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This day in history

This day in history: 7 January

Events, births and deaths on this date, ordered by how many people look them up.

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Events47

Born on this day · Died on this day163 · 92

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Key facts

302 historical events, births and deaths are listed for 7 January.
Entries come from Wikipedia’s day pages and are ordered by page views.
2025: A series of wildfires ravage the Greater Los Angeles area, resulting in at least 16 deaths and 13,401 structures destroyed.

Holidays and observances

Christian Feast Day: André Bessette (Canada)

Christian Feast Day: Blessed Marie Thérèse Haze

Christian Feast Day: Canute Lavard

Christian Feast Day: Felix and Januarius

Christian Feast Day: January 7 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

Christian Feast Day: Lucian of Antioch

Christian Feast Day: Raymond of Penyafort

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

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

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

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

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

Events

2025A series of wildfires ravage the Greater Los Angeles area, resulting in at least 16 deaths and 13,401 structures destroyed.

2023The 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.

2020The 6.4Mw 2019–20 Puerto Rico earthquakes kill four and injure nine in southern Puerto Rico.

2015A car bomb explodes outside a police college in the Yemeni capital Sanaa with at least 38 people reported dead and more than 63 injured.

2015Two gunmen commit mass murder at the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris, executing twelve people and wounding eleven others.

2012A hot air balloon crashes near Carterton, New Zealand, killing all 11 people on board.

1999The Senate trial in the impeachment of U.S. President Bill Clinton begins.

1994A British Aerospace Jetstream 41 operating as United Express Flight 6291 crashes in Gahanna, Ohio, killing five of the eight people on board.

1993Bosnian War: The Bosnian Army executes a surprise attack at the village of Kravica in Srebrenica.

1993The Fourth Republic of Ghana is inaugurated with Jerry Rawlings as president.

1991Roger Lafontant, former leader of the Tonton Macoute in Haiti under François Duvalier, attempts a coup d'état, which ends in his arrest.

1989Sutton 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.

1985Japan 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.

1984Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

1980U.S. President Jimmy Carter authorizes legislation giving $1.5 billion in loans to bail out the Chrysler Corporation.

1979Third Indochina War: Cambodian–Vietnamese War: Phnom Penh falls to the advancing Vietnamese troops, driving out Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge.

1973In 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.

1972Iberia Flight 602 crashes near Ibiza Airport, killing all 104 people on board.

1968Surveyor program: Surveyor 7, the last spacecraft in the Surveyor series, lifts off from Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 36A.

1959The United States recognizes the new Cuban government of Fidel Castro.

1955Contralto Marian Anderson becomes the first person of color to perform at the Metropolitan Opera in Giuseppe Verdi's Un ballo in maschera.

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

1950In 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.

1948Kentucky Air National Guard pilot Thomas Mantell crashes while in pursuit of a supposed UFO.

1940Winter War: Battle of Raate Road: The Finnish 9th Division finally defeat the numerically superior Soviet forces on the Raate-Suomussalmi road.

1935Benito Mussolini and French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval sign the Franco-Italian Agreement.

1931Guy 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.

1928A disastrous flood of the River Thames kills 14 people and causes extensive damage to much of riverside London.

1927The first transatlantic commercial telephone service is established from New York City to London.

1922Dáil Éireann ratifies the Anglo-Irish Treaty by a 64–57 vote.

1920The New York State Assembly refuses to seat five duly elected Socialist assemblymen.

1919Montenegrin guerrilla fighters rebel against the planned annexation of Montenegro by Serbia, but fail.

1904The distress signal "CQD" is established only to be replaced two years later by "SOS".

1894Thomas Edison makes a kinetoscopic film of someone sneezing. On the same day, his employee, William Kennedy Dickson, receives a patent for motion picture film.

1867The Kingstree jail fire kills 22 freedmen in Reconstruction-era South Carolina.

1835HMS Beagle, with Charles Darwin on board, drops anchor off the Chonos Archipelago.

1785Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard and American John Jeffries travel from Dover, England, to Calais, France, in a gas balloon.

1782The first American commercial bank, the Bank of North America, opens.

1738A peace treaty is signed between Peshwa Bajirao and Jai Singh II following Maratha victory in the Battle of Bhopal.

1708Bashkir rebels besiege Yelabuga.

