January 7 birthdays & history

Famous people born on January 7

• 1800Millard Fillmore, American politician, 13th President of the United States
• 1971Jeremy Renner, American actor
• 1964Nicolas Cage, American actor
• 1985Lewis Hamilton, English racing driver
• 1502Pope Gregory XIII, Head of the Catholic Church from 1572 to 1585
• 1991Eden Hazard, Belgian footballer
• 1858Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, Belarusian lexicographer and journalist
• 1962Aleksandr Dugin, Russian political analyst and strategist known for his fascist views
• 1891Zora Neale Hurston, American novelist, short story writer, and folklorist
• 1873Charles Péguy, French poet and journalist

What happened on January 7

• 1327The Parliament of 1327, which was instrumental in the transfer of the English Crown from King Edward II to his son, Edward III, began at the Palace of Westminster.
• 1610Through his telescope, Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei made the first observation of Jupiter's Galilean moons: Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, although he was not able to distinguish the first two until the following night.
• 1797The Italian tricolour was first adopted as an official flag by the government of the Cispadane Republic.
• 1904The Marconi International Marine Communication Company specified CQD (audio featured) as the distress signal to be used by its operators.
• 1920The New York State Assembly refuses to seat five duly elected Socialist assemblymen.
• 1927The first transatlantic commercial telephone service is established from New York City to London.
• 1931Australian aviator Guy Menzies flew from Sydney to New Zealand's West Coast, making the first solo trans-Tasman flight.
• 1954Georgetown–IBM experiment: The first public demonstration of a machine translation system is held in New York at the head office of IBM.
• 1955Marian Anderson became the first African-American to perform with the Metropolitan Opera in New York.
• 1959The United States recognizes the new Cuban government of Fidel Castro.
• 1968Surveyor program: Surveyor 7, the last spacecraft in the Surveyor series, lifts off from Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 36A.
• 2020After 253 days without an operational government, a second round of investiture votes produced Spain's first coalition government since the Second Republic.

Also observed on January 7

• Distaff Day (medieval Europe)
• Pioneer's Day (Liberia)
• Tricolour Day or Festa del Tricolore (Italy)