Wednesday, 7th January 2026 in Lisbon

Welcome to your daily snapshot of Lissabon! Explore 47 historical events, birthdays, deaths, and milestones that shaped this day in Lissabon. From remarkable moments in local and world history to the people who left their mark — find out what makes today special. Today's weather in Lissabon brings rainy with temperatures between 7°C and 14°C. Tonight's moon is in its waxing crescent phase, and the zodiac sign of the day is Capricorn. If you're curious about the history of a day — this page brings together everything worth knowing about this Wednesday, 7th January in Lissabon, PT.

Lisbon
Vitor Oliveira from Torres Vedras, PORTUGAL – CC BY-SA 2.0Wikimedia Commons

Lisbon, Portugal's capital city, sits on the western edge of the Atlantic, known for its hilly terrain and historic landmarks spanning centuries. On Wednesday, 7 January 2026, the city experiences rainy weather. The date falls under the zodiac sign of Capricorn, and the moon is in its waxing crescent phase.

On this day

On 7 January 1989, one of the most remarkable upsets in FA Cup history unfolded when Sutton United, a team competing in the fifth tier of English league football, defeated top-tier Coventry City. The result sent shockwaves through English football and remains one of the competition's most celebrated moments.

The same year also saw representatives of Iranian leader Ruhollah Khomeini deliver a letter to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, inviting him to consider Islam as an alternative to communism and predicting the dissolution of the Soviet Bloc. Meanwhile, French physicist Marguerite Perey made a significant contribution to science on 7 January 1939 when she identified francium, becoming the last element to be discovered in nature rather than through synthesis, a discovery that advanced the periodic table and our understanding of atomic structure.

DayAtlas provides comprehensive information for any date and location, displaying weather conditions, historical events, and notable births and deaths that occurred on that day.

Find out what's happening today in Lissabon.

What the Weather Had in Store for Lissabon on 7th January 2026

Rain

Sunrise 08:54
Sunset 18:31
Sunshine duration 09:03 hours
Daylight duration 09:35 hours

Maximum temperature 14.4°C
Minimum temperature 7.5°C

Wind speed 17.2km/h from NNW
Precipitation 3.5mm

Salt preserves not through force, but through its nature.

Fortune of the Day

7th January in the Stars – Star Sign Capricorn

Today, the zodiac sign Capricorn celebrates its birthday.

Personality Profile

Personality Those born on January 7th embody classic Capricorn traits: ambitious, serious-minded and practical. They carry natural authority and work methodically toward their goals. A quiet reserve gives them depth and contemplative nature.

Strengths & Weaknesses Strengths include discipline, endurance and strategic thinking. They are reliable partners and professionals. Weaknesses involve rigidity, emotional guardedness and a tendency toward pessimism or self-doubt.

Love In relationships these individuals appear distant initially but are profoundly loyal and caring. They seek partners who value their seriousness and appreciate long-term stability. Emotional expression feels difficult, yet their dependability is unshakeable.

Caree & Finance Financial security and professional status matter deeply. They excel in management, administration and skilled trades. The numerological 8 amplifies business acumen and ambition for material success and wealth-building.

Health These individuals tend toward chronic stress from overcommitment. Structured routines support their wellbeing. Regular exercise and conscious relaxation help prevent tension, burnout and age-related health challenges.


That night, the moon was in its waxing crescent phase.


Chinese year of the Snake (Wood).

Fun Facts About 7th January

Name Days in Your Language: Alda, Aldea, Alden, Aldo, Aldric, Canute, Knut, Knute, Millard, Miller


Someone born on this day would be just 166 days old today — roughly 3,991 hours, 239,464 minutes, or 14,367,887 seconds spent on Earth so far.


It's the 7. day of the year. In 2026, 7th January falls on a Wednesday.


There are 358 days still to come.


We’re currently in Week 2 — the year marches on.

Famous Birthdays on 7th January

On this day, 163 notable people were born on 7th January — spanning from 889 to 2012. From world leaders to artists and scientists, discover who shares this birthday.

07/01/2012

Blue Ivy Carter, American singer and actress

Blue Ivy Carter is an American singer, actress, and dancer. She is the first-born daughter of singer Beyoncé and rapper Jay-Z. Two days after her birth, Time dubbed Carter "the most famous baby in the world." That same day, her breathing, cries and coos were featured on Jay-Z's 2012 song "Glory", which earned her a Guinness World Record for being the youngest person to have an entry on a Billboard chart. She has been the subject of depictions in media, including impersonations on Saturday Night Live and RuPaul's Drag Race.


07/01/2007

Chloe Chua, Singaporean violinist, 2018 joint 1st prize winner of the Yehudi Menuhin International Competition for Young Violinists

Chloe Chua is a Singaporean violinist. She won first prize in the Junior division of the 2018 Yehudi Menuhin International Competition for Young Violinists alongside Australian Christian Li, and also won the 24th Andrea Postacchini International Violin Competition in Category A. She was the artist-in-residence of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra for the 2022/23 and 2023/24 seasons.


07/01/2003

Ryan Dunn, American basketball player

Ryan Christian Dunn is an American professional basketball player for the Phoenix Suns of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Virginia Cavaliers.


07/01/2000

Marcus Scribner, American actor

Marcus Scribner is an American actor. He is best known for starring as Andre "Junior" Johnson Jr. in all eight seasons of the ABC sitcom Black-ish, before starring as Junior in its spin-off Grown-ish from the fifth season onward, as well as voicing the characters Bow in the Netflix animated series She-Ra and the Princesses of Power and D’Angelo Baker in DreamWorks Dragons: The Nine Realms.


07/01/1997

Ozzie Albies, Curaçaoan baseball player

Ozhaino Jurdy Jiandro "Ozzie" Albies is a Curaçaoan professional baseball second baseman for the Atlanta Braves of Major League Baseball (MLB). Albies signed with the Braves organization in 2013 and made his MLB debut with the team in 2017. During his first full season, Albies was named to the 2018 MLB All-Star Game. Albies was later named to the 2021 and 2023 All-Star games. He won the National League Silver Slugger Award in 2019 and 2021. In 2021, he also won the Heart & Hustle Award, and his team won the World Series.


Lamar Jackson, American football player

Lamar Demeatrice Jackson Jr. is an American professional football quarterback for the Baltimore Ravens of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Louisville Cardinals, winning the Heisman Trophy in 2016, and was selected by the Ravens with the final pick in the first round of the 2018 NFL draft. A two-time recipient of the NFL Most Valuable Player (MVP) award and the all-time leader in quarterback rushing yards, Jackson is regarded as one of the best quarterbacks of his generation, and by some analysts as one of the greatest dual-threat quarterbacks of all time.


07/01/1996

Alex Nedeljkovic, American ice hockey player

Alexander Nedeljkovic (Serbian Cyrillic: Александар Недељковић, romanized: Aleksandar Nedeljković is an American professional ice hockey player who is a goaltender for the San Jose Sharks of the National Hockey League. Nedeljkovic was selected by the Carolina Hurricanes in the second round of the 2014 NHL entry draft.


07/01/1995

Jordan Bell, American basketball player

Jordan Trennie Bell is an American professional basketball player for the Noblesville Boom of the NBA G League. He played college basketball for the Oregon Ducks. As a junior in 2017, Bell earned second-team all-conference honors in the Pac-12, when he was also named the conference's Defensive Player of the Year. He was drafted in the second round of the 2017 NBA draft by the Chicago Bulls. Bell won his first championship in his rookie season when the Warriors defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2018.


Yulia Putintseva, Kazakhstani tennis player

Yulia Antonovna Putintseva is a Russian-born Kazakhstani professional tennis player. She achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 20 on 27 January 2025, and a best doubles ranking of No. 57 on 16 June 2025.


07/01/1994

Jarnell Stokes, American basketball player

Jarnell D'Marcus Stokes is an American former professional basketball player. He played college basketball for the Tennessee Volunteers. He was one of the top rated high school players in the class of 2011. He was selected in with the 35th overall pick in the 2014 NBA draft by the Utah Jazz, and later traded to the Memphis Grizzlies.


Lee Sun-bin, South Korean actress and singer

Lee Jin-kyung, known professionally as Lee Sun-bin (이선빈), is a South Korean actress and singer. She is a former member of the South Korean girl group JQT, and is known for starring in Squad 38 (2016), Work Later, Drink Now (2021–2023), and Boyhood (2023).


MacKenzie Weegar, Canadian ice hockey player

MacKenzie Weegar is a Canadian professional ice hockey player who is a defenseman for the Utah Mammoth of the National Hockey League (NHL). Weegar was drafted by the Florida Panthers with the 206th overall pick in the 2013 NHL entry draft.


07/01/1992

Erik Gudbranson, Canadian ice hockey player

Erik Donald Stanley Gudbranson is a Canadian professional ice hockey player who is a defenceman and alternate captain for the Columbus Blue Jackets of the National Hockey League (NHL). He was selected third overall by the Florida Panthers in the 2010 NHL entry draft. Gudbranson has previously played for the Florida Panthers, Vancouver Canucks, Pittsburgh Penguins, Anaheim Ducks, Ottawa Senators, Nashville Predators, and Calgary Flames.


Tohu Harris, New Zealand rugby league player

Tohu Harris is a New Zealand former professional rugby league footballer who played as a lock forward and captained the New Zealand Warriors in the National Rugby League (NRL).


07/01/1991

Tucker Barnhart, American baseball player

Tucker Jackson Barnhart is an American former professional baseball catcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Cincinnati Reds, Detroit Tigers, Chicago Cubs, Arizona Diamondbacks, and Texas Rangers. Barnhart made his MLB debut in 2014 and won the Gold Glove Award in 2017 and 2020.


Eden Hazard, Belgian footballer

Eden Michael Walter Lucien Hazard is a Belgian former professional footballer who played as a winger or attacking midfielder. Over the span of his sixteen-year career, he played for Lille, Chelsea, Real Madrid, and the Belgium national team. Known for his dribbling, creativity, and vision, he is regarded as one of the best players of his generation and one of the greatest players in Premier League history.


Caster Semenya, South African sprinter

Caster Semenya OIB is a South African middle-distance runner and winner of two Olympic gold medals, as well as three World Championships in the women's 800 metres. She first won gold at the World Championships in 2009 and went on to win at the 2016 Olympics and the 2017 World Championships, where she also won a bronze medal in the 1500 metres. After the doping disqualification of Mariya Savinova, she was also awarded gold medals for the 2011 World Championships and the 2012 Olympics.


Michael Walters, Australian footballer

Michael Walters is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Fremantle Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). Having spent most of his career playing as a small forward, Walters was a five-time Fremantle leading goalkicker. In 2019, he was rewarded with his debut selection in the All-Australian team.


07/01/1990

Liam Aiken, American actor

Liam Pádraic Aiken is an American actor. He has starred in films such as Stepmom (1998), Road to Perdition (2002), and Good Boy! (2003), and played Klaus Baudelaire in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004), based on the series of books. He also starred in the films Nor'easter (2012), Ned Rifle (2014), The Bloodhound (2020), Bashira (2021), and V13 (2025).


Gentleman Jack Gallagher, English mixed martial artist and wrestler

Oliver Westfield Claffey, better known by the ring name Jack Gallagher and most recently Jack Claffey, is an English mixed martial artist and a former professional wrestler. He is best known for his time in WWE, where he performed on the NXT and 205 Live brands, mostly under the ring name Gentleman Jack Gallagher.


Gregor Schlierenzauer, Austrian ski jumper

Gregor Schlierenzauer is an Austrian former ski jumper who competed from 2006 to 2021. He is one of the most successful ski jumpers of all time, having won 53 individual World Cup competitions, the most of any male ski jumper; the Ski Jumping World Cup overall title, the Four Hills Tournament, and Nordic Tournament twice each; the Ski Flying World Cup overall title three times; as well as four medals at the Winter Olympics, twelve at the Ski Jumping World Championships, and five at the Ski Flying World Championships.


07/01/1988

Haley Bennett, American actress and singer

Haley Loraine Keeling, known professionally as Haley Bennett, is an American actress. She made her film debut in the romantic comedy Music and Lyrics (2007) and has since appeared in films such as The Equalizer (2014), The Magnificent Seven (2016), Swallow (2019), Hillbilly Elegy (2020), and Cyrano (2021).


Scott Pendlebury, Australian footballer

Scott Pendlebury is a professional Australian rules footballer playing for the Collingwood Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He served as Collingwood captain from 2014 to 2022.


07/01/1987

Davide Astori, Italian footballer (died 2018)

Davide Astori was an Italian professional footballer who played as a central defender.


Stefan Babović, Serbian footballer

Stefan Babović is a Serbian former professional footballer who played as a deep-lying playmaker. He is the current (CEO) of Fashion Company.


Lyndsy Fonseca, American actress

Lyndsy Marie Fonseca is an American actress. She began her career by appearing as Colleen Carlton on the CBS daytime soap opera The Young and the Restless, on which she starred between 2001 and 2005. Thereafter, she had a series of other recurring roles, including Penny Mosby on the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, Donna on HBO's Big Love, and Dylan Mayfair on the fourth season of the ABC television series Desperate Housewives.


07/01/1985

Lewis Hamilton, English racing driver

Sir Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton is a British racing driver who competes in Formula One for Ferrari. Hamilton has won a joint-record seven Formula One World Drivers' Championship titles—tied with Michael Schumacher—and holds the records for most wins (106), pole positions (104), and podium finishes (206), among others.


Wayne Routledge, English footballer

Wayne Neville Anthony Routledge is an English former professional footballer who played as a winger. He represented England at under-16, under-19 and under-21 level.


07/01/1984

Jon Lester, American baseball player

Jonathan Tyler Lester is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Boston Red Sox, Oakland Athletics, Chicago Cubs, Washington Nationals, and St. Louis Cardinals. Less than two years after being diagnosed with lymphoma, Lester started and won the final game of the 2007 World Series for the Red Sox and, in May 2008, pitched a no-hitter against the Kansas City Royals. He helped lead the Red Sox to another championship in 2013, and he won the 2016 World Series with the Cubs. Lester started the opening game of a playoff series 12 times, which was a record for the most in baseball history until Justin Verlander passed him in 2023.


07/01/1983

Brett Dalton, American actor

Brett Patrick Dalton is an American actor. He is best known for playing Grant Ward and therefore Hive in ABC's series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., as well as Detective Mark Trent in the NBC procedural drama series Found, and Michael "Mike" Munroe in the 2015 video game Until Dawn. He also provided the voice and motion capture for Freyr in God of War: Ragnarök (2022).


Edwin Encarnación, Dominican baseball player

Edwin Elpidio Encarnación Rivera is a Dominican former professional baseball designated hitter, third baseman and first baseman. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Cincinnati Reds, Toronto Blue Jays, Cleveland Indians, Seattle Mariners, New York Yankees, and Chicago White Sox.


Cappie Pondexter, American basketball player

Cappie Marie Pondexter is an American former professional basketball player. She was born in Oceanside, California and raised in Chicago, Illinois. Pondexter is known for her scrappy play, quick crossovers and midrange jumpshot. In 2011, she was voted in by fans as one of the Top 15 players in Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) history. She was inducted in the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2025.