Born on this day

2012Blue Ivy Carter, American singer and actress

2007Chloe Chua, Singaporean violinist, 2018 joint 1st prize winner of the Yehudi Menuhin International Competition for Young Violinists

2003Ryan Dunn, American basketball player

2000Marcus Scribner, American actor

1997Lamar Jackson, American football player

1997Ozzie Albies, Curaçaoan baseball player

1996Alex Nedeljkovic, American ice hockey player

1995Jordan Bell, American basketball player

1995Yulia Putintseva, Kazakhstani tennis player

1994Jarnell Stokes, American basketball player

1994Lee Sun-bin, South Korean actress and singer

1994MacKenzie Weegar, Canadian ice hockey player

1992Erik Gudbranson, Canadian ice hockey player

1992Tohu Harris, New Zealand rugby league player

1991Caster Semenya, South African sprinter

1991Eden Hazard, Belgian footballer

1991Michael Walters, Australian footballer

1991Tucker Barnhart, American baseball player

1990Gentleman Jack Gallagher, English mixed martial artist and wrestler

1990Gregor Schlierenzauer, Austrian ski jumper

1990Liam Aiken, American actor

1988Haley Bennett, American actress and singer

1988Scott Pendlebury, Australian footballer

1987Davide Astori, Italian footballer (died 2018)

1987Lyndsy Fonseca, American actress

1987Stefan Babović, Serbian footballer

1985Lewis Hamilton, English racing driver

1985Wayne Routledge, English footballer

1984Jon Lester, American baseball player

1983Brett Dalton, American actor

1983Cappie Pondexter, American basketball player

1983Edwin Encarnación, Dominican baseball player

1982Francisco Rodríguez, Venezuelan baseball player

1982Hannah Stockbauer, German swimmer

1982Lauren Cohan, American-English actress

1981Alex Auld, Canadian ice hockey player

1981Marquis Daniels, American basketball player

1981Travis Friend, Zimbabwean cricketer

1980Reece Simmonds, Australian rugby league player

1979Aloe Blacc, American musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, businessman and philanthropist

Died on this day

2026Glenn Hall, Canadian ice hockey goaltender (born 1931)

2025Jean-Marie Le Pen, French intelligence officer and politician (born 1928)

2025Peter Yarrow, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (born 1938)

2024Franz Beckenbauer, German footballer and manager (born 1945)

2021Henri Schwery, Swiss cardinal (born 1932)

2021Michael Apted, English filmmaker (born 1941)

2021Tommy Lasorda, American baseball player, coach, and manager (born 1927)

2020Elizabeth Wurtzel, author and feminist (born 1967)

2020Neil Peart, Canadian drummer, songwriter, and producer (born 1952)

2020Silvio Horta, American screenwriter and television producer (born 1974)

2018France Gall, French singer (born 1947)

2018Jim Anderton, Former New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister (born 1938)

2017Mário Soares, Portuguese politician; 16th President of Portugal (born 1924)

2016Bill Foster, American basketball player and coach (born 1929)

2016John Johnson, American basketball player (born 1947)

2016Judith Kaye, American lawyer and jurist (born 1938)

2016Kitty Kallen, American singer (born 1921)

2016Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, Indian lawyer and politician, Indian Minister of Home Affairs (born 1936)

2015Georges Wolinski, Tunisian-French cartoonist (born 1934)

2015Mompati Merafhe, Botswana general and politician, Vice-President of Botswana (born 1936)

2015Rod Taylor, Australian-American actor and screenwriter (born 1930)

2014Run Run Shaw, Chinese-Hong Kong businessman and philanthropist, founded Shaw Brothers Studio and TVB (born 1907)

2012Tony Blankley, British-born American child actor, journalist and pundit (born 1948)

2008Alwyn Schlebusch, South African academic and politician, Vice State President of South Africa (born 1917)

2007Bobby Hamilton, American race car driver and businessman (born 1957)

2007Magnus Magnusson, Icelandic journalist, author, and academic (born 1929)

2006Heinrich Harrer, Austrian mountaineer, geographer, and author (born 1912)

2005Pierre Daninos, French author (born 1913)

2004Ingrid Thulin, Swedish actress (born 1926)

2002Avery Schreiber, American comedian and actor (born 1935)

Quote of the day

“Hang on to your youthful enthusiasms; you will be able to use them better when you are older.”

Seneca

Questions people ask

Where do the entries come from?

From Wikipedia’s on-this-day pages for this language, updated once a day and ordered by how often each article is read.

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