January 7

1327 – King Edward II of England is deposed

1536 – Catherine of Aragon dies

1558 – The French take the port of Calais from the English

1610 – Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei discovers the Galilean Moons, Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto

1714 – Henry Mill patents the typewriter

1718 – American Revolutionary War hero, Israel Putnam, is born

1745 – French inventor, Etienne Montgolfier is born

1776 – Samuel Adams writes to a friend that the idea of a confederation among the colonies “is not dead, but sleepeth.”

1785 – American Dr. John Jeffries and Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard become the first to cross the English Channel in a hydrogen balloon

1789 – America holds its first-ever presidential election

1800 – 13^th President of the US, Millard Fillmore is born

1807 – In retaliation for Napoleon Bonaparte’s attempted blockade of the British Isles, the British blockade Continental Europe

1845 – Last King of Bavaria, Louis III, is born

1864 Former US Secretary of the Interior who had a major role in US-Native American relations during the Civil War, Caleb Blood Smith dies

1865 – Cheyenne and Sioux warriors attack Julesburg, Colorado in retaliation for the Sand Creek Massacre

1891 – Novelist Zora Neale Hurston is born

1892 – Nearly 100 are killed in a mine explosion in Krebs, Oklahoma, the worst mining accident in Oklahoma’s history

1896 – Fanny Farmer publishes her first cookbook

1901 – The New York stock exchange trading exceeds two million shares for the first time

1901 – Confessed cannibal Alfred Packer is released on parole after serving 18 years. While working as a guide in the Colorado wilderness, Packer was involved somehow in the murder of five men. While he changed his story twice, and the details might not ever be known, Packer claimed the men got lost and were so weak they set up camp while Packer went alone in search of the trail. When he returned, he found that one man had murdered the others with a hatchet and was boiling the flesh of one of them to eat. In self-defense, Packer shot the man, and then after days of starving, resorted to eating the others. He was convicted of manslaughter and maintained his innocence until his death

1902 – The Imperial Court of China returns to Peking and Empress Dowager resumes her reign

1911 – Actress Butterfly (Thelma) McQueen is born

1911 – “America’s Sweetheart,” actress Mary Pickford, the first ever true movie star, marries actor Owen Moore

1912 – Cartoonist and creator of the Addams Family, Charles Addams, is born

1915 – The German ambassador to Turkey is approached by Alexander Helphand, a Bolshevik businessman working as a German agent in Constantinople, to convince him that the German and Bolshevik interests are closely aligned

1918 – The Germans move 75,000 troops from the Eastern to the Western Front

1922 – Flautist Jean-Pierre Rampal is born

1927 – The Harlem Globetrotters play their first game in Hinckley, Illinois

1927 – Transatlantic commercial telephone service begins between New York and London

1930 – Country singer and musician, Jack Greene is born

1934 – Six thousand pastors defy the Nazis in Berlin

1939 – Prince Michael of Greece and Denmark is born

1943 – Serbian and American physicist and engineer Nikola Tesla dies

1943 – Japanese victim of the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima, Sadako Sasaki is born

1944 – The US Air Force announce the production of the first jet fighter, Bell P-59 Airacomet

1945 – US pilot ace Major Thomas B. McGuire, Jr. is killed

1945 – British General Bernard Montgomery takes near full credit for saving the Allied cause in the Battle of the Bulge, during a press conference

1946 – Six-year-old Suzanne Degnan is kidnapped from her Chicago home. A ransom note asking for $20,000 is found, but the girl had already been strangled.  Her body was found dismembered, and remains were scattered in five different sewers and catch basins. The killer had written in lipstick on the wall at the scene, “For heaven’s sake, catch me before I kill more, I cannot control myself.” Authorities traced the crime back to 17-year old William Heirens, who, while being questioned, was given sodium pentothal.  During this interrogation, Heirens blamed George Murman for the murder. Murman was Heiren’s other personality. While there is speculation about whether or not Heirens truly suffers from multiple personality disorder, the prosecution didn’t risk the death penalty. He was sentenced to life in prison

1948 – Singer and songwriter, Kenny Loggins is born

1951 – French and Egyptian author, Rene Guenon dies

1952 – French forces in Indochina launch Operation Violette to push the Viet Minh forces away from the town of Ba Vi

1953 – President Harry Truman announces that the US has developed a hydrogen bomb in his last State of the Union address before Congress

1954 – The first public demonstration of a machine translation system is held at the head office of IBM in New York

1955 – Marian Anderson becomes the first black to sing at the Metropolitan Opera House

1957 – Journalist and author Katie Couric is born

1959 – The US recognizes the new provisional government of Cuba, under the leadership of Fidel Castro

1964 – American producer, director, and actor, Nicolas Cage is born

1965 – Civilian government is restored in Saigon with Tran Van Huong as the new premier

1967 – Deputy Prime Minister of the UK, Nick Clegg is born

1971 – Defense Secretary Melvin Laird visits South Vietnam to assess the military situation

1975 – Vietnamese troops take Phuoc Binh

1979 – Vietnamese troops take Phnom Penh and overthrow Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge

1980 – US President Jimmy Carter signs legislation providing $1.5 billion in a bailout for Chrysler Corporation

1985 – Vietnam seizes the Khmer National Liberation Front headquarters

1985 – English race car driver, Lewis Hamilton is born

1985 – Japan launches its first interplanetary spacecraft, Sakigake

 1989 – Following the death of his father, Hirohito, Prince Akihito is sworn is as Emperor of Japan

1990 – The Leaning Tower of Pisa is closed due to structural problems leading to safety concerns

1991 – Belgian football player, Eden Hazard is born

1993 – The Bosnian Army attacks the village of Kravica in Srebrenica during the Bosnian War

1995 – American historian and economist, Murray Rothbard dies

1999 – President Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial begins in the US Senate