07/01/1982

Lauren Cohan, American-English actress

Lauren Cohan is a British-American actress known for her role as Maggie Rhee in the AMC post-apocalyptic horror television series The Walking Dead, a role she reprises in The Walking Dead: Dead City (2023–present). Her other notable TV roles include Bela Talbot in the dark fantasy drama Supernatural (2007–2008), Rose in the supernatural teen drama The Vampire Diaries (2010–2012), Vivian McArthur Volkoff in the action comedy Chuck (2011), Francesca "Frankie" Trowbridge in the action comedy-drama Whiskey Cavalier (2019), and War Woman in the adult animated superhero show Invincible (2021–2023). Her film appearances include the comedy Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj (2006), the psychological thriller horror The Boy (2016), the biographical drama All Eyez on Me (2017), and the action thriller Mile 22 (2018).


Francisco Rodríguez, Venezuelan baseball player

Francisco José Rodríguez Sr., nicknamed "K-Rod", is a Venezuelan former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Anaheim Angels / Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, New York Mets, Baltimore Orioles, Milwaukee Brewers and Detroit Tigers. He is the pitching coach for the Senadores de Caracas of the Venezuelan Major League.


Hannah Stockbauer, German swimmer

Hannah Stockbauer is a World Champion, Olympic and national-record holding swimmer from Germany. In 2003, she was named the female World Swimmer of the Year by Swimming World Magazine, following her winning the 400, 800 and 1500 freestyles at the 2003 World Championships.


07/01/1981

Alex Auld, Canadian ice hockey player

Alexander James Auld is a Canadian former professional ice hockey goaltender. Auld played in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the Vancouver Canucks, Florida Panthers, Phoenix Coyotes, Boston Bruins, Ottawa Senators, Dallas Stars, New York Rangers and the Montreal Canadiens from 2002 to 2012. He has also appeared internationally for the Canadian national team on three occasions: the 2001 World Junior Championships, the 2004 Spengler Cup, and the 2006 World Championships.


Marquis Daniels, American basketball player

Marquis Antwane Daniels is an American former professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Auburn Tigers before going undrafted in the 2003 NBA draft. He played his first three years for the Dallas Mavericks before being traded to the Indiana Pacers. Daniels then signed with the Boston Celtics in 2009 and the Milwaukee Bucks in 2012.


Travis Friend, Zimbabwean cricketer

Travis John Friend is a former Zimbabwean international cricketer and commercial pilot.


07/01/1980

Reece Simmonds, Australian rugby league player

Reece Simmonds is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 2000s and 2010s. He was born in Sydney, and played in the National Rugby League (NRL) for the St George Illawarra Dragons and the South Sydney Rabbitohs (2007).


07/01/1979

Reggie Austin, American actor

Reggie Austin is an American actor. He is best known for his recurring roles on the Notes from the Underbelly as Dr. Greg Wise, The Starter Wife as Devon Marsh, Desperate Housewives as Renee Perry's ex-husband Doug Perry, Pretty Little Liars as Eddie Lamb, and Devious Maids as Reggie Miller.


Aloe Blacc, American musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, businessman and philanthropist

Egbert Nathaniel Dawkins III, known professionally as Aloe Blacc, is an American singer, songwriter, rapper, and record producer. He is known for his guest performance on Avicii's 2013 single "Wake Me Up", which topped the charts in 22 countries, including in Australia and the UK. As a lead artist, he is known for his singles "I Need a Dollar" and "The Man", the latter of which reached number one on the UK Singles Chart. Aside from his solo career, Aloe Blacc is also a member of the hip hop duo Emanon, alongside American record producer Exile.


07/01/1978

Dean Cosker, English cricketer and umpire

Dean Andrew Cosker is an English cricket referee and former cricketer. He is a right-handed batsman and a left-arm slow bowler who played for Glamorgan. He has played in first-class, List A and Twenty20 cricket. He attended Millfield School in Somerset between 1991 and 1996.


Israel Keyes, American serial killer (died 2012)

Israel Keyes was an American serial killer, rapist, bank robber, burglar, arsonist, and kidnapper.


07/01/1977

Dustin Diamond, American actor and comedian (died 2021)

Dustin Neil Diamond was an American actor and stand-up comedian. He is best known for portraying Samuel "Screech" Powers throughout the Saved by the Bell franchise, appearing from the first episodes of Good Morning, Miss Bliss (1988–89) through the subsequent spinoffs with The College Years (1993–94) and the last six seasons of The New Class (1994–2000); alongside Dennis Haskins, Diamond was the only person to appear in each of the first three Saved by the Bell shows. Following his run on Saved by the Bell, Diamond toured in stand-up comedy alongside appearances in film and reality television, most notably with the fifth season of Celebrity Fit Club in 2007.


Sofi Oksanen, Finnish author and playwright

Sofi-Elina Oksanen is a Finnish writer and playwright. Oksanen has published six novels, of which "Purge" has gained the widest recognition. She has received several international and domestic awards for her literary work. Her work has been translated into more than 40 languages and sold more than two million copies. Oksanen has been called "Finnish-Estonian Charles Dickens" and her work has often been compared to Margaret Atwood's novels. Oksanen is actively involved in public debate in Finland and comments on current issues in her columns and various talk shows.


Brent Sopel, Canadian ice hockey player

Brent Bernard Sopel is a Canadian former professional ice hockey defenceman who played the majority of his career in the National Hockey League (NHL). Sopel was originally selected 144th overall at the 1995 NHL entry draft by the Vancouver Canucks. He has also played for the New York Islanders, Los Angeles Kings, Chicago Blackhawks, Atlanta Thrashers and Montreal Canadiens, winning the Stanley Cup in 2010 with Chicago.


07/01/1976

Vic Darchinyan, Armenian-Australian boxer

Vakhtang "Vic" Darchinyan is an Armenian former professional boxer who competed from 2000 to 2017. He held multiple world championships in two weight classes, including the International Boxing Federation (IBF) flyweight title from 2004 to 2007, and the unified super-flyweight championship between 2008 and 2010. He also held the lineal super-flyweight title from 2009 to 2011, and a record four International Boxing Organization (IBO) titles at flyweight, super-flyweight, and twice at bantamweight between 2005 and 2011. A southpaw with a highly unique fighting style and formidable punching power, Darchinyan became the first Armenian boxer to win a world title in 2004.


Éric Gagné, Canadian baseball player

Éric Serge Gagné is a Canadian former professional baseball pitcher who played 10 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), most notably for the Los Angeles Dodgers. After signing with the Dodgers as a free agent in 1995, Gagné began his career as a starting pitcher. After he struggled in that role, the Dodgers converted Gagné from a starter to a reliever, where for three years (2002–2004) he was statistically the most outstanding closer in the league, winning the Cy Young Award in 2003. During that period, he set a major league record by converting 84 consecutive save opportunities.


Alfonso Soriano, Dominican baseball player

Alfonso Guilleard Soriano is a Dominican-American former professional baseball left fielder and second baseman. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees, Texas Rangers, Washington Nationals, and Chicago Cubs, and in Nippon Professional Baseball for the Hiroshima Toyo Carp.


07/01/1974

Alenka Bikar, Slovenian sprinter and politician

Alenka Bikar is a retired female sprinter from Slovenia, born in Ljubljana. She specialised in the 200 metres, competing in three Olympic games from 1996 to 2004. She was also named Slovenian Sportswoman of the Year in 2001. Bikar won the gold medal in the 200 m in the Mediterranean Games in 2005.


07/01/1972

Donald Brashear, American-Canadian ice hockey player and mixed martial artist

Donald Brashear is an American-born Canadian former professional hockey player. He played for five organizations in the National Hockey League (NHL) over a 16-year career, in which he played the role of an enforcer.


07/01/1971

Kevin Rahm, American actor

Kevin Rahm is an American actor. He is known for his television roles as Kyle McCarty on Judging Amy, Lee McDermott on Desperate Housewives, and Ted Chaough on Mad Men.


Jeremy Renner, American actor

Jeremy Lee Renner is an American actor. He began his career by appearing in independent films such as Dahmer (2002) and Neo Ned (2005), then supporting roles in bigger films, such as S.W.A.T. (2003) and 28 Weeks Later (2007). Renner gained Academy Award nominations for Best Actor for his performance as an Iraq War soldier in The Hurt Locker (2009) and for Best Supporting Actor for playing a hot-headed robber in The Town (2010).


07/01/1970

Andy Burnham, English politician[page needed]

Andrew Murray Burnham is a British politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Makerfield since 2026. A Labour Co-op member, he was the Mayor of Greater Manchester from 2017 to 2026 and served as the MP for Leigh from 2001 until 2017. During his parliamentary career before becoming mayor, he held several cabinet positions, lastly as Secretary of State for Health from 2009 to 2010 under Gordon Brown. Burnham is associated with the soft left faction of the Labour Party. He identifies politically as a socialist.


07/01/1969

Marco Simone, Italian footballer and manager

Marco Simone is an Italian professional football manager and former player. As a player, he was a striker and winger.


07/01/1967

Nick Clegg, English academic and politician, Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Sir Nicholas William Peter Clegg is a British retired politician and media executive who served as Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2015 and as Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2007 to 2015. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Sheffield Hallam from 2005 to 2017. An "Orange Book" liberal, he has been associated with both socially liberal and economically liberal policies.


Ricky Stuart, Australian rugby league player, coach, and sportscaster

Ricky John "Sticky" Stuart is an Australian professional rugby league football coach who is the head coach of Canberra in the National Rugby League (NRL) and a former rugby league footballer who played as a halfback in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s.


07/01/1965

Five for Fighting, American singer-songwriter and pianist

Vladimir John Ondrasik III, known professionally as Five for Fighting, is an American singer-songwriter and pianist. He is best known for his piano-based soft rock, such as the top 40 hits "Superman " (2001), "100 Years" (2003), and "The Riddle" (2006). He also had a string of moderate hits on the adult contemporary charts in the late 2000s and into the 2010s, including "World" (2006) and "Chances" (2009).


Alessandro Lambruschini, Italian runner

Alessandro Lambruschini is an Italian former long-distance runner who specialized in the 3000 metres steeplechase.


07/01/1964

Nicolas Cage, American actor

Nicolas Cage is an American actor and film producer. He is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a Golden Globe Award as well as nominations for two BAFTA Awards. Known for his versatility as an actor, Cage's work across diverse film genres has gained him a significant cult following. Films in which he has appeared have grossed over $6.4 billion worldwide.


07/01/1963

Rand Paul, American politician and physician

Randal Howard Paul is an American politician serving as the junior United States senator from Kentucky since 2011. A member of the Republican Party, he is the chair of the Senate Homeland Security Committee.


07/01/1962

Aleksandr Dugin, Russian political analyst and strategist known for his fascist views

Aleksandr Gelyevich Dugin is a Russian political philosopher who is the leading theorist of Russian neo-Eurasianism.


Ron Rivera, American football player and coach

Ronald Eugene Rivera is an American professional football executive and former linebacker and coach who is the general manager for the University of California–Berkeley, his alma mater. He played nine seasons in the National Football League (NFL) for the Chicago Bears and was a member of their 1985 team that won Super Bowl XX. Rivera later served as the head coach of the NFL's Carolina Panthers and Washington Football Team / Commanders, earning two NFL Coach of the Year awards with the former.


07/01/1961

John Thune, American lawyer and politician

John Randolph Thune is an American politician serving as the senior United States senator from South Dakota, a seat he has held since 2005. A member of the Republican Party, Thune has served since 2025 as Senate majority leader and Senate Republican leader. From 1997 to 2003, Thune served as the U.S. representative for South Dakota's at-large congressional district.


07/01/1960

Loretta Sanchez, American politician

Loretta Lorna Sanchez is an American politician who served in the United States House of Representatives from 1997 to 2017, representing parts of central Orange County, California. A member of the Democratic Party, she was first elected in 1996, when she defeated long-serving Republican U.S. Representative Bob Dornan by fewer than 1,000 votes. During her time in the House of Representatives, Sanchez was a member of the Blue Dog Coalition of moderate-to-conservative Democrats.


07/01/1959

Angela Smith, Baroness Smith of Basildon, English accountant and politician

Angela Evans Smith, Baroness Smith of Basildon, is a British politician and life peer serving as Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal since 2024. A member of the Labour and Co-operative parties, she was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Basildon from 1997 to 2010.


Kathy Valentine, American bass player and songwriter

Kathryn Valentine is an American musician who is the bassist for the rock band the Go-Go's. She has maintained a career in music through songwriting, recording, performing and touring as well as additional academic and creative pursuits. Valentine was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in October 2021 as a member of The Go-Go's.


07/01/1957

Nicholson Baker, American novelist and essayist

Nicholson Baker is an American novelist and essayist. His fiction generally de-emphasizes narrative in favor of careful description and characterization. His early novels such as The Mezzanine and Room Temperature were distinguished by their minute inspection of his characters' and narrators' stream of consciousness. Out of a total of ten novels, three are erotica: Vox, The Fermata and House of Holes.


Katie Couric, American television journalist, anchor, and author

Katherine Anne Couric is an American journalist and presenter. She is founder of Katie Couric Media, a multimedia news and production company. She also publishes a daily newsletter, Wake Up Call. Since 2016, she has hosted the podcast Next Question with Katie Couric.


07/01/1956

David Caruso, American actor

David Stephen Caruso is a retired American actor and producer, best known for his roles as Detective John Kelly on the ABC crime drama NYPD Blue (1993–1994) and Lieutenant Horatio Caine on the CBS series CSI: Miami (2002–2012). Caruso appeared in the feature films An Officer and a Gentleman (1982), First Blood, Twins (1988), King of New York (1990), Kiss of Death (1995), and Proof of Life (2000).


07/01/1955

Mamata Shankar, Indian-Bengali actress

Mamata Shankar is an Indian actress and dancer. She is known for her work in Bengali cinema. She has acted in films by directors including Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Rituparno Ghosh, Buddhadeb Dasgupta and Gautam Ghosh. In addition to being an actress, she is a dancer and choreographer. She was the niece of musician Pandit Ravi Shankar. Her brother, Ananda Shankar, was an Indo-Western fusion musician.


07/01/1954

Alan Butcher, English cricketer and coach

Alan Raymond Butcher is a former English cricketer who is part of a family known for its strong cricketing connections. Although only selected to play for England on one occasion, he was lauded for his skills in first-class cricket and was named a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1991. He became Essex coach in 1993, and coached Surrey between 2005 and 2008. Cricket writer, Colin Bateman noted Butcher was, "a popular and accomplished left-handed opener, unlucky to be consigned to membership of the 'One Cap Club'... despite consistent county performances and an ability to tackle quick bowlers, Butcher was passed over".


07/01/1953

Robert Longo, American painter and sculptor

Robert Longo is an American artist, filmmaker, photographer and musician. Longo became first well known in the 1980s for his Men in the Cities drawing and print series, which depict sharply dressed men and women writhing in contorted emotion. He lives in New York and East Hampton.


07/01/1952

Sammo Hung, Hong Kong actor, director, producer, and martial artist

Sammo Hung Kam-bo is a Hong Kong actor, martial artist, and filmmaker, known for his work in martial arts films, Hong Kong action cinema, and as a fight choreographer for other actors such as Kim Tai-chung, Jackie Chan, Yuen Biao, and Yuen Wah.


07/01/1950

Juan Gabriel, Mexican singer-songwriter (died 2016)

Alberto Aguilera Valadez, known professionally as Juan Gabriel, was a Mexican singer-songwriter. Colloquially nicknamed Juanga and El Divo de Juárez, Juan Gabriel was known for his flamboyant style, which broke norms and standards within the Latin music industry. Widely regarded as one of the best and most prolific Mexican composers and singers of all time, he is considered a pop icon.


