647 - Wilhelm Ludwig, Duke of Württemberg was born (d. 1677)
• 1658 - Theophilus Eaton dies (b. 1590). Connecticut colonist
• 1685 - Jonas Alströmer was born (d. 1761). Swedish industrialist.
• 1694 - Charles Gerard, 1st Earl of Macclesfield dies. English royalist general
• 1700 - Raphael Fabretti dies (b. 1618). Italian antiquarian.
• 1706 - Johann Heinrich Zedler was born (d. 1751). German publisher.
• 1715 - François Fénelon dies (b. 1651). French catholic theologian and writer.
• 1718 - Israel Putnam was born (d. 1790). American Revolutionary War general .
• 1758 - Allan Ramsay dies (b. 1686). Scottish poet.
• 1767 - Thomas Clap dies (b. 1703). First president of Yale University.
• 1768 - Joseph Bonaparte was born (d. 1844). King of Naples
• 1770 - Carl Gustaf Tessin dies (b. 1695). Swedish politician.
• 1782 - The first American commercial bank opens (Bank of North America).
• 1783 - William Tans'ur dies (b. 1700). English hymnist.
• 1785 - Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard and American John Jeffries travel from Dover, England to Calais, France in a gas balloon, becoming the first togreen-white-red tricolour as official flag. It is the birthday of the flag of Italy.
• 1786 - Jean-Étienne Guettard dies (b. 1715). French physician and scientist.
• 1797 - Consagración de la bandera tricolor italiana (verde, blanco y rojo) en el Congreso de Reggio, en la Emilia.
• 1789 - First nationwide United States election. Americans voted for electors who, a month later, chose George Washington to be the nation’s first president.
• 1789 - Primeiro Voto Popular no Brasil.
• 1797 - The current flag of Italy is first used.
• 1800 - Millard Fillmore was born (d. 1874). 13th President of the United States
• 1827 - Sir Sandford Fleming was born (d. 1915). Canadian engineer; introduced Universal Standard Time
• 1830 - Albert Bierstadt was born (d. 1902). German-American painter.
• 1830 - Thomas Lawrence dies (b. 1769). English painter.
• 1830 - D. Carlota Joaquina dies. Queen of Portugal / Morte da rainha viúva D. Carlota Joaquina, em Lisboa. Tinha casado com o infante D. João, futuro D. João VI em 1785.
• 1831 - Heinrich von Stephan was born (d. 1897). German labor organizer.
• 1834 - Johann Philipp Reis was born (d. 1874). German physicist and inventor.
• 1835 - HMS Beagle anchors off the Chonos Archipelago.
• 1844 - Bernadette Soubirous was born (d. 1879). French saint.
• 1860 - Emanuil Manolov was born (d. 1902). Bulgarian composer.
• 1864 - Caleb Blood Smith dies (b. 1808). U.S. Secretary of the Interior.
• 1870 - Sublevación en Haití contra el presidente Silverio Silvané, que fue fusilado por los rebeldes durante los disturbios
• 1871 - Felix Édouard Justin Émile Borel was born (d. 1956). French mathematician, politician, and resistance fighter.
• 1872 - James Fisk dies (b. 1834). American entrepreneur.
• 1873 - Adolph Zukor was born (d. 1976). Hungarian producer.
• 1873 - Charles Péguy was born (d. 1914). French poet and essayist.
• 1875 - Thomas Hicks was born (d. 1963). American runner.
• 1875 - Manuel Aranaz Castellanos was born. Cuban writer.
• 1878 - Anselmo Suárez Romero dies. Cuban writer
• 1878 - François-Vincent Raspail dies (b. 1794). French chemist.
• 1890 - Henny Porten was born (d. 1960). Actress.
• 1891 - Zora Neale Hurston was born (d. 1960). American author.
• 1892 - Tewfik Pasha dies (b. 1852). Khedive of Egypt.
• 1893 - Jožef Stefan dies (b. 1835). Slovenian physicist, mathematician, and poet.
