January 7th is

Bobblehead Day *

Harlem Globetrotters Day *

Tempura Day

Old Rock Day

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MORE! Francis Bacon, Fannie Farmer, and Charles Addams, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Many Orthodox Christians, including Copts, celebrate Christmas on this day

Armenia – Christmas Remembrance Holiday

Australia – Thredbo NSW: Craft Beer Festival

Cambodia – Victory Over Genocidal Regime

Peru – Tumbes: Independence Anniversary

Uruguay – Punta del Este: Summer Festival

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On This Day in HISTORY

1355 – Thomas of Woodstock, first Duke of Gloucester, is born, leader of the Lords Appellant whose opposition successfully weakens the power of King Richard II; but Richard manages to dispose of the Lords Appellant in 1397, and Thomas is murdered while awaiting trial for treason, which adds even more to Richard’s unpopularity

1558 – Calais, last English possession on mainland France, is taken by the French

1610 –  Galileo Galilei makes his first observation of the four Galilean moons:  Ganymede, Callisto, Io and Europa, although not able to distinguish the last two until the following day

1618 – Francis Bacon becomes Lord Chancellor of England

1634 – Adam Krieger born, German organist and composer

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

1785 – Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard and American John Jeffries travel in a gas balloon from Dover to Calais, France, first air-crossing of the English Channel

1797 – The modern Italian flag is first used

1827 – Sandford Fleming born, Scottish-Canadian engineer, inventor of “Cosmic Time’ worldwide standard time system, and time zones

1831 – Heinrich von Stephan born, German Empire general post director who founded the Universal Postal Union

1835 – HMS Beagle drops anchor at the Chonos Archipelago off the Chilean coast

1876 – William Hurlstone born, English pianist and composer

1891 – Zora Neale Hurston born, African American anthropologist and author, Their Eyes Were Watching God

1894 – William Kennedy Dickson patents celluloid motion picture film

1896 – The Fannie Farmer Cookbook is published

1898 – Al Bowlly born in Mozambique, South African/British singer-songwriter-composer and band leader

1899 – Francis Poulenc born, French pianist and composer

1904 – The distress signal “CQD” is  announced by the Marconi International Marine Communication Company; Land telegraphs traditionally used “CQ”  for sécu from the French word sécurité – Marconi added the “D” for “distress.”  It is replaced two years later by “SOS”

1912 – Charles Addams born, American cartoonist, The Addams Family

1917 – Ulysses Kay is born, American composer

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

1920 – The New York State Assembly suspends five duly elected Socialist assemblymen pending a hearing before a tribunal, by a vote of 140 to 6, with one Democrat supporting the Socialists. Civil libertarians, concerned citizens and the press protest the suspension of the Socialists, arguing that a majority party expelling elected members of minority parties from their councils sets a dangerous precedent in a democracy. The Socialists are expelled April 1, but all five are re-elected in a special election intended to replace them. Legislation written to exclude the Socialist Party from recognition as a political party, and altering the legislature’s oath-taking procedures so elected members could be excluded before being sworn is vetoed by Governor Al Smith

1922 – Dáil Éireann ratifies the Anglo-Irish Treaty by a 64–57 vote; the treaty establishes an Irish Free State within a year as a self-governing dominion

1922 – Jean-Pierre Rampal born, French flute player

1924 – George Gershwin completes “Rhapsody in Blue”

1927 – The first transatlantic telephone service is established from New York, New York to London

1927 – The Harlem Globetrotters * were founded as the Savoy Big Five by Abe Saperstein – they won the World Professional Basketball Tournament in 1940

1929 – Buck Rogers makes his debut in the comics

1935 – Benito Mussolini and French Foreign minister Pierre Laval sign the Franco-Italian Agreement, but the French give only a small amount of land in eastern Africa and a desert area in the French Sahara, which increases Italian resentment of the division of German territory by France and England after WWI

1948 – Kenny Loggins born, American singer-songwriter

1949 – (Martha) Marshall Chapman born, American singer-songwriter

1950 – Juan Gabriel is born, Mexican singer-songwriter

1953 – U.S. President Truman announces development of the hydrogen bomb

1954 – The first public demonstration of a machine translation system developed jointly by Georgetown University and IBM, is held in the IBM New York head office

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

1958 – Ant Farms go on sale. Milton Levine got the idea at a July 4th family picnic

1959 – Kathy Valentine born, American bass player-songwriter, The Go-Go’s

1968 – The unmanned lunar lander Surveyor 7 lifts off from Cape Canaveral on a mission to transmit photographs from the Moon’s surface to Earth

1979 – Vietnamese forces capture Cambodian capital Phnom Penh, overthrowing the Khmer Rouge government

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

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

1985 – Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency launches Japan’s first interplanetary spacecraft, Sakigake, the first deep space probe launched by a country other than the U.S. or the Soviet Union

1990 – The Leaning Tower of Pisa’s accelerated rate of leaning causes safety concerns, and it is closed to the public

1997 – The Spice Girls debut single “Wannabe” is released in the U.S.

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

2013 – Rihanna’s single “Stay” featuring Mikky Ekko is released in the U.K.

2015 – First Bobblehead Day * is celebrated at the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame
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Visuals

• Tempura
• Old Rock Day poster
• International flags
• Thomas of Woodstock
• Galileo with telescope
• Modern Italian flag
• Benin postage stamp honoring Universal Postal Union
• Zora Neale Hurston with pain quote
• The Addams Family cartoon
• The Adventures of Buck Rogers
• The Leaning Tower of Pisa

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