January 7

Birthdays:

1966 ~ Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy (d. July 16, 1999), wife of John F. Kennedy, Jr.  She was killed when the small plane husband was piloting crashed into the Atlantic Ocean while they were on their way to Martha’s Vineyard to attend a family wedding.  She was 33 years old.

1964 ~ Nicolas Cage, American actor.

1963 ~ Rand Paul, American ophthalmologist and presidential candidate in the 2016 United States Presidential campaign.

1957 ~ Katie Couric, American journalist and news reporter.

1956 ~ David Caruso, American actor best known for his role as Horatio on CSI:Miami.

1941 ~ John E. Walker, English chemist and recipient of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

1928 ~ William Peter Blatty (d. Jan. 12, 2017), American comedy writer who spooked readers with The Exorcist.  He died of multiple myeloma 5 days after his 89^th birthday.

1925 ~ Gerald Durrell (d. 1995), British naturalist and author.  He wrote The Whispering Lands, which is about Patagonia.  He died 23 days after his 70^th birthday.

1922 ~ Jean-Pierre Rampal (d. May 20, 2000), French flutist.  He died at age 78.

1916 ~ Elena Ceauşescu (d. Dec. 25, 1989), Romanian politician and wife of former Romanian president, Nicolae Ceauşescu, who was executed for her crimes against humanity.  She died 13 days before her 74^th birthday

1912 ~ Charles Addams (d. Sept. 29, 1988), American cartoonist who became famous for his dark humor.  His cartoons were published in The New Yorker.  His characters inspired The Addams family, which was a TV series in the 1960s, and later became a Broadway musical.  He died at age 76.

1911 ~ Butterfly McQueen (née Thelma McQueen, d. Dec. 22, 1995), American actress, best known for her role as Prissy, Scarlett O’Hara’s maid in Gone with the Wind.  She died 16 days before her 85^th birthday.

1911 ~ Jean Carroll (née Celine Zeigman, d. Jan. 1, 2010), American female comic who blazed new trails in stand-up.  She died 6 days before her 99^th birthday.

1910 ~ Orval Faubus (d. Dec. 14, 1994), 36^th Governor of Arkansas from January 1955 until January 1967.  He is best known for his 1957 stand against desegregation of the public schools in Little Rock.  He died 3 weeks before his 85^th birthday.

1891 ~ Zora Neale Hurston (d. Jan. 28, 1960), African-American author.  She died 2 weeks after her 69^th birthday.

1873 ~ Adolph Zukor (d. June 10, 1976), Hungarian-American film producer and co-founder of Paramount Pictures.  He died at age 103.

1871 ~ Émile Borel (né Félix Édouard Justin Émile Borel, d. Feb. 3, 1956,), French mathematician, known for his work in areas of measure theory and probability.  He died less than a month after his 85^th birthday.

1858 ~ Eliezer Ben-Yehuda (d. Dec. 16, 1922), a Jewish lexicographer who was the driving spirit behind the revival of the Hebrew language in the modern era.  He died 3 weeks before his 65^th birthday.

1837 ~ Thomas Henry Ismay (d. Nov. 23, 1899), British shipping company owner and founder of the White Star Line, which later was the owner of The Titanic.  He died at age 62.

1827 ~ Sir Sanford Fleming (d. July 22, 1915), Canadian engineer who introduced the Universal Standard Time to the world.  He died at age 88.

1800 ~ Millard Fillmore (d. Mar. 8, 1874), 13^th President of the United States.  He was President from July 1850 until March 1853.  He assumed the Presidency upon the death of Zachary Taylor.  He died at age 74.

1786 ~ John Catron (d. May 30, 1865), Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.  He was appointed to the High Court by President Andrew Jackson.  He served on the Court from March 8, 1937 until his death at age 79.

1718 ~ Israel Putnam (d. May 29, 1790), American Revolutionary War general, best known for his role in leading the Battle of Bunker Hill.  He died at age 72.

1502 ~ Pedro Nunes (d. Aug. 11, 1578), Portuguese mathematician.  The exact date of his birth is not known, but he is believed to have been born on January 7, 1502.  He died at age 76.

1502 ~ Pope Gregory XIII (né Ugo Boncompagni, d. Apr. 10, 1585).  He was Pope from May 1572 until his death 13 years later.  He died at age 83.

Events that Changed the World:

2015 ~ Islamic terrorists entered the offices of 1Charlie Hebdo, a satirical magazine office, in Paris, France, and opened fire killing 12 people, and injuring 11 others.

2010 ~ Muslim gunmen in Egypt fired on a crowd of Coptic Christians who were celebrating Christmas Mass.  Nine people were killed including eight of the Christians and one Muslim bystander.

1999 ~ The Senate trial in the impeachment of President Bill Clinton (b. 1946) began.

1990 ~ The Leaning Tower of Pisa was closed to the public for safety concerns.  After several years of corrective reconstruction and stabilization, the Tower reopened in December 2001.

1989 ~ Prince Akihito (b. 1933) was sworn in as emperor of Japan following the death of his father, Emperor Hirohito (1901 ~ 1998).

1980 ~ President Jimmy Carter (b. 1924) authorized legislation granting $1.5 Billion in loans to bail out the Chrysler Corporation.