• 1894 - W.K. Dickson receives a patent for motion picture film.
• 1895 - Korea proclaimed its independence from China.
• 1896 - Arnold Ridley was born (d. 1984). British playwright and actor.
• 1899 - Francis Poulenc was born (d. 1963). French composer.
• 1901 - Alferd Packer is released from prison after serving 18 years for cannibalism.
• 1903 - Warren Hull was born (d. 1974). American actor.
• 1903 - Alan Napier was born (d. 1988). English actor.
• 1904 - The distress signal "CQD" is established only to be replaced two years later by "SOS."
• 1908 - Red Allen was born (d. 1967). American musician.
• 1910 - Faiz Ahmed Faiz was born (d. 1984). Pakistani poet.
• 1910 - Orval Faubus was born (d. 1994). Governor of Arkansas.
• 1911 - Butterfly McQueen was born (d. 1995). American actress.
• 1911 - Mary Pickford marries Owen Moore.
• 1912 - Charles Addams was born (d. 1988). American cartoonist.
• 1913 - Johnny Mize was born (d. 1993). Baseball player.
• 1916 - Paul Keres was born (d. 1975). Estonian chess player.
• 1919 - Henry Ware Eliot dies (b. 1843). American industrialist, philantropist and the father of T. S. Eliot.
• 1920 - Edmund Barton dies (b. 1849). First Prime Minister of Australia.
• 1922 - Alvin Dark was born. Baseball player and manager
• 1922 - Vincent Gardenia was born (d. 1992). Italian-born actor.
• 1922 - Jean-Pierre Rampal was born (d. 2000). French flutist.
• 1922 - Dáil Éireann ratifies the Anglo-Irish Treaty by 64-57 votes.
• 1923 - Hugh Kenner was born (d. 2003). Canadian literary critic.
• 1924 - The International Hockey Federation (FIH) is founded in Paris by seven member states: Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, France, Hungary, Spain, and Switserland.
• 1924 - George Gershwin completes Rhapsody in Blue.
• 1925 - Gerald Durrell was born (d. 1995). British naturalist, zookeeper, author, and television presenter.
• 1926 - George Burns marries Gracie Allen.
• 1927 - First international telephone call - New York City to London.
• 1927 - The Harlem Globetrotters play their first game.
• 1927 - First international telephone call - New York City to London.
• 1927 - The Harlem Globetrotters play their first game.
• 1928 - William Peter Blatty was born. American screenwriter.
• 1928 - El río Támesis se desborda a su paso por Londres, originando una de las mayores inundaciones de la capital británica.
• 1929 - Terry Moore was born. American actress
• 1934 - Charlie Jenkins was born. American runner.
• 1934 - Jean Corbeil was born (d. 2002). Canadian politician.
• 1935 - Tommy Johnson was born (d. 2006). American tubist.
• 1935 - Kenny Davern was born. American jazz clarinetist
• 1935 - Valeri Kubasov was born. Soviet cosmonaut
• 1935 - João Bénard da Costa was born. Portuguese cinematographer critic and essayst.
• 1935 - World War II: Benito Mussolini and French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval sign the Italo-French agreements.
• 1937 - Paul Revere was born. American musician
• 1938 - Rory Storm was born (d. 1972). British singer.
• 1938 - Lou Graham was born. American golfer
• 1938 - Roland Topor was born (d. 1997). French illustrator.
• 1939 - Maury Povich was born. American TV host
• 1939 - Prince Michael of Greece and Denmark was born.
• 1941 - Iona Brown was born (d. 2004). British violinist and conductor.
• 1941 - World War II - North Africa : British troops capture Torbruk airport.
• 1941 - John E. Walker was born; British chemist who won a share of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1997 for his pioneering work on how the enzyme ATP synthase catalyses the formation of the "high-energy" compound adenosine triphosphate (ATP).
• 1942 - World War II: Siege of the Bataan Peninsula begins.
• 1942 - Vasily Alexeev was born. Russian weightlifter.
