January 7

Events

1131 – Canute Lavard was murdered at Haraldsted, Denmark by his cousin, Magnus I of Sweden.

1325 – Alfonso IV becomes King of Portugal.

1558 – France takes Calais, the last continental possession of England.

1566 – Pope Pius V is elected.

1608 – Fire destroys Jamestown, Virginia.

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

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

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

1797 – The modern Italian flag is first used.

1835 – HMS Beagle drops anchor off the Chonos Archipelago.

1894 – William Kennedy Dickson receives a patent for motion picture film.

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

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

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

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

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

1931 – Guy 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.

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

1940 – Winter War: The Finnish 9th Division stop and completely destroy the numerically superior Soviet forces on the Raate-Suomussalmi road.

1942 – World War II: The siege of the Bataan Peninsula begins.

1945 – World War II: British General Bernard Montgomery holds a press conference in which he claims credit for victory in the Battle of the Bulge.

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

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

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

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

1968 – Surveyor Program: Surveyor 7, the last spacecraft in the Surveyor series, lifts off from launch complex 36A, Cape Canaveral.

1973 – Mark Essex fatally shoots ten people and wounds 13 others at Howard Johnson's Hotel in New Orleans, Louisiana, before being shot to death by police officers.

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

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 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.

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

1992 – The Jeep Grand Cherokee is introduced at the Detroit Auto Show.

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

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

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

2010 – Muslim gunmen in Egypt open fire on a crowd of Coptic Christians, killing eight of them and one Muslim bystander.

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

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

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

Births

889 – Li Bian, emperor of Southern Tang (d. 943)

1355 – Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester, English politician, Lord High Constable of England (d. 1397)

1502 – Pope Gregory XIII (d. 1585)

1634 – Adam Krieger, German organist and composer (d. 1666)

1647 – William Louis, Duke of Württemberg (d. 1677)

1685 – Jonas Alströmer, Swedish agronomist and businessman (d. 1761)

1706 – Johann Heinrich Zedler, German publisher (d. 1751)

1713 – Giovanni Battista Locatelli, Italian director and manager (d. 1785)

1718 – Israel Putnam, American general (d. 1790)

1746 – George Elphinstone, 1st Viscount Keith, Scottish admiral and politician (d. 1823)

1768 – Joseph Bonaparte, Italian king (d. 1844)

1786 – John Catron, American lawyer and jurist (d. 1865)

1800 – Millard Fillmore, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 13th President of the United States (d. 1874)

1827 – Sandford Fleming, Scottish-Canadian engineer, created Universal Standard Time (d. 1915)

1831 – Heinrich von Stephan, German postman, founded the Universal Postal Union (d. 1897)

1832 – James Munro, Scottish-Australian publisher and politician, 15th Premier of Victoria (d. 1908)

1834 – Johann Philipp Reis, German physicist and academic, invented the Reis telephone (d. 1874)

1837 – Thomas Henry Ismay, English businessman, founded the White Star Line Shipping Company (d. 1899)

1844 – Bernadette Soubirous, French nun and saint (d. 1879)

1850 – Joseph James Fletcher, Australian biologist (d. 1926)

1858 – Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, Belarusian lexicographer and journalist (d. 1922)

1860 – Emanuil Manolov, Bulgarian composer (d. 1902)

1864 – Seo Jae-pil, South Korean-American journalist and activist (d. 1951)

1870 – Gordon Hewart, 1st Viscount Hewart, English judge and politician, 7th Lord Chief Justice of England (d. 1943)

1871 – Émile Borel, French mathematician and politician (d. 1956)

1873 – Charles Péguy, French poet and journalist (d. 1914)

1873 – Adolph Zukor, Hungarian-American film producer, co-founded Paramount Pictures (d. 1976)

1875 – Gustav Flatow, German gymnast (d. 1945)

1876 – William Hurlstone, English pianist and composer (d. 1906)

1877 – William Clarence Matthews, American baseball player, coach, and lawyer (d. 1928)

1885 – Edwin Swatek, American swimmer and water polo player (d. 1966)

1887 – Oskar Luts, Estonian author and playwright (d. 1953)

1888 – Vera de Bosset, Russian-American ballerina (d. 1982)

1891 – Zora Neale Hurston, American novelist, short story writer, and folklorist (d. 1960)

1895 – Hudson Fysh, Australian pilot and businessman, co-founded Qantas Airways Limited (d. 1974)

1898 – Robert LeGendre, American pentathlete and dentist (d. 1931)

1899 – Al Bowlly, Mozambican-English singer-songwriter (d. 1941)

