On This Day
What Happened on January 7 in History
8 events that happened on January 7, oldest first. Every entry is written in our own words and links to its source.
Colonial America and the Revolution
1610
Galileo Galilei observed moons circling Jupiter through his telescope, at first taking them for small stars.
Over the following nights he watched the points of light shift position around the planet and concluded they were orbiting it. He announced the discovery of the four moons now called the Galilean moons in his book Sidereus Nuncius in March 1610.
Source: science.nasa.gov; mo-www.harvard.edu
The Cold War
1953
Harry S. Truman told Congress that U.S. thermonuclear tests had opened a new era of destructive power.
In his last State of the Union message before leaving office, Truman referred to the recent thermonuclear tests at Eniwetok, telling the world the United States had developed a hydrogen bomb. He had ordered work on the weapon to proceed three years earlier.
Source: history.com; trumanlibrary.gov
1955
Marian Anderson became the first African American to perform on the Metropolitan Opera's main stage.
Near the end of a career long limited by racism, Anderson sang the role of Ulrica in Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera in New York.
Source: pbs.org; history.com
1968
Surveyor 7, the last of NASA's Surveyor landers, was launched toward the Moon.
Surveyor 7 was the last of the Surveyor robotic landers sent to the Moon, following Surveyor 6, launched in November 1967.
Source: nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov
1979
Vietnamese forces captured Phnom Penh and toppled Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge government.
After taking power in 1975, the Khmer Rouge had emptied Cambodia's cities and killed anyone seen as an intellectual or a skilled worker. Vietnam's capture of the capital ended that rule.
Source: history.com; archive.nytimes.com
The Modern Era
1998
The Lunar Prospector orbiter was launched toward the Moon.
Lunar Prospector was built to study the Moon from orbit. It followed the Clementine orbiter of 1994 as the next lunar orbiter on NASA's exploration timeline.
Source: nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov
1999
The Senate impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton began.
Clinton was charged with lying under oath and obstructing justice. Chief Justice William Rehnquist presided, and the only earlier presidential impeachment trial had been Andrew Johnson's in 1868.
Source: history.com
2015
Gunmen attacked the Paris offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, killing 12 people.
The attackers targeted the magazine over its depictions of Islam and the Prophet Muhammad. The attack highlighted the danger of homegrown terrorism in Europe.
Source: history.com