January 7
It’s Old Rock Day
ON THIS DAY…
1610 Galileo dated his first letter describing telescopic observations in which he saw the moon’s cratered surface using his twenty-powered spyglass
1782 The first American commercial bank, Bank of North America, opens
1785 Frenchman Jean Pierre Blanchard and American physician and scientist John Jeffries made the first air crossing of the English Channel from England to France in a hot-air balloon – the first international flight
1789 First national (Presidential) election in the US
1839 Louis Daguerre made the first announcement of his photographic system at the Académie des Sciences in Paris
1841 Victor Hugo is elected to the Académie Francaise on his fifth attempt
1890 W.B. Purvis patents the fountain pen
1894 Thomas Edison recorded his first motion picture experiment of a man on film, comedian Fred Ott, sneezing
1926 George Burns and Gracie Allen marry in Cleveland, OH
1927 The Harlem Globetrotters make their debut
1929 Tarzan of the Apes debuts in newspaper comic strips with illustrations by Hal Foster
1929 Buck Rogers in the 25th Century A.D., the first science fiction comic strip, debuts
1953 US President Truman announces development of the hydrogen bomb
1959 The United States recognizes the new Cuban government of Fidel Castro
1963 First class postage raised from 4 cents to 5 cents
1966 The Newlywed Game debuts on ABC
1970 Farmers sue Max Yasgur for $35,000 in damages caused by Woodstock
1999 The Senate begins impeachment hearings against President Bill Clinton
BORN:
1800 Millard Fillmore, 13th President of the United States (1850-1853)
1873 Adolph Zukor, producer (The Milky Way, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde)
1891 Zora Neale Hurston, writer (Their Eyes Were Watching God, The Gilded Six-Bits)
1903 Alan Napier, actor (Batman, Marnie, Journey to the Center of the Earth)
1911 Butterfly McQueen, actress (Gone with the Wind, Cabin in the Sky, The Mosquito Coast)
1912 Charles Addams, cartoonist (The Addams Family)
1924 Geoffrey Bayldon, actor (Catweazle, The House That Dripped Blood)
1925 Gerald Durrell, conservation biologist / author (My Family and Other Animals, Tarka the Otter)
1928 William Peter Blatty, Academy Award-winning screenwriter (The Exorcist, The Ninth Configuration)
1929 Terry Moore, actress (Mighty Joe Young, Son of Lassie)
1936 Hunter Davies, writer (The Beatles, Beatrix Potter’s Lakeland)
1938 Paul Revere, musician (Paul Revere and the Raiders)
1948 Kenny Loggins, musician (“I’m Alright,” “Return to Pooh Corner,” “Footloose”)
1949 Steven Williams, actor (The X-Files, 21 Jump Street)
1950 Erin Gray, actress (Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday)
1952 Sammo Hung, actor / director (Martial Law, The Banquet)
1956 David Caruso, actor (NYPD Blue, CSI: Miami)
1964 Nicolas Cage, Academy Award-winning actor (Leaving Las Vegas, Ghost Rider)
1967 Mark Lamarr, TV/Radio personality (Shooting Stars, Never Mind the Buzzcocks)
1970 Doug E. Doug, actor (Eight Legged Freaks, That Darn Cat, Dr. Giggles)
DIED:
1536 Catharine of Aragon, first wife of King Henry VIII, dies at 50
1912 Sophia Jex-Blake, British physician though whose determined efforts Parliament passed legislation to give women the right to have access to a medical education, dies at 71
1943 Nikola Tesla, inventor / researcher who designed and built the first alternating current induction motor in 1883, dies at 86
1988 Trevor Howard, actor (Brief Encounter, The Third Man, The Charge of the Light Brigade) dies at 74
1998 Jerome L. Murray, inventor of the peristaltic pump that made open-heart surgery possible, dies at 85
1998 Richard Wesley Hamming, mathematician who devised computer Hamming codes – error-detecting and correcting codes, dies at 82
2002 Avery Schreiber, actor / comedian (Dracula: Dead and Loving It, Caveman), dies at 66