07/01/1948

Kenny Loggins, American singer-songwriter

Kenneth Clark Loggins is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. His early songs were recorded with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band in 1970, which led to seven albums recorded with Jim Messina as Loggins and Messina from 1972 to 1977. His early soundtrack contributions date back to A Star Is Born in 1976, and he is known as the "King of the Movie Soundtrack". As a solo artist, Loggins experienced a string of soundtrack successes, including an Academy Award nomination for "Footloose" in 1985. Finally Home was released in 2013, shortly after Loggins formed the group Blue Sky Riders with Gary Burr and Georgia Middleman. He has won two Grammy Awards and a Daytime Emmy Award; and was nominated for an Academy Award, a Tony Award, and a Golden Globe Award.


07/01/1947

Tony Elliott, English publisher, founded Time Out (died 2020)

Anthony Michael Manton Elliott, CBE was an English publisher, and the founder and owner of Time Out Group, based in London. He was educated at Stowe School and Keele University.


07/01/1946

Michele Elliott, author, psychologist and founder of child protection charity Kidscape

Michele Irmiter Elliott OBE is an author, psychologist, teacher and the founder and director of child protection charity Kidscape. She has chaired World Health Organization and Home Office working groups and is a Winston Churchill fellow.


Jann Wenner, American publisher, co-founded Rolling Stone

Jann Simon Wenner is an American businessman who co-founded the popular culture magazine Rolling Stone with Ralph J. Gleason and is the former owner of Men's Journal magazine. He participated in the Free Speech Movement while attending the University of California, Berkeley. Wenner co-founded Rolling Stone in 1967.


07/01/1945

Tony Conigliaro, American baseball player (died 1990)

Anthony Richard Conigliaro, nicknamed "Tony C" and "Conig", was an American Major League Baseball outfielder and right-handed batter who played for the Boston Red Sox and California Angels (1971). Born in Revere, Massachusetts, he was a 1962 graduate of St. Mary's High School in Lynn, Massachusetts. Conigliaro started his MLB career as a teenager, hitting a home run in his first at-bat during his home field debut in 1964, and reaching 100 career home runs faster than any player in American League history.


Raila Odinga, Kenyan engineer and politician, 2nd Prime Minister of Kenya (died 2025)

Raila Amolo Odinga was a Kenyan politician who served as Prime Minister from 2008 to 2013. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Langata Constituency from 1992 to 2013. He was also the leader of Azimio la Umoja–One Kenya Coalition Party. Odinga ran for President of Kenya five times, with none of his attempts being successful. Each time, Odinga alleged electoral fraud.


Peter Schowtka, German politician (died 2022)

Peter Georg Schowtka was a German politician who served as a member of the Landtag of Saxony from 1991 to 2014. Schowtka was an ethnic Sorb.


07/01/1944

Mike McGear, British performing artist and rock photographer

Peter Michael McCartney, also known professionally as Mike McGear, is an English musician and photographer who was a member of the groups the Scaffold and Grimms. He is the younger brother of former Beatle Paul McCartney.


Kotaro Suzumura, Japanese economist and academic (died 2020)

Kotaro Suzumura was a Japanese economist and professor emeritus of Hitotsubashi University and Waseda University. He graduated from Hitotsubashi University in 1966. His research interests were in social choice theory and welfare economics. He was also a Fellow of the Econometric Society. He was named a Person of Cultural Merit in 2017.


07/01/1943

Sadako Sasaki, Japanese survivor of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, known for one thousand origami cranes (died 1955)

Sadako Sasaki was a Japanese girl who became a victim of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima by the United States. She was two years of age when the bombs were dropped and was severely irradiated. She survived for another ten years, becoming one of the most widely known hibakusha—a Japanese term meaning "bomb-affected person". She is remembered through the story of the more than one thousand origami cranes she folded before her death. She died at the age of 12 on October 25, 1955, at the Hiroshima Red Cross Hospital.


07/01/1942

Vasily Alekseyev, Russian-German weightlifter and coach (died 2011)

Vasily Ivanovich Alekseyev was a Soviet weightlifter. He set 80 world records and 81 Soviet national records in weightlifting and won Olympic gold medals at the 1972 and 1976 games.


07/01/1941

Iona Brown, English violinist and conductor (died 2004)

Iona Brown, OBE, was a British violinist and conductor.


John Steiner, English actor (died 2022)

John Steiner was an English actor. Tall and gaunt, he attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and performed on-stage for the Royal Shakespeare Company, but was best known to audiences for his roles in Italian films, several of which became cult classics.


John E. Walker, English chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate

Sir John Ernest Walker is a British chemist who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1997. As of 2015 Walker is Emeritus Director and Professor at the MRC Mitochondrial Biology Unit in Cambridge, and a Fellow of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge.


07/01/1938

Bob Boland, Australian rugby league player and coach

Bob Boland nicknamed "Bolo" is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer and coach who played for the Balmain Tigers and Penrith Panthers.


Lou Graham, American golfer

Louis Krebs Graham was an American professional golfer. He won six PGA Tour tournaments including the 1975 U.S. Open.


Rory Storm, English singer-songwriter (died 1972)

Rory Storm was an English musician and vocalist. Born in Liverpool, Storm was the singer and leader of Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, a Liverpudlian band who featured drummer Ringo Starr before he joined The Beatles.


07/01/1936

Hunter Davies, Scottish author and journalist

Edward Hunter Davies is a British author, journalist and broadcaster. His books include the only authorised biography of the Beatles.


07/01/1935

Kenny Davern, American clarinet player and saxophonist (died 2006)

John Kenneth Davern was an American jazz clarinetist.


Valery Kubasov, Russian engineer and astronaut (died 2014)

Valery Nikolaevich Kubasov was a Soviet and Russian cosmonaut who flew on two missions in the Soyuz programme as a flight engineer: Soyuz 6 and Soyuz 19, and commanded Soyuz 36 in the Intercosmos programme. On 21 July 1975, the Soyuz 7K-TM module used for ASTP landed in Kazakhstan at 5:51 p.m. and Kubasov was the first to exit the craft. Kubasov performed the first welding experiments in space, along with Georgy Shonin.


Li Shengjiao, Chinese diplomat and international jurist (died 2017)

Li Shengjiao was a senior Chinese diplomat, jurist, educator, scholar, bilingual author, former Nanjing sports star and an expert on the I Ching. Being recognized as an authority on international law and U.S.-China relations, Li was known for his contribution to the International Law of the Sea and China's boundary and ocean affairs.


07/01/1934

Jean Corbeil, Canadian lawyer and politician, 29th Canadian Minister of Labour (died 2002)

Jean Corbeil, was a Canadian politician.


Tassos Papadopoulos, Cypriot lawyer and politician, 5th President of Cyprus (died 2008)

Efstathios "Tassos" Nikolaou Papadopoulos was a Cypriot politician and barrister, who served as President of Cyprus from 2003 to 2008.


07/01/1933

Elliott Kastner, American-English film producer (died 2010)

Elliott Kastner was an American film producer, whose best known credits include Where Eagles Dare (1968), The Long Goodbye (1973), The Missouri Breaks (1976), and Angel Heart (1987).


07/01/1931

Mirja Hietamies, Finnish skier (died 2013)

Mirja Kyllikki Hietamies-Eteläpää was a cross-country skier from Finland who competed at the 1952 and 1956 Winter Olympics. She won a gold medal in the 3 × 5 km relay in 1956 and a silver medal in the individual 10 km race in 1952, placing sixth in 1956. She also won two medals at the 1954 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships with a silver in the 3 × 5 km relay and a bronze in the 10 km.


07/01/1929

Robert Juniper, Australian painter and sculptor (died 2012)

Robert Litchfield Juniper, AM was an Australian artist, art teacher, illustrator, painter, printmaker and sculptor.


Terry Moore, American actress

Terry Moore is an American actress. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Come Back, Little Sheba (1952).


07/01/1928

William Peter Blatty, American author and screenwriter (died 2017)

William Peter Blatty was an American writer, director and producer. He is best known for his 1971 novel The Exorcist and for his screenplay for the 1973 film adaptation. Blatty won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Exorcist, and was nominated for Best Picture as its producer. The film also earned Blatty a Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama as producer.


07/01/1926

Kim Jong-pil, South Korean lieutenant and politician, 11th Prime Minister of South Korea (died 2018)

Kim Jong-pil, also known colloquially as JP, was a South Korean politician and military intelligence officer who was the founder and first director of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency. He served as the prime minister twice, from 1971 to 1975 during the presidency of Park Chung Hee and from 1998 to 2000 during the presidency of Kim Dae-jung. He was a nine-term National Assembly member.


07/01/1925

Gerald Durrell, Indian-English zookeeper, conservationist and author, founded Durrell Wildlife Park (died 1995)

Gerald Malcolm Durrell was a British naturalist, writer, zookeeper, conservationist, and television presenter. He was born in Jamshedpur in British India, and moved to England when his father died in 1928. In 1935 the family moved to Corfu, and stayed there for four years, before the outbreak of World War II forced them to return to the UK. In 1946 he received an inheritance from his father's will that he used to fund animal-collecting trips to the British Cameroons and British Guiana. He married Jacquie Rasen in 1951; they had very little money, and she persuaded him to write an account of his first trip to the Cameroons. The result, titled The Overloaded Ark, sold well, and he began writing accounts of his other trips. An expedition to Argentina and Paraguay followed in 1953, and three years later he published My Family and Other Animals, which became a bestseller.


07/01/1924

Geoffrey Bayldon, English actor (died 2017)

Albert Geoffrey Bayldon was an English actor. After playing roles in many stage productions, including the works of William Shakespeare, he became known for portraying the title role of the children's series Catweazle (1969–70). Bayldon's other long-running parts include the Crowman in Worzel Gummidge (1979–81) and Magic Grandad in the BBC television series Watch (1995).


07/01/1923

Hugh Kenner, Canadian scholar and critic (died 2003)

William Hugh Kenner was a Canadian literary scholar, critic and professor. His studies on Modernist literature often analyzed the work of James Joyce, Ezra Pound, and Samuel Beckett. His major study of the period, The Pound Era, argued for Pound as the central figure of Modernism, and is considered one of the most important works on the topic.


Vaklush Tolev, Bulgarian theologian, educator, public figure and lecturer (died 2013)

Vaklush Tolev, also known as Vaklush, The Teacher of Wisdom, was a theologian by education, a public figure, a university lecturer, and an author of a multitude of works of religious, philosophical, cultural and historical nature.


07/01/1922

Alvin Dark, American baseball player and manager (died 2014)

Alvin Ralph Dark, nicknamed "Blackie" and "the Swamp Fox", was an American professional baseball shortstop and manager. He played fourteen years in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Boston/Milwaukee Braves, the New York Giants (1950–1956), the St. Louis Cardinals (1956–1958), the Chicago Cubs (1958–59), and the Philadelphia Phillies (1960). Later, he managed the San Francisco Giants (1961–1964), the Kansas City/Oakland Athletics, the Cleveland Indians (1968–1971), and the San Diego Padres (1977). He was a three-time All-Star and a two-time World Series champion, once as a player (1954) and once as a manager (1974).


Jean-Pierre Rampal, French flute player (died 2000)

Jean-Pierre Louis Rampal was a French flautist and conductor. Rampal popularised the flute in the post–World War II years, recovering flute compositions from the Baroque era, and spurring contemporary composers, such as Francis Poulenc, to create new works that have become modern standards in the flautist's repertoire.


07/01/1921

Esmeralda Arboleda Cadavid, Colombian politician (died 1997)

María Esmeralda Arboleda Cadavid was a Colombian politician, suffragist and the first woman elected to the Senate of Colombia, serving from 1958 to 1961.


Chester Kallman, American poet and translator (died 1975)

Chester Simon Kallman was an American poet, librettist, and translator, best known for collaborating with W. H. Auden on opera librettos for Igor Stravinsky and other composers.


07/01/1920

Vincent Gardenia, Italian-American actor (died 1992)

Vincent Gardenia was an Italian American stage, film and television actor. He was nominated twice for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, first for Bang the Drum Slowly (1973) and again for Moonstruck (1987). He also portrayed Det. Frank Ochoa in Death Wish (1974) and its 1982 sequel, Death Wish II, and played Mr. Mushnik in the musical film adaptation Little Shop of Horrors (1986). His other notable feature films include Murder Inc. (1960), The Hustler (1961), The Front Page (1974), Greased Lightning (1977), Heaven Can Wait (1978) and The Super (1991).


07/01/1916

W. L. Jeyasingham, Sri Lankan geographer and academic (died 1989)

William Luther "W.L." Jeyasingham was a Sri Lankan Tamil teacher, geographer, academic and dean of the Faculty of Arts, University of Jaffna.


Babe Pratt, Canadian ice hockey player (died 1988)

Walter Peter "Babe" Pratt was a Canadian professional ice hockey defenceman/left winger who played for the New York Rangers, Toronto Maple Leafs and the Boston Bruins in the National Hockey League between 1935 and 1947. He is the father of the NHL hockey player, Tracy Pratt.


07/01/1913

Francis de Wolff, English actor (died 1984)

Baron Francis-Marie Arist de Wolff was an English character actor. Large, bearded, and beetle-browed, he was often cast as villains and foreigners in both film and television.


Johnny Mize, American baseball player, coach, and sportscaster (died 1993)

John Robert Mize, nicknamed "Big Jawn" and "the Big Cat", was an American professional baseball first baseman. He played 15 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the St. Louis Cardinals, New York Giants, and New York Yankees from 1936 to 1953, losing three seasons to military service during World War II. Mize was a ten-time All-Star and won five consecutive World Series with the Yankees.


07/01/1912

Charles Addams, American cartoonist, created The Addams Family (died 1988)

Charles Samuel Addams was an American cartoonist known for his darkly humorous and macabre characters. Some of his recurring characters became known as the Addams Family, and were popularized through various adaptations.


07/01/1910

Orval Faubus, American soldier and politician, 36th Governor of Arkansas (died 1994)

Orval Eugene Faubus was an American politician who served as the 36th governor of Arkansas from 1955 to 1967, as a member of the Southern Democratic Party. He is best known for the 1957 Little Rock Crisis, when he refused to comply with a decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1954 case Brown v. Board of Education, and ordered the Arkansas National Guard to prevent black students from attending Little Rock Central High School. He was elected to six two-year terms as governor.


07/01/1908

Red Allen, American trumpet player (died 1967)

Henry James "Red" Allen Jr. was an American jazz trumpeter and vocalist whose playing has been described by Joachim-Ernst Berendt and others as the first to fully incorporate the innovations of Louis Armstrong.


07/01/1904

Joseph Whitty, Irish Republican died while on hunger strike at Curragh Internment camp (died 1923)

Michael Joseph Whitty was an Irish militant and Republican activist who was the youngest of the 22 Irish republicans who died while on hunger strike in the 20th century. Whitty was one of four Irish Republicans to die during the 1923 Irish hunger strikes. Decades after his death another Volunteer also died on 2 August during the 1981 Irish hunger strike. Volunteer Whitty fought with the IRA in the Irish War of Independence, on the Anti-Treaty side in the Irish Civil War and died while under internment by the Irish Free State government.