• 1942 - Danny Williams was born (d. 2005). South African singer.
• 1942 - Jim Lefebvre, Major League Baseball player
• 1943 - World War II - North Africa : Oum-el-Araneb, the main Axis base in south Libya, is captured by General Philippe Leclerc's Free French troops.
• 1943 - Nikola Tesla dies (b. 1856). Serbian-born inventor and electrical engineer.
• 1944 - Arne Scheie was born. Norwegian sports commentator.
• 1945 - British General Bernard Montgomery holds a press conference in which he claims credit for victory in the Battle of the Bulge.
• 1945 - Tony Conigliaro was born (d. 1990). American baseball player.
• 1945 - Dick Marty was born. Swiss politician.
• 1946 - Jann Wenner was born. American publisher.
• 1947 - Shobha De was born. Indian writer
• 1948 - Kenny Loggins was born. American singer
• 1949 - Steven Williams was born. American actor
• 1950 - A fire at the Mercy Hospital in Davenport, Iowa kills 41 people.
• 1950 - Erin Gray was born. American actress
• 1950 - Juan Gabriel was born. Mexican singer and songwriter
• 1950 - Ross Grimsley was born. Major League Baseball pitcher.
• 1951 - Helen Worth was born. British actress.
• 1951 - James Beard was born. American wrestling referee
• 1951 - René Guénon dies (b. 1886). French-Egyptian author.
• 1951 - Luiz Melodia was born. Brazilian singer and composer (MPB : música popular brasileira = Brazilian popular music).
• 1952 - Sammo Hung was born. Hong Kong actor
• 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.
• 1956 - David Caruso was born. American actor.
• 1956 - Mike Liut was born. National Hockey League goaltender.
• 1957 - Sociedade Esportiva Flamengo in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil is founded.
• 1957 - Nicholson Baker was born. American novelist
• 1957 - Katie Couric was born. American television host
• 1957 - Julian Solis was born. Puerto Rican boxer
• 1959 - The United States recognizes the new Cuban government of Fidel Castro.
• 1959 - Kathy Valentine was born. American musician (The Go-Gos)
• 1962 - Aleksandr Dugin was born. Russian politician
• 1964 - Nicolas Cage was born. American actor
• 1964 - Cyril Davies dies (b. 1932). American musician.
• 1965 - Aparece en Colombia la guerrilla procastrista Ejército de Liberación Nacional
• ELN).
• 1966 - Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy was born (d. 1999). American publicist.
• 1967 - Mark Lamarr was born. British comedian
• 1967 - Guy Hebert was born. Hockey player.
• 1970 - Doug E. Doug was born. American actor
• 1970 - Joao Ricardo was born. Angolan footballer
• 1971 - C.W. Anderson was born. American professional wrestler
• 1971 - David Yost was born. American actor .
• 1972 - Iberia Airlines Caravelle 6-R crashed into Mont San Jose on approach to Ibiza Airport killing all 104 on board.
• 1972 - Donald Brashear was born. American hockey player
• 1972 - John Berryman dies (b. 1914). American poet.
• 1973 - Jonna Tervomaa was born. Finnish singer
• 1976 - Alfonso Soriano was born. Dominican baseball player
• 1976 - Eric Gagné was born. Canadian baseball player.
• 1976 - Luís Person dies (b. 1936). Brazilian actor and director
• 1976 - Alfonso Soriano was born. Dominican Major League Baseball player
• 1977 - Dustin Diamond was born. American actor
• 1977 - Se funda el Club de Deportes Cobreloa, de Calama, Chile.
• 1977 - Un grupo de intelectuais tchecos escrevem a chamada Carta dos 77, um documento que exige do Governo de Praga o respeito pelos direitos humanos e civis dos cidadãos.
• 1977 - Michelle Behennah was born. British model
• 1977 - Dustin Diamond was born. American actor
• 1979 - Bipasha Basu was born. Indian model and actress
• 1979 - Phnom Penh fell to the advancing Vietnamese troops, so 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.