1899 – Francis Poulenc, French pianist and composer (d. 1963)

1900 – John Brownlee, Australian actor and singer (d. 1969)

1903 – Ioannis Despotopoulos, Greek architect and academic (d. 1992)

1903 – Alan Napier, English actor (d. 1988)

1905 – James Simpson, Jr., American race car driver and politician (d. 1960)

1906 – Red Allen, American trumpet player (d. 1967)

1906 – Bobbi Trout, American pilot (d. 2003)

1910 – Orval Faubus, American soldier and politician, 36th Governor of Arkansas (d. 1994)

1911 – Butterfly McQueen, American actress and dancer (d. 1995)

1912 – Charles Addams, American cartoonist, created The Addams Family (d. 1988)

1912 – Günter Wand, German conductor and composer (d. 2002)

1913 – Johnny Mize, American baseball player, coach, and sportscaster (d. 1993)

1914 – Bobby McDermott, American basketball player (d. 1963)

1916 – W. L. Jeyasingham, Sri Lankan geographer and academic (d. 1989)

1916 – Paul Keres, Estonian-Finnish chess player and theoretician (d. 1975)

1916 – Babe Pratt, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1988)

1917 – Ulysses Kay, American composer and educator (d. 1995)

1917 – Milton Resnick, Russian-American painter and educator (d. 2004)

1919 – Steve Belichick, American football player, coach and scout (d. 2005)

1920 – Vincent Gardenia, Italian-American actor and singer (d. 1992)

1921 – Esmeralda Arboleda Cadavid, Colombian politician (d. 1997)

1921 – Chester Kallman, American poet and translator (d. 1975)

1922 – Alvin Dark, American baseball player and manager (d. 2014)

1922 – Eric Jupp, English-Australian pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 2003)

1922 – Jean-Pierre Rampal, French flute player (d. 2000)

1923 – Hugh Kenner, Canadian scholar and critic (d. 2003)

1924 – Pablo Birger, Argentinian race car driver (d. 1966)

1924 – Gene L. Coon, American screenwriter and producer (d. 1973)

1925 – Gerald Durrell, Indian-English zookeeper, conservationist and author, founded Durrell Wildlife Park (d. 1995)

1926 – Kim Jong-pil, South Korean lieutenant and politician, 11th Prime Minister of South Korea

1928 – William Peter Blatty, American author and screenwriter (d. 2017)

1929 – Robert Juniper, Australian painter and sculptor (d. 2012)

1929 – Terry Moore, American actress

1930 – Jack Greene, American country singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2013)

1930 – Eddie LeBaron, American football player, manager, and sportscaster (d. 2015)

1931 – Mirja Hietamies, Finnish skier (d. 2013)

1932 – Joe Berinson, Australian pharmacist, lawyer, and politician; Attorney-General of Western Australia

1933 – Elliott Kastner, American-English film producer (d. 2010)

1933 – Phil Mulkey, American decathlete and coach

1934 – Jean Corbeil, Canadian lawyer and politician, 29th Canadian Minister of Labour (d. 2002)

1934 – Charles Jenkins Sr., American sprinter and coach

1934 – Tassos Papadopoulos, Cypriot lawyer and politician, 5th President of Cyprus (d. 2008)

1935 – Kenny Davern, American clarinet player and saxophonist (d. 2006)

1935 – Valeri Kubasov, Russian engineer and astronaut (d. 2014)

1935 – Ducky Schofield, American baseball player

1936 – G. Robert Blakey, American lawyer and academic

1936 – Ben Cropp, Australian hunter and photographer

1936 – Hunter Davies, Scottish author and journalist

1936 – Ian La Frenais, English screenwriter and producer

1938 – Lou Graham, American golfer and soldier

1938 – Paul Revere, American rock keyboard player and songwriter (d. 2014)

1938 – Roland Topor, French illustrator, painter, and actor (d. 1997)

1938 – Fred Whitfield, American baseball player (d. 2013)

1939 – Tom Kiernan, Irish rugby player and coach

1940 – Anton Norris, Barbadian high jumper and cricketer

1941 – Iona Brown, English violinist and conductor (d. 2004)

1941 – Frederick D. Gregory, American colonel, pilot, and astronaut

1941 – Manfred Schellscheidt, German-American soccer player and coach

1941 – John E. Walker, English chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate

1942 – Vasily Alekseyev, Russian-German weightlifter and coach (d. 2011)

1942 – Jim Lefebvre, American baseball player and manager

1942 – Danny Steinmann, American director and screenwriter (d. 2012)

1942 – Danny Williams, South African singer (d. 2005)

1943 – Richard Armstrong, English organist and conductor

1944 – Kotaro Suzumura, Japanese economist and academic

1944 – Tony Whitlam, Australian lawyer, judge, and politician

1945 – Tony Conigliaro, American baseball player and journalist (d. 1990)

1945 – Dick Marty, Swiss lawyer and politician

1945 – Raila Odinga, Kenyan engineer and politician, 2nd Prime Minister of Kenya

1946 – Michael Roizen, American anesthesiologist and author

1946 – Jann Wenner, American publisher, co-founded Rolling Stone

1946 – Mike Wilds, English race car driver and pilot

1947 – Tony Elliott, English publisher, founded Time Out

1947 – Mohammad-Reza Lotfi, Iranian setar player and composer (d. 2014)

1948 – Kenny Loggins, American singer-songwriter

1948 – Ichirou Mizuki, Japanese singer-songwriter

1950 – Juan Gabriel, Mexican singer-songwriter (d. 2016)

1950 – Erin Gray, American actress

1950 – Ross Grimsley, American baseball player and coach

1950 – Malcolm Macdonald, English footballer and manager

1952 – Sammo Hung, Hong Kong actor, director, producer, and martial artist

1953 – Robert Longo, American painter and sculptor

1953 – Morris Titanic, Canadian ice hockey player and coach

1954 – Alan Butcher, English cricketer and coach

1954 – José María Vitier, Cuban pianist and composer

1956 – David Caruso, American actor

1956 – Mike Liut, Canadian ice hockey player and coach

1956 – Kostas Petropoulos, Greek basketball player and coach

1957 – Nicholson Baker, American novelist and essayist

1957 – Katie Couric, American television journalist, anchor, and author

1959 – Angela Smith, Baroness Smith of Basildon, English accountant and politician

1959 – Kathy Valentine, American bass player and songwriter

1960 – Loretta Sanchez, American politician

1961 – Andrew Thomson, Australian lawyer and politician

1961 – John Thune, American lawyer and politician

1962 – Aleksandr Dugin, Russian sociologist and philosopher

1962 – Hallie Todd, American actress, producer, and screenwriter

1963 – Rand Paul, American ophthalmologist and politician

1964 – Nicolas Cage, American actor

1965 – Alessandro Lambruschini, Italian runner

1965 – John Ondrasik, American singer-songwriter

1967 – Nick Clegg, English academic and politician, Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

1967 – Tim Donaghy, American basketball player and referee

1967 – Guy Hebert, American ice hockey player

1967 – Ricky Stuart, Australian rugby player, coach, and sportscaster

1970 – Andy Burnham, English politician, Secretary of State for Health

1970 – Todd Day, American basketball player and coach

1970 – Park Won-sang, South Korean actor

1971 – Jeremy Renner, American actor

1972 – Donald Brashear, American-Canadian ice hockey player and mixed martial artist

1972 – Shane Kelly, Australian cyclist

1974 – Alenka Bikar, Slovenian sprinter and politician

1976 – Vic Darchinyan, Armenian-Australian boxer

1976 – Éric Gagné, Canadian baseball player

1976 – Tomas Ražanauskas, Lithuanian footballer and manager

1976 – Alfonso Soriano, Dominican baseball player

1977 – John Gidding, American architect and television host

1977 – Sofi Oksanen, Finnish author and playwright

1977 – Marco Storari, Italian footballer

1978 – Dean Cosker, English cricketer

1978 – Kevin Mench, American baseball player

1979 – Ha Jae-sook, South Korean actress

1979 – Ricardo Maurício, Brazilian race car driver

1980 – Campbell Johnstone, New Zealand rugby player

1980 – Ivan L. Moody, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actor

1980 – Zöe Salmon, Northern Irish model and television host, Miss Northern Ireland 1999

1980 – Reece Simmonds, Australian rugby league player

1980 – Merritt Wever, American actress

1981 – Alex Auld, Canadian ice hockey player

1981 – Marquis Daniels, American basketball player

1981 – Travis Friend, Zimbabwean cricketer

1982 – Francisco Rodríguez, Venezuelan baseball player

1982 – Hannah Stockbauer, German swimmer

1983 – Edwin Encarnación, Dominican baseball player

1983 – Natalie Gulbis, American golfer

1984 – Diego Balbinot, Italian footballer

1984 – Gong Hyun-joo, South Korean actress

1984 – Jon Lester, American baseball player

1984 – Antonino Saviano, Italian footballer

1985 – Austin Brown, American singer-songwriter

1985 – Lewis Hamilton, English race car driver

1986 – Grant Leadbitter, English footballer

1987 – Stefan Babović, Serbian footballer

1987 – Lyndsy Fonseca, American actress

1987 – Olga Panova, Russian tennis player

1987 – Jimmy Smith, English footballer

1988 – Scott Pendlebury, Australian footballer

1988 – Lim Ju-eun, South Korean actress

1989 – Miles Addison, English footballer

1990 – Michael Sam, American football player

1990 – Gregor Schlierenzauer, Austrian ski jumper

1991 – Eden Hazard, Belgian footballer

1991 – Caster Semenya, South African sprinter

1992 – Tohu Harris, New Zealand rugby league player

1996 – Fu Yuanhui, Chinese swimmer

Deaths

312 – Lucian of Antioch, Turkish martyr, saint, and theologian (b. 240)

672 – Tenji, Japanese emperor (b. 626)

856 – Aldric, bishop of Le Mans

1131 – Canute Lavard, Danish prince and saint (b. 1096)

1285 – Charles I of Naples (b. 1226)

1325 – Denis of Portugal (b. 1261)

1355 – Inês de Castro, Castilian noblewoman (b. 1325)

1361 – Gerlach I of Nassau-Wiesbaden

1400 – Thomas Holland, 1st Duke of Surrey, English politician (b. 1374)

1400 – John Montagu, 3rd Earl of Salisbury, English Earl (b. 1350)

1451 – Amadeus VIII of Savoy (b. 1383)

1451 – Antipope Felix V (b. 1383)

1536 – Catherine of Aragon (b. 1485)

1566 – Louis de Blois, Flemish monk and author (b. 1506)

1619 – Nicholas Hilliard, English painter and goldsmith (b. 1547)

1625 – Ruggiero Giovannelli, Italian composer and author (b. 1560)

1655 – Pope Innocent X (b. 1574)

1658 – Theophilus Eaton, American farmer and politician, 1st Governor of the New Haven Colony (b. 1590)

1694 – Charles Gerard, 1st Earl of Macclesfield, English general and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Gloucestershire (b. 1618)

1700 – Raffaello Fabretti, Italian scholar and author (b. 1618)

1715 – François Fénelon, French archbishop, theologian, and poet (b. 1651)

1758 – Allan Ramsay, Scottish poet and playwright (b. 1686)

1767 – Thomas Clap, American minister and academic (b. 1703)

1770 – Carl Gustaf Tessin, Swedish politician and diplomat (b. 1695)

1783 – William Tans'ur, English composer and educator (b. 1700)

1786 – Jean-Étienne Guettard, French physician and mineralogist (b. 1715)

1812 – Joseph Dennie, American journalist and author (b. 1768)

1830 – John Thomas Campbell, Irish-Australian public servant and politician (b. 1770)

1830 – Thomas Lawrence, English painter and educator (b. 1769)

1858 – Mustafa Reşid Pasha, Ottoman politician, Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire (b. 1800)

1864 – Caleb Blood Smith, American journalist and politician, 6th U.S. Secretary of the Interior (b. 1808)

1876 – Juste Olivier, Swiss poet and academic (b. 1807)

1878 – François-Vincent Raspail, French chemist, physician, and physiologist (b. 1794)

1892 – Tewfik Pasha, Egyptian ruler (b. 1852)

1893 – Josef Stefan, Slovenian physicist and mathematician (b. 1835)

1904 – Emmanuel Rhoides, Greek journalist and author (b. 1836)

1913 – Jack Boyle, American baseball player and umpire (b. 1866)

1919 – Henry Ware Eliot American businessman and philanthropist, co-founded Washington University in St. Louis (b. 1843)

1920 – Edmund Barton, Australian judge and politician, 1st Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1849)

1927 – Nikolaos Kalogeropoulos, Greek politician, 99th Prime Minister of Greece (b. 1851)

1931 – Edward Channing, American historian and author (b. 1856)

1932 – André Maginot, French sergeant and politician (b. 1877)

1936 – Guy d'Hardelot, French pianist and composer (b. 1858)

1941 – Charles Finger, English journalist and author (b. 1869)

1943 – Nikola Tesla, Serbian-American physicist and engineer (b. 1856)

1944 – Napoleon Lapathiotis, Greek lawyer and poet (b. 1888)

1951 – René Guénon, French-Egyptian philosopher and author (b. 1886)

1953 – Osa Johnson, American explorer, director, and producer (b. 1894)

1960 – Dorothea Douglass Lambert Chambers, English tennis player and coach (b. 1878)

1963 – Arthur Edward Moore, New Zealand-Australian farmer and politician, 23rd Premier of Queensland (b. 1876)

1964 – Reg Parnell, English race car driver and manager (b. 1911)

1966 – Allan Chapman, Scottish lawyer and politician (b. 1897)

1967 – David Goodis, American author and screenwriter (b. 1917)

1967 – Carl Schuricht, German-Swiss conductor (b. 1880)

1968 – J. L. B. Smith, South African chemist and academic (b. 1897)

1972 – John Berryman, American poet and scholar (b. 1914)

1980 – Larry Williams, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and producer (b. 1935)

1981 – Alvar Lidell, English journalist (b. 1908)

1981 – Eric Robinson, Australian businessman and politician, 2nd Australian Minister for Finance (b. 1926)

1984 – Alfred Kastler, German-French physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1902)

1986 – P. D. Eastman, American author and illustrator (b. 1909)

1986 – Juan Rulfo, Mexican author, screenwriter, and photographer (b. 1917)

1988 – Trevor Howard, English actor (b. 1913)

1989 – Hirohito, Japanese emperor (b. 1901)

1990 – Bronko Nagurski, Canadian-American football player and wrestler (b. 1908)

1990 – Horace Stoneham, American businessman (b. 1903)

1992 – Richard Hunt, American puppeteer and voice actor (b. 1951)

1995 – Murray Rothbard, American economist, historian, and theorist (b. 1926)

1996 – Károly Grósz, Hungarian politician, 51st Prime Minister of Hungary (b. 1930)

1996 – Tarō Okamoto, Japanese painter and sculptor (b. 1911)

1998 – Owen Bradley, American record producer (b. 1915)

1998 – Vladimir Prelog, Croatian-Swiss chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1906)

2000 – Gary Albright, American wrestler (b. 1963)

2001 – James Carr, American singer (b. 1942)

2002 – Avery Schreiber, American comedian and actor (b. 1935)

2004 – Ingrid Thulin, Swedish actress (b. 1926)

2005 – Pierre Daninos, French author (b. 1913)

2006 – Heinrich Harrer, Austrian mountaineer, geographer, and author (b. 1912)

2007 – Bobby Hamilton, American race car driver and businessman (b. 1957)

2007 – Magnus Magnusson, Icelandic journalist, author, and academic (b. 1929)

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

2011 – Derek Gardner, English engineer (b. 1931)

2012 – Ibrahim Aslan, Egyptian journalist and author (b. 1935)

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

2012 – Milburn E. Calhoun, American physician, philanthropist, and publisher (b. 1930)

2012 – George Livingston, American politician (b. 1933)

2012 – Herbert Wilf, American mathematician and academic (b. 1931)

2013 – Richard Ben Cramer, American journalist and author (b. 1950)

2013 – Ada Louise Huxtable, American curator and critic (b. 1921)

2013 – Harvey Shapiro, American poet and editor (b. 1924)

2014 – Paul Goggins, English politician (b. 1953)

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

2015 – Subhas Anandan, Indian-Singaporean lawyer (b. 1947)

2015 – Mompati Merafhe, Botswana general and politician, Vice-President of Botswana (b. 1936)

2015 – Arch A. Moore, Jr., American sergeant, lawyer, and politician, 28th Governor of West Virginia (b. 1923)

2015 – J. P. Parisé, Canadian-American ice hockey player, coach, and manager (b. 1941)

2015 – Herb Simpson, American baseball player (b. 1920)

2015 – Rod Taylor, Australian-American actor and screenwriter (b. 1930)

2015 – Georges Wolinski, Tunisian-French cartoonist (b. 1934)

2016 – Bill Foster, American basketball player and coach (b. 1929)

2016 – John Johnson, American basketball player (b. 1947)

2016 – Kitty Kallen, American singer (b. 1921)

2016 – Judith Kaye, American lawyer and jurist (b. 1938)

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

2017 – Mário Soares, Portuguese politician; 16th President of Portugal (b. 1924)

Holidays and observances

Christian Feast Day:

André Bessette (Canada)

Canute Lavard

Charles of Sezze

Lucian of Antioch

Raymond of Penyafort

Synaxis of John the Forerunner & Baptist (Julian Calendar)

January 7 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

Earliest day on which Plough Monday can fall, while January 13 is the latest; celebrated on Monday after Epiphany (Europe).

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

Christmas in Russia

Christmas in Ukraine

Christmas (Bosnia and Herzegovina)

Remembrance Day of the Dead (Armenia)

Distaff Day (medieval Europe)

Nanakusa no sekku (Japan)

Pioneer's Day (Liberia)

Tricolour day or Festa del Tricolore (Italy)

Victory from Genocide Day (Cambodia)