07/01/1903

Alan Napier, English actor (died 1988)

Alan William Napier-Clavering, better known as Alan Napier, was an English actor. After a decade in West End theatre, he had a long film career in Britain and later on in Hollywood. Napier is best remembered for portraying Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce Wayne's butler in the 1960s live-action Batman television series.


Hooley Smith, Canadian ice hockey player (died 1963)

Reginald Joseph "Hooley" Smith was a Canadian professional ice hockey forward who played for the Ottawa Senators, Montreal Maroons, Boston Bruins and New York Americans between 1924 and 1941. He won the Stanley Cup twice, with Ottawa and Montreal. Prior to turning professional he played at the 1924 Winter Olympics, winning a gold medal with the Canada national team.


07/01/1900

John Brownlee, Australian actor and singer (died 1969)

John Donald Mackenzie Brownlee was an Australian operatic baritone. For most of his professional career he was based in Europe and then the United States.


07/01/1899

Francis Poulenc, French pianist and composer (died 1963)

Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc was a French composer and pianist. His compositions include songs, solo piano works, chamber music, choral pieces, operas, ballets, and orchestral concert music. Among the best-known are the piano suite Mouvements perpétuels (1919), the ballet Les Biches (1923), the Concert champêtre (1928) for harpsichord and orchestra, the Organ Concerto (1938), the opera Dialogues des Carmélites (1957), and the Gloria (1959) for soprano, choir, and orchestra.


F. Orlin Tremaine, American magazine executive, writer, and magazine editor (Astounding Stories) (died 1956)

Frederick Orlin Tremaine was an American science fiction magazine editor, most notably of the influential Astounding Stories. He edited a number of other magazines, headed several publishing companies, and sporadically wrote fiction.


07/01/1898

Al Bowlly, Mozambican-English singer-songwriter (disputed; (died 1941)

Albert Allick Bowlly was a British vocalist, crooner, and dance band guitarist who was Britain's most popular singer for most of the 1930s. He recorded upwards of 1,000 songs that were listened to by millions in Britain and other English speaking countries, seeing further success in the United States.


07/01/1895

Hudson Fysh, Australian pilot and businessman, co-founded Qantas Airways Limited (died 1974)

Sir Wilmot Hudson Fysh was an Australian aviator and businessman. A founder of the Australian airline company Qantas, Fysh was born in Launceston, Tasmania. Serving in the Battle of Gallipoli and Palestine Campaign as a lieutenant of the Australian Light Horse Brigade, Fysh later became an observer and gunner to Paul McGinness in the AFC. He was awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross during the aftermath of the war for his services to aerial warfare.


07/01/1891

Zora Neale Hurston, American novelist, short story writer, and folklorist (died 1960)

Zora Neale Hurston was an American writer, anthropologist, folklorist, and documentary filmmaker. She portrayed racial struggles in the early-20th-century American South and published research on Hoodoo and Caribbean Vodou. The most popular of her four novels is Their Eyes Were Watching God, published in 1937. She also wrote more than 50 short stories, plays, an autobiography, ethnographies, and many essays. Some of her work, namely Tell My Horse (1937), explored ethnomusicological methods of study long before there were formal boundaries for the discipline, especially not boundaries that included the respectful study of communities of color. Hurston's unique background and exceptional approach to anthropology laid key foundations for the growth of ethnography, literature, and Africana Studies.


07/01/1890

Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, American soldier, pulp magazine writer, and pioneer of the American comic book (died 1965)

Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson was an American pulp magazine writer, entrepreneur and military officer who pioneered the American comic book, publishing the first such periodical consisting solely of original material rather than reprints of newspaper comic strips. Historian and author David Hajdu credits Wheeler-Nicholson as "the link between the pulps and what we know of as comics today." He launched the magazine comics company National Allied Publications in 1935, which would evolve to become DC Comics, one of the United States' two largest comic book publishers along with rival Marvel Comics.


07/01/1889

Vera de Bosset, Russian-American ballerina (died 1982)

Vera de Bosset Stravinsky was an American dancer and artist. She is better known as the second wife of composer Igor Stravinsky, whom she married in 1940 after having been in an adulterous affair with him since July 1921.


07/01/1877

William Clarence Matthews, American baseball player, coach, and lawyer (died 1928)

William Clarence Matthews was an early 20th-century African-American pioneer in athletics, politics and law. Born in Selma, Alabama, Matthews was enrolled at the Tuskegee Institute and, with the help of Booker T. Washington, enrolled at the Phillips Academy in 1900 and Harvard University in 1901. At Harvard, he became one of the standout baseball players, leading the team in batting average for the 1903, 1904, and 1905 seasons.


07/01/1876

William Hurlstone, English pianist and composer (died 1906)

William Yeates Hurlstone was an English composer. Showing brilliant musical talent from an early age, he died young, before his full potential could be realized. Nevertheless, he left behind an exquisite, albeit small, body of work. His teacher Sir Charles Villiers Stanford considered him the most talented of his pupils, above Ralph Vaughan Williams and Gustav Holst.


07/01/1875

Gustav Flatow, German gymnast (died 1945)

Gustav Felix Flatow was a German gymnast. He competed at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens and at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris. Flatow was Jewish, and was born in Berent, West Prussia. In 1892, he moved to Berlin.


07/01/1873

Charles Péguy, French poet and journalist (died 1914)

Charles Pierre Péguy was a French poet, essayist, and editor. His two main philosophies were socialism and nationalism; by 1908 at the latest, after years of uneasy agnosticism, he had become a believing Catholic. From that time, Catholicism strongly influenced his works. Péguy was killed in World War I at age 41 by German invading forces near Villeroy, Seine-et-Marne.


Adolph Zukor, Hungarian-American film producer, co-founded Paramount Pictures (died 1976)

Adolph Zukor was a Hungarian-American film producer best known as one of the three founders of Paramount Pictures. He produced one of America's first feature-length films, The Prisoner of Zenda, in 1913.


07/01/1871

Émile Borel, French mathematician and politician (died 1956)

Félix Édouard Justin Émile Borel was a French mathematician and politician. As a mathematician, he was known for his founding work in the areas of measure theory and probability.


07/01/1863

Anna Murray Vail, American botanist and first librarian of the New York Botanical Garden (died 1955)

Anna Murray Vail was an American botanist and the first librarian of the New York Botanical Garden. She was a student and collaborator of botanist and geologist Nathaniel Lord Britton, with whom she helped to found the New York Botanical Garden.


07/01/1858

Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, Belarusian lexicographer and journalist (died 1922)

Eliezer Ben‑Yehuda was a Russian–Jewish linguist, lexicographer, and journalist who immigrated to Jerusalem in 1881, when the Ottoman Empire ruled it. He is renowned as the lexicographer of the first Hebrew dictionary and also as the editor of Jerusalem-based HaZvi, one of the first Hebrew newspapers published in Mandatory Palestine. Ben-Yehuda was the primary driving force behind the revival of the Hebrew language.


07/01/1856

Evald Relander, Finnish teacher, agronomist and banker (died 1926)

Evald Kristian Relander was a Finnish teacher and banker who received the title of agricultural councillor (maanviljelysneuvos). His son was Lauri Kristian Relander, the second President of the Republic of Finland.


07/01/1844

Bernadette Soubirous, French nun and saint (died 1879)

Bernadette Soubirous, SCN, also known as Bernadette of Lourdes, was a miller's daughter from Lourdes, in the department of Hautes-Pyrénées in France, and is best known for experiencing apparitions of a "young lady" who asked for a chapel to be built at the nearby cave-grotto. These apparitions occurred between 11 February and 16 July 1858, and the young lady who appeared to her identified herself as the "Immaculate Conception".


07/01/1837

Thomas Henry Ismay, English businessman, founded the White Star Line Shipping Company (died 1899)

Thomas Henry Ismay was an owner of the White Star Line. His eldest son Joseph Bruce Ismay was managing director of the White Star Line and survived the sinking of its ocean liner RMS Titanic on her maiden voyage in 1912.


07/01/1834

Johann Philipp Reis, German physicist and academic, invented the Reis telephone (died 1874)

Johann Philipp Reis was a self-taught German scientist and inventor. In 1861, he constructed the first make-and-break telephone, today called the Reis telephone. It was the first device to transmit a voice via electronic signals, and is regarded by some as the first telephone. Reis also coined the term telephone.


07/01/1832

James Munro, Scottish-Australian publisher and politician, 15th Premier of Victoria (died 1908)

James Munro was a Scottish born Australian businessman and colonial politician, and the 15th Premier of Victoria. He is best known as one of the leading figures in the land boom of the 1880s and especially the subsequent crash of the early 1890s, where his Christian morals were seen to clash with his business activities.


07/01/1831

Heinrich von Stephan, German postman, founded the Universal Postal Union (died 1897)

Ernst Heinrich Wilhelm von Stephan was a general post director for the German Empire who reorganized the German postal service. He was integral in the founding of the Universal Postal Union in 1874, and in 1877 introduced the telephone to Germany.


07/01/1830

Albert Bierstadt, American painter (died 1902)

Albert Bierstadt was a German-American artist best known for his monumental landscapes that glorified the American West.


07/01/1827

Sandford Fleming, Scottish-Canadian engineer, created Universal Standard Time (died 1915)

Sir Sandford Fleming was a Scottish Canadian engineer and inventor. Born and raised in Scotland, he immigrated to colonial Canada at the age of 18. He promoted worldwide standard time zones, a prime meridian, and use of the 24-hour clock as key elements to communicating the accurate time, all of which influenced the creation of Coordinated Universal Time. He designed Canada's first postage stamp, produced a great deal of work in the fields of land surveying and map making, engineered much of the Intercolonial Railway and the first several hundred kilometers of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and was a founding member of the Royal Society of Canada and founder of the Canadian Institute.


07/01/1815

Elizabeth Louisa Foster Mather, American writer (died 1882)

Elizabeth Louisa Mather was an American writer from Connecticut. A relative of Miles Standish, she converted to Universalism after her marriage. She was a prolific writer for 40 years, contributing essays, stories, and poems to various periodicals. Her writing often addressed religious subjects, capital punishment, and woman's suffrage.


07/01/1814

Robert Nicoll, Scottish poet (died 1837)

Robert Nicoll was a Scottish poet and lyricist whose life, although short, left a lasting impact.


07/01/1800

Millard Fillmore, American politician, 13th President of the United States (died 1874)

Millard Fillmore was the 13th president of the United States, serving from 1850 to 1853. He was the last president to be a member of the Whig Party while in the White House, and the last to be neither a Democrat nor a Republican. A former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Fillmore was elected vice president in 1848, and succeeded to the presidency when Zachary Taylor died in 1850. Fillmore was instrumental in passing the Compromise of 1850, which led to a brief truce in the battle over the expansion of slavery.


07/01/1797

Mariano Paredes, Mexican general and 16th president (1845–1846) (died 1849)

José Mariano Epifanio Paredes y Arrillaga was a Mexican conservative general who served as president of Mexico between December 1845 and July 1846. He assumed office through a coup against the liberal administration led by José Joaquín de Herrera. He was the grandfather of 38th Mexican President Pedro Lascuráin Paredes.


07/01/1768

Joseph Bonaparte, Italian king (died 1844)

Joseph Bonaparte, regnal name José I, was a French statesman, lawyer, diplomat and older brother of Napoleon Bonaparte. In 1806, Napoleon made him King of Naples, and then King of Spain and the Indies in 1808. After the fall of Napoleon, Joseph styled himself Comte de Survilliers and emigrated to the United States, where he lived in the Point Breeze estate at Bordentown, New Jersey.


07/01/1746

George Elphinstone, 1st Viscount Keith, Scottish admiral and politician (died 1823)

Admiral George Keith Elphinstone, 1st Viscount Keith, was a Royal Navy officer and politician who served in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.


07/01/1718

Israel Putnam, American general (died 1790)

Israel Putnam, popularly known as "Old Put", was an American military officer and landowner who served in the French and Indian War and American Revolutionary War. He was an officer in Rogers' Rangers during the French and Indian War, during which Putnam was captured by Mohawk warriors. He was saved from the ritual burning given to enemies by the intervention of French captain named Molang, with whom the Mohawks were allied. Putnam's exploits became known far beyond his home of Connecticut's borders through the circulation of folk legends in the American colonies and states celebrating his exploits.


07/01/1713

Giovanni Battista Locatelli, Italian opera director and manager (died 1785)

Giovanni Battista Locatelli was an Italian opera director, impresario and owner of a private opera company.


07/01/1706

Johann Heinrich Zedler, German publisher (died 1751)

Johann Heinrich Zedler was a bookseller and publisher. His most important achievement was the creation of a German encyclopedia, the Grosses Universal-Lexicon , the largest and most comprehensive German-language encyclopedia developed in the 18th century.


07/01/1685

Jonas Alströmer, Swedish agronomist and businessman (died 1761)

Jonas Alströmer was a pioneer of agriculture and industry in Sweden.


07/01/1647

William Louis, Duke of Württemberg (died 1677)

William Louis was Duke of Württemberg from 1674 until his death in 1677.


07/01/1634

Adam Krieger, German organist and composer (died 1666)

Adam Krieger was a German composer. Born in Driesen, Neumark, he studied organ with Samuel Scheidt in Halle. He succeeded Johann Rosenmüller as organist at Leipzig's Nikolaikirche (1655–57) and founded the city's Collegium Musicum before settling for the rest of his career as court organist in Dresden.


07/01/1502

Pope Gregory XIII (died 1585)

Pope Gregory XIII was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 13 May 1572 to his death in April 1585. He is best known for commissioning and being the namesake for the Gregorian calendar, which remains the internationally accepted civil calendar to this day.


07/01/1414

Henry II, Count of Nassau-Siegen (died 1451)

Count Henry II of Nassau-Siegen, de:Heinrich II. Graf von Nassau-Siegen, official titles: Graf zu Nassau, Vianden und Diez, Herr zu Breda, was since 1442 Count of Nassau-Siegen, of Vianden and of half Diez. He descended from the Ottonian Line of the House of Nassau.


07/01/1355

Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, English politician, Lord High Constable of England (died 1397)

Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester was the fifth surviving son and youngest child of King Edward III of England and Philippa of Hainault. He led the rebellion of the Lords Appellant against his nephew, King Richard II, in 1388. In 1397, he was accused of treason and imprisoned; while awaiting trial, he was assassinated, presumably on Richard's orders.


07/01/0889

Li Bian, emperor of Southern Tang (died 943)

Li Bian, courtesy name Zhenglun, known as Xu Gao between 937 and 939 and Xu Zhigao before 937, and possibly Li Pengnu during his childhood, also known by his temple name as the Emperor Liezu of Southern Tang, was the founder and first emperor of the Chinese Southern Tang dynasty. In traditional histories, he is also often referred to as the First Lord of Southern Tang (南唐先主). He was an adopted son and successor of the Yang Wu regent Xu Wen who usurped power from the Yang Wu emperor Yang Pu.


Lives Remembered on 7th January

On 7th January, 92 remarkable people passed away — from 312 to 2026. Remember the lives and legacies of those we lost on this day.

07/01/2026

Glenn Hall, Canadian ice hockey goaltender (born 1931)

Glenn Henry Hall was a Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender. During his National Hockey League career, which lasted from 1952 to 1971 with the Detroit Red Wings, Chicago Black Hawks, and St. Louis Blues, Hall set a record with 502 consecutive games played as a goaltender. He won the Vezina Trophy three times, was voted the first team All-Star goaltender seven times, and was awarded the Calder Memorial Trophy as best rookie in 1956. He also won the Stanley Cup with the Black Hawks in 1961. Nicknamed "Mr. Goalie", he was the first goaltender to use the butterfly style. In 2017, Hall was named one of the 100 Greatest NHL Players in history.