• 1980 - Mariangel Ruiz was born. Venezuelan hostees, actress and model.
• 1980 - Larry Williams dies (b. 1935). American singer, pianist and songwriter.
• 1981 - Marquis Daniels was born. American basketball player
• 1981 - Alex Auld was born. Canadian hockey player
• 1982 - El socialdemócrata Luis Alberto Monge gana las elecciones presidenciales de Costa Rica.
• 1982 - Francisco Rodriguez dies. Venezuelan baseball player
• 1984 - Alfred Kastler dies (b. 1902). French investigator whose work give him The Nobel Prize for Physics in 1966.
• 1984 - Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
• 1985 - José Maria Pedroto dies. Portuguese football coach and footballer.
• 1985 - Lewis Hamilton was born. British racing driver
• 1986 - Juan Rulfo dies (b. 1917). Mexican writer, author of "El llano en llamas" (1953) and "Pedro Páramo" (1955 ).
• 1988 - Trevor Howard dies (b. 1913). English actor.
• 1988 - Michel Auclair dies (b. 1922). French actor.
• 1989 - Hirohito, Emperor of Japan, dies. Akihito becomes Emperor of Japan.
• 1990 - The Leaning Tower of Pisa is closed to the public due to safety concerns.
• 1990 - Liam Aiken was born. American actor
• 1990 - Elene Gedevanishvili was born. Georgian figure skater.
• 1990 - Bronko Nagurski dies (b. 1908). American football player.
• 1991 - Roger Lafontant, ex ministro del derrocado dictador haitiano Jean Claude Duvalier, fracasa en su golpe de estado contra el presidente electo, Jean B. Aristide
• 1992 - Richard Hunt dies (b. 1951). American puppeteer (The Muppets).
• 1995 - Murray Rothbard dies (b. 1926). American economist.
• 1996 - El conservador Alvaro Arzú, del Partido Avanzada Nacional, es elegido nuevo presidente de Guatemala.
• 1996 - One of the worst blizzards in American history hits eastern states killing more than 100.
• 1996 - Károly Grósz dies (b. 1930). Hungarian politician.
• 1998 - Vladimir Prelog dies (b. 1906). Croatian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate.
• 1998 - Owen Bradley dies (b. 1915). American record producer.
• 1999 - The impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton begins.
• 2000 - Don Martin dies (b. 1931). American illustrator.
• 2000 - Gary Albright dies (b. 1963). Professional wrestler.
• 2002 - Gyula Várady dies (b. 1919). Hungarian footballer.
• 2002 - Jon Lee dies (suicide). Welsh drummer (Feeder).
• 2002 - Naughtia Childs dies (suicide) (b. 1979). Porn star.
• 2002 - Avery Schreiber dies (b. 1935). American actor.
• 2003 - Oolong dies. Japanese rabbit which became an Internet meme
• 2003 - Bosko Boskovic dies, Yougoslavian director/write/actor . Boskovic’s film "Nebeski Odred" was nominated for the Grand Prix Award at the 1961 Moscow film festival.
• 2003 - José Viana - Portuguese actor died in an automobile accident at age 80. Mr. Viana appeared in numerous films and TV series ( "Senhor Jerónimo", "Love Letters From a Portuguese Nun" ...).
• 2004 - Ingrid Thulin dies. Swedish actress.
• 2004 - Oswald Garrison "Mike" Villard Jr. died this day [b. 1916]; American electronics engineer who developed over-the-horizon radar.
• 2005 - Pierre Daninos dies (b. 1913). French novelist.
• 2005 - Eileen Desmond dies (b. 1932). Irish politician.
• 2005 - Rosemary Kennedy dies. Sister of John F. Kennedy
• 2006 - Heinrich Harrer dies (b. 1912). Austrian mountaineer and explorer.
• Catholicism - Feast day of St. Raymond of Penafort.
• Christmas Day in the Julian calendar. This is the day on which Christmas is celebrated in most Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches.