On this day...

1558 French under Francois, Duke of Guise, capture Calais from England
1579 England signs an offensive & defensive alliance with the Netherlands
1584 Last day of the Julian calendar in Bohemia
1598 Boris Godunov seizes the Russian throne on death of Feodore I
1601 Robert, Earl of Essex, leads revolt in London against Queen Elizabeth
1608 Fire destroys Jamestown, Virginia
1610 Galileo discovers first 3 Jupiter satellites, Io, Europa & Ganymede
1714 Typewriter patented (built years later)
1782 First US commercial bank, Bank of North America, opens in Philadelphia
1784 First US seed business established by David Landreth, Philadelphia
1785 First balloon flight across English Channel (Blanchard & Jeffries)
1789 First national (Presidential) election in US
1817 2nd Bank of the United States opens
1822 Liberia colonized by Americans
1830 Baltimore & Ohio RR Co. begins carrying revenue traffic
1862 Romney Campaign. Stonewall Jackson march towards Romney, WV
1899 Walter Camp publishes his first All-American football team in Collier's
1904 Marconi Co. establishes "CQD" as first international radio distress signal
1910 Ottawa Senators sweep Galt in 2 games for the Stanley Cup
1911 First airplane bombing experiments with explosives, San Francisco
1913 William M. Burton patents a process to "crack" petroleum
1914 First steamboat passes through the Panama Canal
1927 Commercial transatlantic telephone service inaugurated between NY & London
1927 Harlem Globetrotters play first game (Hinckley IL)
1929 "Buck Rogers," first sci-fi comic strip, premiers
1929 "Tarzan," one of the first adventure comic strips, first appears
1934 "Flash Gordon" comic strip (by Alex Raymond) debuts
1936 Tennis champs Helen Moody & Howard Kinsley volley 2,001 times (1 hour, 18 minutes)
1942 WWII siege of Bataan starts
1950 Mental health wing of Mercy Hospital burns, kills 41 (Davenport, IA)
1953 President Truman announces development of the hydrogen bomb
1955 Marian Anderson becomes first black singer to perform at the Met (New York, NY)
1959 US recognizes Fidel Castro's Cuban government
1961 Trucial States (now UAE) issue their first postage stamps
1963 First class postage raised from $0.04 to $0.05
1964 Bahamas achieves internal self-government & cabinet responsibility
1967 "Newlywed Game" premiers
1968 "The G.E. College Bowl" quiz show premiers on NBC TV
1968 First class postage raised from $0.05 to $0.06
1968 Surveyor 7 lands on the Moon
1972 Iberian Airlines crashes into 800' peak on island of Ibiza, 104 die
1972 Los Angeles Lakers chalk up 33rd consecutive win (NBA record)
1972 Lewis F. Powell, Jr. becomes a Supreme Court Justice
1973 British Darts Organization founded in North London
1979 Vietnamese forces capture Phnom Penh from Khmer Rouge
1980 Minnesota ends Philadelphia Flyers' NHL record 35 game unbeaten streak ends
1982 "Fame" premiers on NBC TV
1983 Reagan ends US arms embargo against Guatemala
1986 Chicago Bears defeat New England Patriots 46-10 in Super Bowl XX
1989 British Midland Boeing 737 crashes on Motorway
1991 Haiti coup defeated.
1991 Soviet paratroopers sent to Baltic Republics
1991 "Nia Peeples Party Machine" premiers on TV
1992 AT&T releases video-telephone (US$1,500)

Birthdays which occurred on January 7th:

1800 Millard Fillmore, (Whig) 13th President (1850-53)
1830 Albert Bierstadt, Germany, painter (US landscapes)
1845 Louis III, last king of Bavaria (1913-18)
1873 Charles Pierre Peguy, Orleans France, Catholic writer (God Speaks)
1896 Arnold Ridley, English actor/dramatist (The Ghost Train)
1898 Art Baker, New York NY, TV host (You Asked For It)
1899 Francis Poulenc, Paris France, composer
1903 Alan Napier, Birmingham England, actor (Alfred-Batman)
1907 Nicanor Zabaleta, San Sebastian, Spain, harpist
1911 Butterfly McQueen, Tampa FL, actress (Gone with the Wind)
1912 Charles Addams, cartoonist (New Yorker, Addams Family)
1916 Paul Keres, USSR, chess grandmaster (1950)
1922 Vincent Gardenia, Naples Italy, actor (All in the Family, LA Law)
1924 Roloff Beny, Alberta, painter/photographer (A Time of Gods)
1925 Gerald Malcolm Durrell, Britain, zoologist/writer (Mockery Bird)
1928 William Peter Blatty, New York NY, author (The Exorcist)
1939 Maury Povich, TV host (Current Affair, Maury)/Mr. Connie Chung
1942 Paul Revere, Boise Id, keyboard (Paul Revere & Raiders-Fallin' in Love)
1943 Jim Lefebvre, Hawthorne CA, baseball manager
1943 Leona Williams, singer/songwriter (Ladies Get the Blues)
1945 Tony Conigliaro, Massachusetts, baseball outfielder (Boston Red Sox)
1948 Kenny Loggins, singer (Loggins & Messina-This is it, Footloose)
1952 Erin Gray, Honolulu Hawaii, actress (Silver Spoons, Buck Rogers)
1955 Sandra Bernhard, Arizona (Follow That Bird, King of Comedy)
1957 Kristen Meadows, actress (Santa Barbara)
1958 Donna Rice, model, Gary Hart's alleged lover
1960 Tierre Turner, Detroit MI, actor (Waverly Wonders, Cop & the Kid)
1964 Nicolas Cage, actor (Moonstruck, Racing with the Moon)
1977 Dustin Diamond, actor (Screech-Saved by the Bell)

Deaths which occurred on January 7th:

1536 Catherine of Aragon, first wife of England's King Henry VIII
1537 Alessandro de' Medici, of Florence, assassinated
1957 Al White, choreographer (NBC Comedy Hour)
1958 Dr. Petru Groza, premier of Romania, dies at 74
1961 Clarice Baright, first woman admitted to American Bar Association dies at 74
1985 Johnny Guarnieri, jazz pianist (Morey Amsterdam Show), dies at 67
1988 Trevor Howard, UK actor, dies at 71 of bronchitis
1990 Bronislau "Bronko" Nagurski, football Hall of Fame, dies at 81
1990 Horace Stoneham, baseball owner (Giants), dies at 86
1990 Joseph Robbie, lawyer/NFL owner (Miami Dolphins), dies at 73