07/01/2025

Jean-Marie Le Pen, French intelligence officer and politician (born 1928)

Jean Louis Marie "Jean-Marie" Le Pen was a French politician who founded the far-right National Front party. He served as the party's president from 1972 to 2011 and as its honorary president from 2011 to 2015.


Peter Yarrow, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (born 1938)

Peter Yarrow was an American singer and songwriter who found fame as a member of the 1960s folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary along with Paul Stookey and Mary Travers.


07/01/2024

Franz Beckenbauer, German footballer and manager (born 1945)

Franz Anton Beckenbauer was a German professional football player, manager, and official. Nicknamed der Kaiser, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential players of all time. Beckenbauer was a versatile player who started out as a midfielder, but made his name as a centre-back. He is often credited as having invented the role of the modern sweeper.


07/01/2021

Michael Apted, English filmmaker (born 1941)

Michael David Apted was an English television and film director and producer.


Tommy Lasorda, American baseball player, coach, and manager (born 1927)

Thomas Charles Lasorda was an American professional baseball pitcher and manager. He managed the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1976 through 1996. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame as a manager in 1997.


Henri Schwery, Swiss cardinal (born 1932)

Henri Schwery was a Swiss prelate of the Catholic Church who was Bishop of Sion from 1977 to 1995. He was raised to the rank of cardinal in 1991.


07/01/2020

Neil Peart, Canadian drummer, songwriter, and producer (born 1952)

Neil Ellwood Peart was a Canadian musician and author, who was the drummer, percussionist, and primary lyricist of the progressive rock band Rush. He was nicknamed "the Professor", after his resemblance to the Gilligan's Island character of the same name. His drumming was renowned for its technical proficiency and his live performances for their exacting nature and stamina. Peart earned numerous awards for his musical performances, including an induction into the Modern Drummer Readers Poll Hall of Fame in 1983 at the age of 30, making him the youngest person ever so honoured.


Silvio Horta, American screenwriter and television producer (born 1974)

Silvio Horta was an American screenwriter and television producer widely noted for adapting the hit Colombian telenovela Yo soy Betty, la fea into the ABC series Ugly Betty. Horta served as head writer and executive producer on the series.


Elizabeth Wurtzel, author and feminist (born 1967)

Elizabeth Lee Wurtzel was an American writer, journalist, and lawyer known for the confessional memoir Prozac Nation, which she published at the age of 27. Her work often focused on chronicling her personal struggles with depression, addiction, career, and relationships. Wurtzel's work drove a boom in confessional writing and the personal memoir genre during the 1990s, and she was viewed as a voice of Generation X. In her later life, Wurtzel worked briefly as an attorney before her death from breast cancer.


07/01/2018

Jim Anderton, Former New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister (born 1938)

James Patrick Anderton was a New Zealand politician who led a succession of left-wing parties after leaving the Labour Party in 1989.


France Gall, French singer (born 1947)

Isabelle Geneviève Marie Anne Gall, known professionally as France Gall, was a French yé-yé and pop singer. In 1965, at the age of 17, she won the tenth edition of the Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Poupée de cire, poupée de son", representing Luxembourg. Later in her career, she worked with singer-songwriter Michel Berger, whom she married in 1976. Her most successful singles include "Il jouait du piano debout", "Ella, elle l'a" and "Évidemment". Gall is regarded as one of the most beloved and acclaimed French pop singers. Her influence on French popular music, particularly through her collaborations with Michel Berger, helped shape the sound of French pop from the 1970s onward and secured her status as a cultural icon.


07/01/2017

Mário Soares, Portuguese politician; 16th President of Portugal (born 1924)

Mário Alberto Nobre Lopes Soares was a Portuguese statesman who served as prime minister of Portugal from 1976 to 1978 and from 1983 to 1985 and subsequently as the president of Portugal from 1986 to 1996. He was the first secretary-general of the Socialist Party, from its foundation in 1973 to 1986. A major political figure in Portugal, he is considered the father of Portuguese democracy.


07/01/2016

Bill Foster, American basketball player and coach (born 1929)

William Edwin Foster was the head men's basketball coach at Rutgers University, University of Utah, Duke University, University of South Carolina, and Northwestern University. He is best known for guiding Duke to the NCAA championship game in 1978, and that year he was named national Coach of the Year by the National Association of Basketball Coaches. Foster was inducted into the Rutgers Basketball Hall of Fame and was the first NCAA coach to guide four teams to 20-win seasons. Foster was a graduate of Elizabethtown College.


John Johnson, American basketball player (born 1947)

John Howard Getty "J. J." Johnson was an American professional basketball player. He played college basketball for the Iowa Hawkeyes.


Kitty Kallen, American singer (born 1921)

Katie "Kitty" Kallen was an American singer whose career spanned from the 1930s to the 1960s, including the Swing era of the Big Band years, the post-World War II pop scene, and the early years of rock 'n roll. Kallen performed with popular big band leaders of the 1940s, including Jimmy Dorsey and Harry James, before establishing a solo career.


Judith Kaye, American lawyer and jurist (born 1938)

Judith Ann Kaye was an American lawyer, jurist and the longtime Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals, serving in that position from 1993 to 2008.


Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, Indian lawyer and politician, Indian Minister of Home Affairs (born 1936)

Mufti Mohammad Sayeed was an Indian politician who served as the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir twice from November 2002 to November 2005 and from March 2015 until his death on January 7, 2016. He held various positions, including minister of Tourism in Rajiv Gandhi's cabinet and minister of Home Affairs in V. P. Singh's cabinet. Sayeed began his political career in the wing of the National Conference led by G. M. Sadiq, which later merged with the Indian National Congress. In 1987, he transitioned to the Janata Dal and subsequently founded the People's Democratic Party (PDP), a regional political party that remains influential in Jammu and Kashmir, currently led by his daughter, Mehbooba Mufti.


07/01/2015

Mompati Merafhe, Botswana general and politician, Vice-President of Botswana (born 1936)

Mompati Sebogodi Merafhe was a Motswana politician who was Vice-President of Botswana from 2008 to 2012. He was a retired Lieutenant-General and served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1994 to 2008.


Rod Taylor, Australian-American actor and screenwriter (born 1930)

Rodney Sturt Taylor was an Australian actor. He appeared in more than 50 feature films, including Young Cassidy (1965), Nobody Runs Forever (1968), The Train Robbers (1973), and A Matter of Wife... and Death (1975).


Georges Wolinski, Tunisian-French cartoonist (born 1934)

Georges David Wolinski was a French cartoonist and comics writer. He was killed on 7 January 2015 in the Charlie Hebdo shooting.


07/01/2014

Run Run Shaw, Chinese-Hong Kong businessman and philanthropist, founded Shaw Brothers Studio and TVB (born 1907)

Sir Run Run Shaw, also known as Shao Yifu and Siu Yat-fu, was a Hong Kong businessman, filmmaker, and philanthropist. He was one of the foremost influential movie moguls in the East Asian and Hong Kong entertainment industry. He founded the Shaw Brothers Studio, one of the largest film production companies in Hong Kong, and TVB, the dominant television company in Hong Kong.


07/01/2012

Tony Blankley, British-born American child actor, journalist and pundit (born 1948)

Anthony David Blankley was an American political analyst who served as press secretary for Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and as a regular panelist on The McLaughlin Group. He later became an executive vice president at Edelman, a Washington, D.C.–based public relations firm.


07/01/2008

Alwyn Schlebusch, South African academic and politician, Vice State President of South Africa (born 1917)

Alwyn Louis Schlebusch was a South African politician, the only holder of the title Vice State President of South Africa from 1 January 1981 to 14 September 1984. He was an Afrikaner with a surname of German origin. He was born in Lady Grey, Eastern Cape. He was the son of Charel Johannes Schlebusch and Elizabeth Cornelia Myburgh and eldest brother of Charel Johannes Schlebusch, Elsie Cornelia Schlebusch and Anna Christina Schlebusch.


07/01/2007

Bobby Hamilton, American race car driver and businessman (born 1957)

Charles Robert Hamilton Sr. was an American stock car racing driver and racing team owner. A driver and owner in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series circuit and the winner of the 2004 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship, Hamilton owned Bobby Hamilton Racing. Hamilton's son, Bobby Hamilton Jr., was also a NASCAR driver.


Magnus Magnusson, Icelandic journalist, author, and academic (born 1929)

Magnus Magnusson was an Icelandic-born Scottish journalist, translator, writer and television presenter. Born in Reykjavík, he lived in Scotland for almost all his life, although he never took British citizenship. He came to prominence as a BBC television journalist and was the presenter of the BBC television quiz programme Mastermind for 25 years.


07/01/2006

Heinrich Harrer, Austrian mountaineer, geographer, and author (born 1912)

Heinrich Harrer was an Austrian mountaineer, explorer, writer, sportsman, geographer, and an SS sergeant. He was a member of the four-man climbing team that made the first ascent of the North Face of the Eiger, the "last problem" of the Alps, in July 1938. Harrer and the team flew the Nazi flag atop the mountain. Harrer had joined the Nazi Party shortly after the annexation of Austria in March 1938, and was personally received by Hitler after the climb. A year later in 1939, he and the climbing team went on an expedition to the Indian Himalayas, where they were arrested by British colonial authorities due to the outbreak of World War II. He eventually escaped to Tibet, staying there until 1951. He is the author of two autobiographical books, Seven Years in Tibet (1952) and The White Spider (1959).


07/01/2005

Pierre Daninos, French author (born 1913)

Pierre Daninos was a French writer and humorist.


07/01/2004

Ingrid Thulin, Swedish actress (born 1926)

Ingrid Lilian Thulin was a Swedish actress and director who collaborated with filmmaker Ingmar Bergman. She was often cast as harrowing and desperate characters, and earned acclaim from both Swedish and international critics. She won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress for her performance in Brink of Life (1958) and the inaugural Guldbagge Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for The Silence (1963), and was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress BAFTA for Cries and Whispers (1972).


07/01/2002

Avery Schreiber, American comedian and actor (born 1935)

Avery Lawrence Schreiber was an American actor and comedian. He was a veteran of stage, television, and movies who came to prominence in the 1960s in a comedy duo with Jack Burns. He acted in an array of roles mostly on television sitcoms and a series of popular advertisements for Doritos tortilla chips.


07/01/2001

James Carr, American singer (born 1942)

James Edward Carr was an American R&B and soul singer, described as "one of the greatest pure vocalists that deep Southern soul ever produced".


07/01/2000

Gary Albright, American wrestler (born 1963)

Gary Mitchell Albright was an American professional wrestler best known for his work in Japan, first with UWF International (UWFi), and later All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW). In AJPW, Albright was a two-time World Tag Team Champion. Albright was also known for his work with Stampede Wrestling in Canada, under his birth name as well as the ring name Vokhan Singh.


07/01/1998

Owen Bradley, American record producer (born 1915)

William Owen Bradley was an American musician, bandleader and record producer who, along with Chet Atkins, Bob Ferguson, Bill Porter, and Don Law, was a chief architect of the 1950s and 60s Nashville sound in country music and rockabilly.


Vladimir Prelog, Croatian-Swiss chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1906)

Vladimir Prelog was a Croatian-Swiss organic chemist who received the 1975 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his research into the stereochemistry of organic molecules and reactions. Prelog was born, and spent his infancy, in Sarajevo, and youth in Zagreb, Osijek and Prague. He later lived and worked in Prague, Zagreb and Zürich.


07/01/1996

Károly Grósz, Hungarian politician, 51st Prime Minister of Hungary (born 1930)

Károly Grósz was a Hungarian communist politician, who served as the General Secretary of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party from 1988 to 1989.


07/01/1995

Murray Rothbard, American economist, historian, and theorist (born 1926)

Murray Newton Rothbard was an American economist of the Austrian School, economic historian, political theorist, and activist. Rothbard was a central figure in the 20th-century American libertarian movement, particularly its right-wing strands, and was a founder and leading theoretician of anarcho-capitalism. He wrote over twenty books on political theory, history, economics, and other subjects.


07/01/1992

Richard Hunt, American puppeteer and voice actor (born 1951)

Richard Hunt was an American actor and puppeteer, best known as a Muppet performer on Sesame Street, The Muppet Show, Fraggle Rock, and other projects for The Jim Henson Company. His roles on The Muppet Show included Scooter, Statler, Janice, Beaker, and Sweetums and characters on Sesame Street included Gladys the Cow, Don Music, Forgetful Jones and the right head of the Two-Headed Monster.


07/01/1990

Bronko Nagurski, Canadian-American football player and wrestler (born 1908)

Bronislau "Bronko" Nagurski was a Canadian-American professional football player who was a fullback and defensive tackle in the National Football League (NFL). Renowned for his strength and size, Nagurski was considered to be the most dangerous fullback of his era, and was also a successful professional wrestler, recognized as a multiple-time World Heavyweight Champion.


07/01/1989

Hirohito, Japanese emperor (born 1901)

Emperor Shōwa was Emperor of Japan from 25 December 1926 until his death in 1989. He reigned during a period of increasing Japanese nationalism and militarism, culminating in the entry of the Empire of Japan into World War II as an Axis power. The atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki led Hirohito to announce the surrender of Japan to the Allies in August 1945. Under pressure from the Allies, he issued the Humanity Declaration in January 1946, rejecting the divinity of the emperor as a descendant of Amaterasu. The Constitution of Japan, adopted on November 1946, emphasizes pacifism and constitutional monarchy, in contrast to imperialism and absolute monarchy. After the war, he reigned over a period of unprecedented economic growth known as the Japanese economic miracle. Hirohito reigned for 62 years and 13 days, the longest reign in Japanese history and the 12th-longest verifiable reign in world history.


07/01/1988

Zara Cisco Brough, American Nipmuc Indian chief and fashion designer (born 1919)

Zara Cisco Brough, also called Princess White Flower, served as the Chief of the Nipmuc Nation, a state-recognized tribe in Massachusetts, from 1962 until 1987. She is best known for her work to preserve Nipmuc heritage.


Trevor Howard, English actor (born 1913)

Trevor Wallace Howard-Smith was an English stage and screen actor. After varied work in the theatre, he achieved leading man star status in the film Brief Encounter (1945), followed by The Third Man (1949), portraying what BFI Screenonline called "a new kind of male lead in British films: steady, middle-class, reassuring…. but also capable of suggesting neurosis under the tweedy demeanour."


07/01/1986

Juan Rulfo, Mexican author, screenwriter, and photographer (born 1917)

Juan Nepomuceno Carlos Pérez Rulfo Vizcaíno, best known as Juan Rulfo, was a Mexican writer, screenwriter, and photographer. He is best known for two literary works, the 1955 novel Pedro Páramo, and the collection of short stories El Llano en llamas. In spite of Rulfo's slim literary production, he is considered one of the greatest Mexican and Latin American writers of the twentieth century who has influenced many subsequent writers including the Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez.


07/01/1984

Alfred Kastler, German-French physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1902)

Alfred Kastler was a German-born French physicist and Nobel laureate in Physics. He is known for the development of optical pumping.


07/01/1981

Alvar Lidell, English journalist and radio announcer (born 1908)

Tord Alvar Quan Lidell was an English radio announcer and newsreader for the BBC and compere. He joined BBC Birmingham as chief announcer in 1932 before moving to London the following year. Lidell was made deputy chief announcer of the BBC in 1937 and announced important events such as Edward VIII's abdication and Britain's declaration of war with Germany in 1939.


Eric Robinson, Australian businessman and politician, 2nd Australian Minister for Finance (born 1926)

Eric Laidlaw Robinson was an Australian politician. He was a member of the Liberal Party and held ministerial office in the Fraser government, serving as Minister for the Capital Territory (1975–1976), Post and Telecommunications (1976–1977), and Finance. He represented the Queensland seat of McPherson in the House of Representatives from 1972 until his death in 1981.


07/01/1972

John Berryman, American poet and scholar (born 1914)

John Allyn McAlpin Berryman was an American poet and scholar. He was a major figure in American poetry in the second half of the 20th century and is considered a key figure in the "confessional" school of poetry. His 77 Dream Songs (1964) won the 1965 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.


07/01/1968

J. L. B. Smith, South African chemist and academic (born 1897)

James Leonard Brierley Smith was a South African ichthyologist, organic chemist, and university professor. He was the first to identify a taxidermied fish as a coelacanth, at the time thought to be long extinct.


07/01/1967

David Goodis, American author and screenwriter (born 1917)

David Loeb Goodis was an American writer of crime fiction noted for his output of short stories and novels in the noir fiction genre. Born in Philadelphia, Goodis alternately resided there and in New York City and Hollywood during his professional years. According to critic Dennis Drabelle, "Despite his [university] education, a combination of ethnicity (Jewish) and temperament allowed him to empathize with outsiders: the working poor, the unjustly accused, fugitives, criminals."


Carl Schuricht, German-Swiss conductor (born 1880)

Carl Adolph Schuricht was a German conductor.


07/01/1964

Reg Parnell, English racing driver and manager (born 1911)

Reginald Parnell was a racing driver and team manager from Derby, England. He participated in seven Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, achieving one podium, and scoring a total of nine championship points.


07/01/1963

Arthur Edward Moore, New Zealand-Australian farmer and politician, 23rd Premier of Queensland (born 1876)

Arthur Edward Moore was an Australian politician. He was the Country and Progressive National Party Premier of Queensland, from 1929 to 1932. He was the only Queensland Premier not to come from the ranks of the Labor Party between 1915 and 1957. Although successful in achieving the unity of the conservative forces in Queensland for an extended period, Moore's abilities were tested by the onset of the Great Depression and like many other governments in Australia and elsewhere his was unable to endure the formidable challenges it posed.


07/01/1960

Dorothea Douglass Lambert Chambers, English tennis player and coach (born 1878)

Dorothea Lambert Chambers was a British tennis player. She won seven Wimbledon women's singles titles and a gold medal at the 1908 Summer Olympics.


07/01/1951

René Guénon, French-Egyptian philosopher and author (born 1886)

Chacornac, Paul (2000). La vie simple de René Guénon. Les Éditions Traditionnelles. p. 47.


07/01/1943

Nikola Tesla, Serbian-American inventor and engineer (born 1856)

Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American engineer, futurist, and inventor. He is known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current (AC) electricity supply system.


07/01/1941

Charles Finger, English journalist and author (born 1869)

Charles Joseph Finger was a British born American writer. He also directed an orchestra and taught piano.


07/01/1936

Guy d'Hardelot, French pianist and composer (born 1858)

Guy d'Hardelot was the pen name of Helen Rhodes, a French composer, pianist and teacher.


07/01/1932

André Maginot, French sergeant and politician (born 1877)

André Maginot was a French civil servant, soldier and Member of Parliament. He is best known for his advocacy of the string of forts known as the Maginot Line.


07/01/1931

Edward Channing, American historian and author (born 1856)

Edward Perkins Channing was an American historian and an author of a monumental History of the United States in six volumes, for which he won the 1926 Pulitzer Prize for History. His thorough research in printed sources and judicious judgments made the book a standard reference for scholars for decades. Channing taught at Harvard 1883–1929 and trained many PhD's who became professors at major universities.


07/01/1927

Nikolaos Kalogeropoulos, Greek politician, 99th Prime Minister of Greece (born 1851)

Nikolaos Kalogeropoulos was a Greek politician and briefly Prime Minister of Greece.


07/01/1920

Edmund Barton, Australian judge and politician, 1st Prime Minister of Australia (born 1849)

Sir Edmund "Toby" Barton was an Australian politician, barrister and jurist who served as the first prime minister of Australia from 1901 to 1903. He held office as the leader of the Protectionist Party, before resigning in 1903 to become a founding justice of the High Court of Australia, on which he served until his death in 1920. Barton is regarded as a founding father of Australia, a principal leader in the federation of the Australian colonies and a drafter of the Commonwealth Constitution.


07/01/1919

Henry Ware Eliot, American businessman and philanthropist, co-founded Washington University in St. Louis (born 1843)

Henry Ware Eliot was an American industrialist and philanthropist who lived in St. Louis, Missouri. He was the father of poet T. S. Eliot.


07/01/1912

Sophia Jex-Blake, English physician and feminist (born 1840)

Sophia Louisa Jex-Blake was an English physician, teacher, and feminist. She led the campaign to secure women access to a university education, when she began studying medicine at the University of Edinburgh in 1869. She was the first practising female doctor in Scotland, and one of the first in the wider United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland; a leading campaigner for medical education for women, she was involved in founding two medical schools for women, in London and Edinburgh, at a time when no other medical schools were training women.


07/01/1893

Josef Stefan, Slovenian physicist and mathematician (born 1835)

Josef Stefan was a Carinthian Slovene physicist, mathematician, and poet of the Austrian Empire.


07/01/1892

Tewfik Pasha, Egyptian ruler (born 1852)

Mohamed Tewfik Pasha, also known as Tawfiq of Egypt, was khedive of Egypt and the Sudan between 1879 and 1892 and the sixth ruler from the Muhammad Ali Dynasty. He inherited a state suffering under the financial and political mismanagement of his predecessor Isma'il. Disaffection in the Egyptian army as well as Anglo-French control of the state in the 1880s culminated in the anti-foreign Urabi revolt. Tewfik also took interest in matters concerning irrigation, education and justice; as well as selling his father's female slaves and closing the court's harem quarters.


07/01/1888

Golam Ali Chowdhury, Bengali landlord and philanthropist (born 1824)

Mia Golam Ali Chowdhury Sahib, also known as Chowdhuri Golam Ali, was a 19th-century Bengali Muslim zamindar and philanthropist from Faridpur in eastern Bengal.


07/01/1864

Caleb Blood Smith, American journalist and politician, 6th U.S. Secretary of the Interior (born 1808)

Caleb Blood Smith was a United States representative from Indiana, the 6th U.S. secretary of the interior and a district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Indiana.


07/01/1858

Mustafa Reşid Pasha, Ottoman politician, Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire (born 1800)

Mustafa Reşid Pasha was an Ottoman Turkish statesman and diplomat, known best as the chief architect behind the imperial Ottoman government reforms known as Tanzimat.


07/01/1830

John Thomas Campbell, Irish-Australian public servant and politician (born 1770)

John Thomas Campbell (1770–1830) was a public servant and politician in the New South Wales Legislative Council during the early Australian colonial period.


Thomas Lawrence, English painter and educator (born 1769)

Sir Thomas Lawrence was an English painter who served as the fourth president of the Royal Academy. A child prodigy, he was born in Bristol and began drawing in Devizes, where his father was an innkeeper at the Bear Hotel in the Market Square. At age ten, having moved to Bath, he was supporting his family with his pastel portraits.


07/01/1812

Joseph Dennie, American journalist and author (born 1768)

Joseph Dennie was an American author and journalist who was one of the foremost men of letters of the Federalist Era. A Federalist, Dennie is best remembered for his series of essays entitled The Lay Preacher and as the founding editor of The Port Folio, a journal espousing classical republican values. Port Folio was the most highly regarded and successful literary publication of its time, and the first important political and literary journal in the United States. Timothy Dwight IV once referred to Dennie as "the Addison of America" and "the father of American Belles-Lettres."


07/01/1770

Carl Gustaf Tessin, Swedish politician and diplomat (born 1695)

Count Carl Gustaf Tessin was a Swedish count and politician and son of architect Nicodemus Tessin the Younger and Hedvig Eleonora Stenbock. He was one of the most brilliant personages of his day, and the most prominent representative of French culture in Sweden. He was also often considered a fine orator.


07/01/1767

Thomas Clap, American minister and academic (born 1703)

Thomas Clap or Thomas Clapp was an American academic and educator, a Congregational minister, and college administrator. He was both the fifth rector and the earliest official to be called "president" of Yale College (1740–1766). He is best known for his successful reform of Yale in the 1740s, partnering with the Rev. Dr. Samuel Johnson to restructure the forty-year-old institution along more modern lines. He convinced the Connecticut Assembly to exempt Yale from paying taxes. He opened a second college house and doubled the size of the college.


07/01/1758

Allan Ramsay, Scottish poet and playwright (born 1686)

Allan Ramsay was a Scottish poet, playwright, publisher, librarian and impresario of early Enlightenment Edinburgh. Ramsay's influence extended to England, foreshadowing the reaction that followed the publication of Percy's Reliques. He was on close terms with the leading men of letters in Scotland and England. He corresponded with William Hamilton of Bangour, William Somervile, John Gay and Alexander Pope.


07/01/1715

François Fénelon, French archbishop, theologian, and poet (born 1651)

François de Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon, P.S.S., more commonly known as François Fénelon, was a French Catholic archbishop, theologian, poet and writer. Today, he is remembered mostly as the author of The Adventures of Telemachus, first published in 1699. He was a member of the Sulpician Fathers.


07/01/1700

Raffaello Fabretti, Italian scholar and author (born 1618)

Raphael Fabretti was an Italian antiquarian.


07/01/1694

Charles Gerard, 1st Earl of Macclesfield, English general and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Gloucestershire (born 1618)

Charles Gerard, 1st Earl of Macclesfield, PC was an English aristocrat, soldier and courtier. He fought as a Royalist during the English Civil War, before spending a period in exile under the Commonwealth. After returning to England upon the Stuart Restoration in 1660, he was made Earl of Macclesfield by Charles II in 1679. He later fell out of royal favour and was declared an outlaw, but after a second period on the continent, he returned to England in 1688 in the retinue of William of Orange. He received several offices under the crown, including serving as the last Lord President of Wales in 1689.


07/01/1658

Theophilus Eaton, American farmer and politician, 1st Governor of the New Haven Colony (born 1590)

Theophilus Eaton was a New England colonist, politician, merchant and financier, who took part in organizing and financing the Great Puritan Migration to America. He was a founder of Massachusetts Bay Colony, and a founder and eventual governor of New Haven Colony. He also cofounded Boston, Massachusetts, Greenwich, Connecticut and Eaton's Neck in New York.


07/01/1655

Pope Innocent X (born 1574)

Pope Innocent X, born Giovanni Battista Pamphili), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 15 September 1644 to his death, in January 1655.


07/01/1625

Ruggiero Giovannelli, Italian composer and author (born 1560)

Ruggiero Giovannelli was an Italian composer of the late Renaissance and early Baroque eras. He was a member of the Roman School, and succeeded Palestrina at St. Peter's.


07/01/1619

Nicholas Hilliard, English painter and goldsmith (born 1547)

Nicholas Hilliard was an English goldsmith and limner best known for his portrait miniatures of members of the courts of Elizabeth I and James I of England. He mostly painted small oval miniatures, but also some larger cabinet miniatures, up to about 10 inches tall, and at least two famous half-length panel portraits of Elizabeth. He enjoyed continuing success as an artist, and continuing financial troubles, for forty-five years. His paintings still exemplify the visual image of Elizabethan England, very different from that of most of Europe in the late sixteenth century. Technically he was very conservative by European standards, but his paintings are superbly executed and have a freshness and charm that has ensured his continuing reputation as "the central artistic figure of the Elizabethan age, the only English painter whose work reflects, in its delicate microcosm, the world of Shakespeare's earlier plays."


07/01/1566

Louis de Blois, Flemish monk and author (born 1506)

Louis de Blois, also known by the Latinized name Ludovicus Blosius, was a Flemish Benedictine abbot, mystical theologian, and spiritual writer associated with the transmission of late medieval Christian mysticism into the spirituality of the Catholic Reformation. As abbot of Liessies Abbey, he became an influential figure in monastic reform in the Habsburg Netherlands and one of the most widely read devotional authors of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. His writings synthesized elements from the Rheno-Flemish mystical tradition, especially Johannes Tauler, Jan van Ruusbroec, Henry Suso, and Hendrik Herp, while remaining rooted in Benedictine asceticism, sacramental devotion, and obedience.


07/01/1536

Catherine of Aragon, Queen Consort of England (born 1485)

Catherine of Aragon was Queen of England as the first wife of Henry VIII from their marriage on 11 June 1509 until its annulment on 23 May 1533. She had previously been Princess of Wales as the wife of Henry's elder brother Arthur, Prince of Wales for a short time before his death.


07/01/1529

Peter Vischer the Elder, German sculptor (born 1455)

Peter Vischer the Elder was a German sculptor, the son of Hermann Vischer, and the most notable member of the Vischer Family of Nuremberg.


07/01/1451

Amadeus VIII, Duke of Savoy a.k.a. Antipope Felix V (born 1383)

Amadeus VIII, nicknamed the Peaceful, was Count of Savoy from 1391 to 1416 and Duke of Savoy from 1416 to 1440. He was the first to hold the ducal title, granted by Emperor Sigismund. Known for his diplomatic temperament and administrative reforms, he strengthened the state's institutions and fostered internal peace.


07/01/1400

John Montagu, 3rd Earl of Salisbury, English Earl (born 1350)

John Montagu, 3rd Earl of Salisbury and 5th and 2nd Baron Montagu, KG was an English nobleman, one of the few who remained loyal to Richard II after Henry IV became king.


07/01/1355

Inês de Castro, Castilian noblewoman (born 1325)

Inês de Castro was a Galician noblewoman and courtier, best known as the lover and posthumously recognized wife of King Pedro I of Portugal. The dramatic circumstances of her relationship with Pedro, which was forbidden by his father Afonso IV of Portugal, her murder at the orders of Afonso, Pedro's bloody revenge on her killers, and the legend of the coronation of her exhumed corpse by Pedro, have made Inês de Castro a frequent subject of art, music, drama and poetry through the ages.


07/01/1325

Denis of Portugal (born 1261)

Denis, called the Farmer King and the Poet King, was King of Portugal from 1279 until his death in 1325.


07/01/1285

Charles I of Naples (born 1226)

Charles I, commonly called Charles of Anjou or Charles d'Anjou, was King of Sicily from 1266 to 1285. He was a member of the Capetian dynasty and the founder of the House of Anjou-Sicily. Between 1246 and 1285, he was Count of Provence and Forcalquier in the Holy Roman Empire and Count of Anjou and Maine in France. In 1272, he was proclaimed King of Albania; in 1277, he purchased a claim to the Kingdom of Jerusalem; and in 1278, he became Prince of Achaea after the previous ruler, William of Villehardouin, died without heirs.