1979 ~ Pol Pot (1925 ~ 1998) and the Khmer Rouge were ousted from the Cambodian government.

1973 ~ Mark Essex’s (1949 ~ 1973) 8-day killing spree ended after he fatally shot 10 people and wounded 13 others at a Howard Johnson’s hotel in New Orleans.  He was then shot and killed.  The killing began when he began to target New Orleans police officers on New Year’s Eve.

1959 ~ The United States recognized the Cuban government of Fidel Castro (1926 ~ 2016).

1955 ~ Marian Anderson (1897 ~ 1993) performed in Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera at the Metropolitan Opera.  She was the first African-American to perform at the Met.

1942 ~ The siege of the Bataan Peninsula in the Philippines, began.  The Battle of Bataan was one the most intense phases of Japan’s invasion of the Philippines.

1940 ~ During the Winter War, the Finnish 9^th Division stopped and completely destroyed the Russian forces.

1927 ~ The first transatlantic telephone service was established from New York to London, England.

1894 ~ William Kennedy Dickson (1860 ~ 1935) received a patent for motion picture film.

1785 ~ The first balloon flight crossed the English Channel from Dover, England to Calais, France, carrying Jean-Pierre Blanchard (1753 ~ 1809) and American John Jeffries (1745 ~ 1819).

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

1610 ~ Galileo (1564 ~ 1642) observed four moons of the planet Jupiter, known as the Galilean moons: Ganymede, Callisto, Io, and Europa (although technically, the latter two were distinguishable until the following day).

1608 ~ A fire destroyed Jamestown, Virginia.

1558 ~ France took Calais, the last continental possession of England.

1325 ~ Alfonso IV (1291 ~ 1357) became King of Portugal.

Good-Byes:

2017 ~ Nat Hentoff (né Nathan Irving Hentoff, b. June 10, 1925), American jazz journalist who championed civil liberties.  He was born in Boston, Massachusetts.  He died at age 91.

2015 ~ Rodney Taylor (b. Jan. 11, 1930), Australian actor who battled The Birds in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 movie.  He died 4 days before his 85^th birthday.

2013 ~ Richard Ben Cramer (b. June 12, 1950), American political journalist and author.  He died of lung cancer at age 62.

2012 ~ Herbert Wilf (b. June 13, 1931), American mathematician.  He died at age 80.

1998 ~ Vladimir Prelog (b. July 23, 1906), Croatian chemist and recipient of the 1975 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.  He was born in Sarajevo, which at the time was under Austria-Hungary.  He died at age 91.

1996 ~ Károly Grósz (b. Aug. 1, 1930), Communist leader of Hungary.  He died of kidney cancer at age 65.

1989 ~ Hirohito (b. Apr. 29, 1901), Emperor of Japan from 1929 until his death in 1989.  He was the Emperor during World War II.  He died at age 87.

1984 ~ Alfred Kastler (b. May 3, 1902), French physicist and recipient of the 1966 Nobel Prize in Physics.  He died at age 81.

1945 ~ Alexander Stirling Calder (b. Jan. 11, 1870), American sculptor.  He was the father of son, also named Alexander Calder.  Alexander the father died 4 days before his 75^th birthday.

1944 ~ Lou Henry Hoover (b. Mar. 29, 1874), First Lady of the United States and wife of President Herbert Hoover.  She served as First Lady from March 1929 until March 1933.  She died at age 69.

1943 ~ Nikola Tesla (b. July 10, 1856), Serbian-American physicist and inventor.  He is born in what is now considered modern Croatia, but at the time of his birth was under the Austrian empire.  He died of coronary thrombosis at age 86 in New York City.

1893 ~ Jožef Stefan (b. Mar. 24, 1835), Slovenian physicist and mathematician.  He died at age 57.

1882 ~ Ignacy Łukasiewicz (b. Mar. 8, 1822), Polish inventor.  He invented the Kerosene lamp.  He died at age 59.

1872 ~ James Fisk (b. Apr. 1, 1834), American businessman and stockbroker.  He was known as Diamond Jim and was a Robber Baron.  He was born in Vermont but moved to New York City to become a stockbroker.  He was murdered at age 36.

1864 ~ Caleb Blood Smith (b. Apr. 16, 1808), 6^th United States Secretary of the Interior.  He served under President Abraham Lincoln from March 1861 through December 1862.  He then became a Judge for the United States District Court for the District of Indiana.  He died at age 55.

1743 ~ Anne Sophie Reventlow (b. Apr. 16, 1693), Danish wife of King Frederick IV of Denmark.  She died at age 49.

1655 ~ Pope Innocent X (né Giovanni Battista Pamphilj, b. May 6, 1575).  He was Pope from September 1644 until his death in January 1655.  He was 80 years old.

1536 ~ Catherine of Aragon (b. Dec. 16, 1485), first wife of Henry VIII of England.  Henry’s attempt to have their marriage annulled ultimately led to England’s split from the Catholic Church.  Henry defied the Pope and declared supremacy over religious matters, thereby allowing him to terminate his marriage to Catherine.  She died 3 weeks after her 50^th birthday.

1451 ~ Antipope Felix V (b. Sept. 4, 1383).  He died at age 67.

1325 ~ King Denis of Portugal (b. Oct. 9, 1261).  He was King from February 1279 until his death in January 1325.  He died at age 63.