07/01/1131

Canute Lavard, Danish prince and saint (born 1096)

Saint Knud, also known as Canute Lavard was a Danish prince. Later he was the first Duke of Schleswig and the first border prince who was both a Danish and a German vassal, a position leading towards the historical double position of Southern Jutland. He was killed by his cousin Magnus the Strong, who saw him as a rival to the Danish throne. Canute Lavard was canonized in 1170.


07/01/0856

Aldric, bishop of Le Mans

Saint Aldric was Bishop of Le Mans in the time of Louis the Pious.


07/01/0838

Babak Khorramdin, Iranian leader of the Khurramite uprising against the Abbasid Caliphate

Bābak Khorramdin was one of the main Iranian revolutionary leaders of the Iranian Khorram-Dinān, which was a local freedom movement fighting the Abbasid Caliphate. Khorramdin appears to be a compound analogous to durustdin "orthodoxy" and Behdin "Good Religion" (Zoroastrianism), and are considered an offshoot of neo-Mazdakism. Babak's Iranianizing rebellion, from its base in Azerbaijan in northwestern Iran, called for a return of the political glories of the Iranian past. The Khorramdin rebellion of Babak spread to the western and central parts of Iran and lasted more than twenty years before it was defeated when Babak was betrayed. Babak's uprising showed the continuing strength of ancestral Iranian local feelings in the region.


07/01/0312

Lucian of Antioch, Christian martyr, saint, and theologian (born 240)

Lucian of Antioch, known as Lucian the Martyr, was a Christian presbyter, theologian, and martyr. He was noted for both his scholarship and ascetic piety.


Celebrations & Special Days Worldwide on 7th January

Christian Feast Day: André Bessette (Canada)

André Bessette, C.S.C., commonly known as Brother André and since his canonization as Saint André of Montreal, was a lay brother of the Congregation of Holy Cross and a significant figure of the Catholic Church among French Canadians. He is credited with thousands of reported healings associated with his pious devotion to Saint Joseph.


Christian Feast Day: Blessed Marie Thérèse Haze

Jeanne Haze, also known by her religious name Marie-Thérèse of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, was a Belgian Roman Catholic professed religious and the foundress of the Daughters of the Cross. Haze decided to respond to the lack of education in her homeland in the chaos resulting from the French Revolution and made that the focus of her religious apostolate; she served as her order's Superior General from its founding until her death.


Christian Feast Day: Canute Lavard

Saint Knud, also known as Canute Lavard was a Danish prince. Later he was the first Duke of Schleswig and the first border prince who was both a Danish and a German vassal, a position leading towards the historical double position of Southern Jutland. He was killed by his cousin Magnus the Strong, who saw him as a rival to the Danish throne. Canute Lavard was canonized in 1170.


Christian Feast Day: Felix and Januarius

Felix and Januarius were two Christian martyrs and twin brothers. Their acts and the year of their martyrdom has not survived, but it is placed in Heraclea. Their feast day was observed jointly on January 7.


Christian Feast Day: Lucian of Antioch

Lucian of Antioch, known as Lucian the Martyr, was a Christian presbyter, theologian, and martyr. He was noted for both his scholarship and ascetic piety.


Christian Feast Day: Raymond of Penyafort

Raymond of Penyafort was a Catalan friar with the Dominicans who was a canon lawyer. He compiled the Decretals of Gregory IX, a collection of canonical laws that remained a major part of Church law until the 1917 Code of Canon Law abrogated it. He was canonized by Pope Clement VIII in 1601 and is the patron saint of canon lawyers.


Christian Feast Day: Synaxis of John the Forerunner & Baptist (Julian calendar)

A synaxis is a liturgical assembly in Eastern Christianity.


Christian Feast Day: January 7 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

January 6 - Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar - January 8


Christmas (Eastern Orthodox Churches and Oriental Orthodox Churches using the Julian calendar, Rastafari) Christmas in Russia

Christmas in Russia, called Е́же по пло́ти Рождество Господа Бога и Спа́са нашего Иисуса Христа in the Russian Orthodox Church, is a holiday commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ. It is celebrated on 25 December on the Julian calendar, which corresponds to 7 January on the Gregorian calendar. It is considered a high holiday by the church, one of the 12 Great Feasts, and one of only four of which are preceded by a period of fasting. Traditional Russian Christmas festivities start on Christmas Eve, which is celebrated on 6 January [O.S. 24 December].


Christmas (Eastern Orthodox Churches and Oriental Orthodox Churches using the Julian calendar, Rastafari) Christmas in Ukraine

In Ukraine, Christmas celebrations traditionally start on Christmas Eve, and last until 6 January, the date of the celebration of the baptism of Jesus, known in Ukraine as Vodokhreshche or Yordan, according to the Gregorian calendar and Revised Julian calendar by the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), the Catholic Church in Ukraine and Ukrainian Protestants.


Christmas (Eastern Orthodox Churches and Oriental Orthodox Churches using the Julian calendar, Rastafari) Christmas in Serbia

Serbian Christmas traditions are customs and practices of the Serbs associated with Christmas and a period encompassing it, between the third Sunday before Christmas Day and Epiphany. Serbian Christmas is celebrated on January 7. There are many, complex traditions connected with this period. They vary from place to place, and in many areas have been updated or watered down to suit modern living. The Serbian name for Christmas is Božić, which is the diminutive form of the word bog ("god"), and can be translated as "young god". Christmas is celebrated for three consecutive days, starting with Christmas Day, which the Serbs call the first day of Christmas. On these days, one is to greet another person by saying "Christ is Born," which should be responded to with "Truly He is Born," or in Serbian: "Hristos se rodi" – "Vaistinu se rodi".


Christmas (Eastern Orthodox Churches and Oriental Orthodox Churches using the Julian calendar, Rastafari) Ethiopian Christmas

Ethiopian Christmas is a holiday celebrated by the Ethiopian Orthodox and Eritrean Orthodox churches, as well as Protestant and Catholic denominations in Ethiopia, on 7 January.


Christmas (Eastern Orthodox Churches and Oriental Orthodox Churches using the Julian calendar, Rastafari) Remembrance Day of the Dead (Armenia)

The following is a list of public holidays in Armenia.


Distaff Day (medieval Europe)

Saint Distaff's Day, Distaff Day, or Rock Day, is 7 January, the day after Epiphany, and was the traditional day on which women would start spinning again after Christmas.


Pioneer's Day (Liberia)

The following are public holidays in Liberia.


Tricolour Day or Festa del Tricolore (Italy)

Tricolour Day, officially National Flag Day, is the Flag Day of Italy. Celebrated on 7 January, it was established by Law 671 on 31 December 1996. It is intended as a celebration, though not a public holiday. The official celebration of the day is held in Reggio Emilia, the city where the Italian tricolour was first adopted as flag by an Italian sovereign state, the Cispadane Republic, on 7 January 1797.


Victory from Genocide Day (Cambodia)

Cambodia has numerous public holidays, including memorial holidays and religious holidays of Buddhist origin. The Khmer traditional calendar, known as ចន្ទគតិ Chântôkôtĕ, is a lunisolar calendar although the word itself means lunar calendar. While the calendar is based on the movement of the moon, calendar dates are also synchronized with the solar year to keep the seasons from drifting.


What Happened on 7th January?

47 significant events took place on Friday, 7th January — stretching from -49 to 2025. Explore the moments that shaped history on this day.

07/01/2025

A series of wildfires ravage the Greater Los Angeles area, resulting in at least 16 deaths and 13,401 structures destroyed.

From January 7 to 31, 2025, 14 destructive wildfires affected the Los Angeles metropolitan area and San Diego County in California, United States. The fires were exacerbated by drought conditions, low humidity, a buildup of vegetation from the previous winter, and hurricane-force Santa Ana winds, which in some places reached 100 miles per hour. The wildfires killed at least 31 people, forced more than 200,000 to evacuate, destroyed more than 18,000 homes and structures, and burned more than 57,529 acres of land.


07/01/2023

The longest U.S. House of Representatives speaker election since the December 1859 – February 1860 U.S. speaker election concludes and Kevin McCarthy is elected 55th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.

At the opening of the 118th United States Congress, the members-elect of the House of Representatives elected in the 2022 midterms held an election for its speaker, marking the 128th speaker election since the office was created in 1789. It began on January 3, 2023, and concluded in the early morning hours of January 7 when Kevin McCarthy of California, leader of the House Republican Conference, won a majority of votes cast on the fifteenth ballot. After the longest speaker election since December 1859 – February 1860, McCarthy won the speakership by making concessions to Republican Party hardliners, who had refused to support him through several rounds of voting, finding him too weak and untrustworthy.


07/01/2020

The 6.4Mw 2019–20 Puerto Rico earthquakes kill four and injure nine in southern Puerto Rico.

Starting on December 28, 2019, and progressing into 2020, the southwestern part of the island of Puerto Rico was struck by an earthquake swarm, including 11 that were of magnitude 5 or greater. The largest and most damaging of this sequence was a magnitude 6.4 Mw, which occurred on January 7 at 04:24 AST (08:24 UTC), with a maximum felt intensity of VIII (Severe) on the Modified Mercalli intensity scale. At least one person was killed, and several others were injured. A 5.8 Mwearthquake the previous day caused the destruction of a natural arch, a tourist attraction at Punta Ventana in Guayanilla. A 5.9 Mwaftershock on Saturday, January 11, damaged many structures, including several historical buildings as well as modern high-rises in the city of Ponce.


07/01/2015

Two gunmen commit mass murder at the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris, executing twelve people and wounding eleven others.

On 7 January 2015, at about 11:30 a.m. in Paris, France, the employees of the French satirical weekly magazine Charlie Hebdo were targeted in a terrorist shooting attack by two French-born Algerian Muslim brothers, Saïd Kouachi and Chérif Kouachi. Armed with rifles and other weapons, the duo murdered 12 people and injured 11 others; they identified themselves as members of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which claimed responsibility for the attack. They fled after the shooting, triggering a manhunt, and were killed by the GIGN on 9 January. The Kouachi brothers' attack was followed by several related Islamist terrorist attacks across the Île-de-France between 7 and 9 January 2015, including the Hypercacher kosher supermarket siege, in which a French-born Malian Muslim took hostages and murdered four people before being killed by French commandos.


A car bomb explodes outside a police college in the Yemeni capital Sanaa with at least 38 people reported dead and more than 63 injured.

On 7 January 2015, a car bomb was detonated in front of a police academy in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, killing at least 38 people and injuring more than 60 others. This was the third major attack in the country in less than a month, after the deadliest attack in the country during 2014, as well as the second major bombing in less than a month, after the 2014 Rada' bombings and the 2014 Ibb bombing.


07/01/2012

A hot air balloon crashes near Carterton, New Zealand, killing all 11 people on board.

A hot air balloon is a lighter-than-air aircraft consisting of a bag, called an envelope, which contains heated air. Suspended beneath is a gondola or wicker basket, which carries passengers and a source of heat, in most cases an open flame caused by burning liquid propane. The heated air inside the envelope makes it buoyant, since it has a lower density than the colder air outside the envelope. As with all aircraft, hot air balloons cannot fly beyond the atmosphere. The envelope does not have to be sealed at the bottom, since the air inside the envelope is at about the same pressure as the surrounding air. In modern sport balloons the envelope is generally made from nylon fabric, and the inlet of the balloon is made from a fire-resistant material such as Nomex. Modern balloons have been made in many shapes, such as rocket ships and the shapes of various commercial products, though the traditional shape is used for most non-commercial and many commercial applications.


07/01/1999

The Senate trial in the impeachment of U.S. President Bill Clinton begins.

Bill Clinton, the 42nd president of the United States, was impeached by the United States House of Representatives of the 105th United States Congress on December 19, 1998. The House adopted two articles of impeachment against Clinton, with the specific charges against Clinton being lying under oath and obstruction of justice. Two other articles had been considered but were rejected by the House vote.


07/01/1994

A British Aerospace Jetstream 41 operating as United Express Flight 6291 crashes in Gahanna, Ohio, killing five of the eight people on board.

The British Aerospace Jetstream 41 is a turboprop-powered feederliner and regional airliner, designed by British Aerospace as a stretched version of the Jetstream 31. Intended to compete directly with 30-seat aircraft like the Embraer Brasilia, Dornier 328 and Saab 340, the new design eventually accommodated 29 passengers in a two-by-one arrangement like the Jetstream 31. Trans States Airlines of the US was the biggest operator of Jetstream 41s in the world, with 25 in the fleet.


07/01/1993

The Fourth Republic of Ghana is inaugurated with Jerry Rawlings as president.

The area of the Republic of Ghana became known in Europe and Arabia as the Ghana Empire after the title of its Emperor, the Ghana. Geographically, the ancient Ghana Empire was approximately 500 miles (800 km) north and west of the modern state of Ghana, and controlled territories in the area of the Sénégal River and east towards the Niger rivers, in modern Senegal, Mauritania and Mali. The empire appears to have broken up following the 1076 conquest by the Almoravid General Abu-Bakr Ibn-Umar. A reduced kingdom continued to exist after Almoravid rule ended, and the kingdom was later incorporated into subsequent Sahelian empires, such as the Mali Empire. Around the same time, south of the Mali empire in present-day northern Ghana, the Kingdom of Dagbon emerged. The decentralised states ruled by the tindaamba were unified into a kingdom. Many sub-kingdoms would later arise from Dagbon including the Mossi Kingdoms of Burkina Faso and Bouna Kingdom of Ivory Coast. Dagbon pioneered Ghana's earliest learning institutions, including a university town, and a writing system prior to European arrival.


Bosnian War: The Bosnian Army executes a surprise attack at the village of Kravica in Srebrenica.

The Bosnian War was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. Following several earlier violent incidents, the war is commonly seen as having started on 6 April 1992 when the newly independent Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina was internationally recognized. It ended on 21 November 1995 when the Dayton Accords were initialed. The main belligerents were the forces of the government of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and those of the breakaway proto-states of the Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia and the Republika Srpska which were led and supplied by Croatia and Serbia, respectively.


07/01/1991

Roger Lafontant, former leader of the Tonton Macoute in Haiti under François Duvalier, attempts a coup d'état, which ends in his arrest.

Roger Lafontant was the former leader of the Tonton Macoutes and a former minister in the government of Haitian dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier. He was the leader of an attempted coup d'état in January 1991, an effort which ultimately led to his death.


07/01/1989

Sutton United, a team in the fifth tier of English league football, defeated top-tier Coventry City in one of the biggest upsets in FA Cup history.

Sutton United Football Club is a professional association football club from Sutton, South London, England. The team competes in the National League, the fifth level of the English football league system.


07/01/1985

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency launches Sakigake, Japan's first interplanetary spacecraft and the first deep space probe to be launched by any country other than the United States or the Soviet Union.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is the operator of the Japanese space program and Japan's national aeronautics research agency. It was formed in 2003 through the merger of the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, the National Aerospace Laboratory of Japan, and the National Space Development Agency of Japan.


07/01/1984

Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Brunei, officially Brunei Darussalam, is a country in Southeast Asia, situated on the northern coast of the island of Borneo. Apart from its coastline on the South China Sea, it is completely surrounded by the Malaysian state of Sarawak, with its territory bifurcated by the Sarawak district of Limbang. Brunei is the only sovereign state entirely on Borneo; the remainder of the island is divided between its multi-landmass neighbours of Malaysia and Indonesia. As of 2025, the country had a population of 466,330, of whom approximately 64,409 resided in the capital and largest city of Bandar Seri Begawan. Its official language is Malay, and Sunni Islam is the state religion of the country, although other religions are nominally tolerated. The government of Brunei is an absolute monarchy ruled by the Sultan, and it implements a fusion of English common law and jurisprudence inspired by Islam, including sharia.


07/01/1980

U.S. President Jimmy Carter authorizes legislation giving $1.5 billion in loans to bail out the Chrysler Corporation.

James Earl Carter Jr. was an American politician and humanitarian who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party, Carter served as the 76th governor of Georgia from 1971 to 1975 and in the Georgia State Senate from 1963 to 1967. He lived longer than any other president in US history, reaching age 100.


07/01/1979

Third Indochina War: Cambodian–Vietnamese War: Phnom Penh falls to the advancing Vietnamese troops, driving out Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge.

The Sino-Vietnamese War was a war which occurred in early 1979 between China and Vietnam. China launched an offensive ostensibly in response to Vietnam's invasion and occupation of Cambodia in 1978, which ended the rule of the Khmer Rouge. The conflict lasted for about a month, with China withdrawing its troops in March 1979.


07/01/1973

In his second shooting spree of the week, Mark Essex fatally shoots seven people and wounds five others at Howard Johnson's Hotel in New Orleans, before being shot to death by police officers.

Mark James Robert Essex was an American serial sniper and black nationalist known as the "New Orleans Sniper" who killed a total of nine people, including five police officers, and wounded twelve others, in two separate attacks in New Orleans on December 31, 1972, and January 7, 1973. Essex was killed by police in the second armed confrontation.


07/01/1972

Iberia Flight 602 crashes near Ibiza Airport, killing all 104 people on board.

Iberia Flight 602 was a domestic scheduled passenger flight operated by a Sud Aviation SE 210 Caravelle that took off from Valencia, Spain, bound for the Balearic island of Ibiza, which flew into the side of a mountain near Ibiza Airport. All 98 passengers and 6 crew died in the crash.


07/01/1968

Surveyor program: Surveyor 7, the last spacecraft in the Surveyor series, lifts off from Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 36A.

The Surveyor program was a NASA program that, from June 1966 through January 1968, sent seven robotic spacecraft to the surface of the Moon. Its primary goal was to demonstrate the feasibility of soft landings on the Moon. The Surveyor craft were the first American spacecraft to achieve soft landing on an extraterrestrial body. The missions called for the craft to travel directly to the Moon on an impact trajectory, a journey that lasted 63 to 65 hours, and ended with a deceleration of just over three minutes to a soft landing.


07/01/1959

The United States recognizes the new Cuban government of Fidel Castro.

Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country in the Caribbean. It comprises the eponymous main island as well as 4,195 islands, islets, and cays. Situated at the convergence of the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and Atlantic Ocean, Cuba is located east of the Yucatán Peninsula, south of both Florida and the Bahamas, west of Hispaniola, and north of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. Havana is the largest city and capital. Cuba is the third-most populous country in the Caribbean after Haiti and Dominican Republic, with about 10 million inhabitants. It is the largest country in the Caribbean by area. Culturally, Cuba is considered part of Latin America.


07/01/1955

Contralto Marian Anderson becomes the first person of color to perform at the Metropolitan Opera in Giuseppe Verdi's Un ballo in maschera.

Marian Anderson was an American contralto. She performed a wide range of music, from opera to spirituals. Anderson performed with renowned orchestras in major concert and recital venues throughout the United States and Europe between 1925 and 1965.


07/01/1954

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

The Georgetown–IBM experiment was an influential demonstration of machine translation, which was performed on January 7, 1954. Developed jointly by Georgetown University and IBM, the experiment involved completely automatic translation of more than sixty Russian sentences into English.


07/01/1950

In the Sverdlovsk air disaster, all 19 of those on board are killed, including almost the entire national ice hockey team (VVS Moscow) of the Soviet Air Force – 11 players, as well as a team doctor and a masseur.

The Sverdlovsk plane crash of 7 January 1950 killed all 19 people on board, including almost the entire ice hockey team of the Soviet Air Forces – 11 players, as well as a team doctor and a masseur. The team was on board a twin-engined Lisunov Li-2 transport aircraft, a licensed Soviet-built version of the DC-3, heading to a match against Dzerzhinets Chelyabinsk. Due to poor weather at Chelyabinsk, the flight diverted to Sverdlovsk. The crew attempted four approaches but during the fifth approach to Koltsovo Airport the aircraft crashed near the airport in a heavy snowstorm with strong winds.


07/01/1948

Kentucky Air National Guard pilot Thomas Mantell crashes while in pursuit of a supposed UFO.

The Kentucky Air National Guard (KY ANG) is the aerial militia of the U.S. state of Kentucky. It is a reserve of the United States Air Force and along with the Kentucky Army National Guard, an element of the Kentucky National Guard of the larger United States National Guard Bureau.


07/01/1940

Winter War: Battle of Raate Road: The Finnish 9th Division finally defeat the numerically superior Soviet forces on the Raate-Suomussalmi road.

The Winter War was a war between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began with a Soviet invasion of Finland on 30 November 1939, three months after the outbreak of World War II, and ended three and a half months later with the Moscow Peace Treaty on 13 March 1940. Despite superior military strength, especially in tanks and aircraft, the Soviet Union suffered severe losses and initially made little headway. The League of Nations deemed the attack illegal and expelled the Soviet Union from its organization.


07/01/1935

Benito Mussolini and French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval sign the Franco-Italian Agreement.

Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician, journalist, and dictator who led Italy as Il Duce from 1922 until his overthrow in 1943. He founded fascism in 1919 with the creation of the Fasci Italiani di Combattimento, which became the National Fascist Party (PNF) in 1921. Mussolini was appointed Prime Minister of Italy after the March on Rome in 1922, establishing a totalitarian dictatorship. He oversaw Italy's participation in World War II as a prominent member of the Axis Powers, and was summarily executed near the end of the war in 1945.


07/01/1931

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.

Guy Lambton Menzies was an Australian aviator who flew the first solo trans-Tasman flight, from Sydney, Australia, to the West Coast of New Zealand, on 7 January 1931.


07/01/1928

A disastrous flood of the River Thames kills 14 people and causes extensive damage to much of riverside London.

The 1928 Thames flood was a disastrous flood of the River Thames that affected much of riverside London on 7 January 1928, as well as places further downriver. Fourteen people died and thousands were made homeless when floodwaters poured over the top of the Thames Embankment and part of the Chelsea Embankment collapsed. It was the last major flood to affect central London, and, along with the disastrous North Sea flood of 1953, helped lead to the implementation of new flood control measures that culminated in the construction of the Thames Barrier in the 1970s.


07/01/1927

The first transatlantic commercial telephone service is established from New York City to London.

This history of the telephone chronicles the development of the electrical telephone, and includes a brief overview of its predecessors. The first telephone patent was granted to Alexander Graham Bell in 1876.


07/01/1922

Dáil Éireann ratifies the Anglo-Irish Treaty by a 64–57 vote.

Dáil Éireann is the lower house and principal chamber of the Oireachtas, which also includes the president of Ireland and a senate called Seanad Éireann. It consists of 174 members, each known as a Teachta Dála. TDs represent 43 constituencies and are directly elected for terms not exceeding five years, on the system of proportional representation using the single transferable vote (PR-STV). Its powers are similar to those of lower houses under many other bicameral parliamentary systems and it is by far the dominant branch of the Oireachtas. Subject to the limits imposed by the Constitution of Ireland, it has the power to pass any law it wishes, and to nominate and remove the Taoiseach. Since 1922, it has met in Leinster House in Dublin.


07/01/1920

The New York State Assembly refuses to seat five duly elected Socialist assemblymen.

The New York State Assembly is the lower house of the New York State Legislature, with the New York State Senate being the upper house. There are 150 seats in the Assembly. Assembly members serve two-year terms without term limits.


07/01/1919

Montenegrin guerrilla fighters rebel against the planned annexation of Montenegro by Serbia, but fail.

Montenegro is a country in Southeast Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Its 25 municipalities have a total population of 633,158 people in an area of 13,883 km2. It is bordered by Serbia to the northeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Kosovo to the east, Albania to the southeast, and Croatia to the west, and has a coastline along the Adriatic Sea to the southwest. The capital and largest city is Podgorica, while Cetinje is the Old Royal Capital and cultural centre.


07/01/1904

The distress signal "CQD" is established only to be replaced two years later by "SOS".

A distress signal, also known as a distress call, is an internationally recognized means for obtaining help. Distress signals are communicated by transmitting radio signals, displaying a visually observable item or illumination, or making a sound audible from a distance.


07/01/1894

Thomas Edison makes a kinetoscopic film of someone sneezing. On the same day, his employee, William Kennedy Dickson, receives a patent for motion picture film.

Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman. He grew up in Michigan with little formal schooling and began working at a young age. He became deaf as a child and learned through books and tinkering. As a railroad telegrapher, he spent much of his time inventing improvements to telegraph systems. By the age of 22, he had sold a few of his early inventions and moved to New York to focus on engineering. He had three children with Mary, his first wife, but Edison was neglectful. She died at 29 years old. Edison had troubled relationships with his kids for the rest of his life. With the help of friends, the inventor attracted investment and grew his company. By the age of 29, he owned a telegraph recorder factory in Newark with over one hundred employees.


07/01/1867

The Kingstree jail fire kills 22 freedmen in Reconstruction-era South Carolina.

The Kingstree jail fire killed 22 prisoners on the evening of Monday, January 7, 1867, in the Williamsburg County seat of Kingstree, South Carolina, United States. One white prisoner escaped the building and survived, but all of the African-American prisoners, incarcerated on the third floor, were killed. Attempts to rescue the 19 men and 3 women left in the building were ineffective. By the time action was taken, the billowing smoke and heat were overwhelming.


07/01/1835

HMS Beagle, with Charles Darwin on board, drops anchor off the Chonos Archipelago.

HMS Beagle was a Cherokee-class 10-gun brig-sloop of the Royal Navy, one of more than 100 ships of this class. The vessel, constructed at a cost of £7,803, was launched on 11 May 1820 from the Woolwich Dockyard on the River Thames. Later reports say the ship took part in celebrations of the coronation of George IV, passing under the old London Bridge, and was the first rigged man-of-war afloat upriver of the bridge. There was no immediate need for Beagle, so she "lay in ordinary", moored afloat but without masts or rigging. She was then adapted as a survey barque and took part in three survey expeditions.


07/01/1785

Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard and American John Jeffries travel from Dover, England, to Calais, France, in a gas balloon.

Jean-Pierre François Blanchard was a French inventor, best known as a pioneer of gas balloon flight, who distinguished himself in the conquest of the air in a balloon. Notable for his successful hydrogen balloon flight in Paris on 2 March 1784, Blanchard later moved to London and undertook flights with varying propulsion mechanisms. His historic achievement came on 7 January 1785, crossing the English Channel from Dover Castle to Guînes in about 2½ hours, receiving acclaim from Louis XVI and earning a substantial pension.


07/01/1782

The first American commercial bank, the Bank of North America, opens.

The Bank of North America was the first chartered bank in the United States, and served as the country's first de facto central bank. It was chartered by the Congress of the Confederation on May 26, 1781, and opened in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on January 7, 1782.


07/01/1738

A peace treaty is signed between Peshwa Bajirao and Jai Singh II following Maratha victory in the Battle of Bhopal.

Bajirao I was the 7th Peshwa of the Maratha Empire.


07/01/1708

Battle of Zlatoust: Battle between Bashkir and Tatar rebels and the government troops of the Tsardom of Russia. It is one of the events of the Bashkir rebellion of 1704–1711.

The Tsardom of Russia, also known as the Tsardom of Moscow, was the centralized Russian state from the assumption of the title of tsar by Ivan IV in 1547 until the foundation of the Russian Empire by Peter the Great in 1721.


Bashkir rebels besiege Yelabuga.

Siege of Yelabuga – the siege of the city by bashkir rebels under the command of Kusyum Tyulekeyev.


07/01/1610

Galileo Galilei makes his first observation of the four Galilean moons: Ganymede, Callisto, Io and Europa, although he is not able to distinguish the last two until the following night.

Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei, commonly referred to as Galileo Galilei, was an Italian astronomer, physicist, and engineer, sometimes described as a polymath. He was born in the city of Pisa, then part of the Duchy of Florence. Galileo has been called the father of observational astronomy, modern-era classical physics, the scientific method, and modern science.


07/01/1608

Fire destroys Jamestown, Virginia.

The Jamestown settlement in the Colony of Virginia was the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. It was located on the northeast bank of the James River, about 2.5 mi (4 km) southwest of present-day Williamsburg. It was established by the Virginia Company of London as "James Fort" on May 4, 1607 O.S. (May 14, 1607 N.S.). It followed earlier, failed English colonization attempts, including the 1585 Roanoke Colony. A river island was selected to evade Spanish naval patrols; however, it was infested with mosquitoes, lacked potable water, and was used by the Paspahegh people. Despite supply missions, only 60 of the original 214 settlers survived the 1609–1610 winter known as Starving Time. In 1612, West Indies tobacco was successfully cultivated, leading to an economic boom for the colony and England.


07/01/1558

French troops, led by Francis, Duke of Guise, take Calais, the last continental possession of England.

François de Lorraine, 2nd Duke of Guise, 1st Prince of Joinville, and 1st Duke of Aumale, was a French general and statesman. A prominent leader during the Italian War of 1551–1559 and French Wars of Religion, he was assassinated during the siege of Orleans in 1563.


07/01/1325

Afonso IV becomes King of Portugal.

Afonso IV, called the Brave, was King of Portugal from 1325 until his death in 1357. He was the only legitimate son of King Denis of Portugal and Elizabeth of Aragon.


07/01/1078

The people of Constantinople revolt, lynch the unpopular official Nikephoritzes and proclaim Nikephoros Botaneiates as emperor.

Constantinople was the historical name for the city of Istanbul, used particularly by foreigners up until 1930, located on a peninsula at the southeastern tip of Thrace in Europe; with the Bosporus strait and the ancient cities of Chalcedon and Chrysopolis in Bithynia, Anatolia to the east; the Golden Horn and the citadel of Galata (Pera) to the north; the Sea of Marmara to the south; and the Princes' Islands to the southeast. Constantinople served as the capital of the Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires between its consecration in 330 and the formal abolition of the Ottoman sultanate in 1922.


01/01/1970

The Senate of Rome says that Caesar will be declared a public enemy unless he disbands his army, prompting the tribunes who support him to flee to where Caesar is waiting in Ravenna.

The Senate was the governing and advisory assembly of the aristocracy in the ancient Roman Republic. It was not an elected body, but one whose members were appointed by the consuls, and later by the censors, which were appointed by the aristocratic Centuriate Assembly. After a Roman magistrate served his term in office, it usually was followed with automatic appointment to the Senate. According to the Greek historian Polybius, the principal source on the Constitution of the Roman Republic, the Roman Senate was the predominant branch of government. Polybius noted that it was the consuls who led the armies and the civil government in Rome, and it was the Roman assemblies which had the ultimate authority over elections, legislation, and criminal trials. However, since the Senate controlled money, administration, and the details of foreign policy, it had the most control over day-to-day life. The power and authority of the Senate derived from precedent, the high caliber and prestige of the senators, and the Senate's unbroken lineage, which dated back to the founding of the Republic in 509 BC. It developed from the Senate of the Roman Kingdom, and became the Senate of the Roman Empire.