On this Day in History - January 7 First U.S. Presidential Election

Once again, it should be reiterated, that this does not pretend to be a very extensive history of what happened on this day (nor is it the most original - the links can be found down below). If you know something that I am missing, by all means, shoot me an email or leave a comment, and let me know!

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

Jan 7, 1789: First U.S. presidential election

On this day in 1789, America's first presidential election is held. Voters cast ballots to choose state electors; only white men who owned property were allowed to vote. As expected, George Washington won the election and was sworn into office on April 30, 1789.  

As it did in 1789, the United States still uses the Electoral College system, established by the U.S. Constitution, which today gives all American citizens over the age of 18 the right to vote for electors, who in turn vote for the president. The president and vice president are the only elected federal officials chosen by the Electoral College instead of by direct popular vote.  

Today political parties usually nominate their slate of electors at their state conventions or by a vote of the party's central state committee, with party loyalists often being picked for the job. Members of the U.S. Congress, though, can’t be electors. Each state is allowed to choose as many electors as it has senators and representatives in Congress. The District of Columbia has 3 electors. During a presidential election year, on Election Day (the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November), the electors from the party that gets the most popular votes are elected in a winner-take-all-system, with the exception of Maine and Nebraska, which allocate electors proportionally. In order to win the presidency, a candidate needs a majority of 270 electoral votes out of a possible 538.  

On the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December of a presidential election year, each state's electors meet, usually in their state capitol, and simultaneously cast their ballots nationwide. This is largely ceremonial: Because electors nearly always vote with their party, presidential elections are essentially decided on Election Day. Although electors aren't constitutionally mandated to vote for the winner of the popular vote in their state, it is demanded by tradition and required by law in 26 states and the District of Columbia (in some states, violating this rule is punishable by $1,000 fine). Historically, over 99 percent of all electors have cast their ballots in line with the voters. On January 6, as a formality, the electoral votes are counted before Congress and on January 20, the commander in chief is sworn into office.  

Critics of the Electoral College argue that the winner-take-all system makes it possible for a candidate to be elected president even if he gets fewer popular votes than his opponent. This happened in the elections of 1876, 1888 and 2000. However, supporters contend that if the Electoral College were done away with, heavily populated states such as California and Texas might decide every election and issues important to voters in smaller states would be ignored.








Jan 7, 1953: Truman announces U.S. has developed hydrogen bomb

In his final State of the Union address before Congress, President Harry S. Truman tells the world that that the United States has developed a hydrogen bomb.  

It was just three years earlier on January 31, 1950, that Truman publicly announced that had directed the Atomic Energy Commission to proceed with the development of the hydrogen bomb. Truman's directive came in responds to evidence of an atomic explosion occurring within USSR in 1949.







Jan 7, 1979: Pol Pot overthrown

On January 7, 1979, Vietnamese troops seize the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, toppling the brutal regime of Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge.  

The Khmer Rouge, organized by Pol Pot in the Cambodian jungle in the 1960s, advocated a radical Communist revolution that would wipe out Western influences in Cambodia and set up a solely agrarian society. In 1970, aided by North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops, Khmer Rouge guerrillas began a large-scale insurgency against Cambodian government forces, soon gaining control of nearly a third of the country.  

By 1973, secret U.S. bombings of Cambodian territory controlled by the Vietnamese Communists forced the Vietnamese out of the country, creating a power vacuum that was soon filled by Pol Pot's rapidly growing Khmer Rouge movement. In April 1975, the Khmer Rouge captured Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital, overthrew the pro-U.S. regime, and established a new government, the Kampuchean People's Republic.  

As the new ruler of Cambodia, Pol Pot set about transforming the country into his vision of an agrarian utopia. The cities were evacuated, factories and schools were closed, and currency and private property was abolished. Anyone believed to be an intellectual, such as someone who spoke a foreign language, was immediately killed. Skilled workers were also killed, in addition to anyone caught in possession of eyeglasses, a wristwatch, or any other modern technology. In forced marches punctuated with atrocities from the Khmer Rouge, the millions who failed to escape Cambodia were herded onto rural collective farms.  

Between 1975 and 1978, an estimated two million Cambodians died by execution, forced labor, and famine. In 1978, Vietnamese troops invaded Cambodia, capturing Phnom Penh in early 1979. A moderate Communist government was established, and Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge retreated back into the jungle.  

In 1985, Pol Pot officially retired but remained the effective head of the Khmer Rouge, which continued its guerrilla actions against the government in Phnom Penh. In 1997, however, he was put on trial by the organization after an internal power struggle ousted him from his leadership position. Sentenced to life imprisonment by a "people's tribunal," which critics derided as a show trial, Pol Pot later declared in an interview, "My conscience is clear." Much of the international community hoped that his captors would extradite him to stand trial for his crimes against humanity, but he died of apparently natural causes while under house arrest in 1998.














Jan 7, 1959: United States recognizes new Cuban government

Just six days after the fall of the Fulgencio Batista dictatorship in Cuba, U.S. officials recognize the new provisional government of the island nation. Despite fears that Fidel Castro, whose rebel army helped to overthrow Batista, might have communist leanings, the U.S. government believed that it could work with the new regime and protect American interests in Cuba.  

The fall of the pro-American government of Batista was cause for grave concern among U.S. officials. The new government, temporarily headed by provisional president Manuel Urrutia, initially seemed chilly toward U.S. diplomats, including U.S. Ambassador Earl E. T. Smith. Smith, in particular, was wary of the politics of the new regime. He and other Americans in Cuba were suspicious of the motives and goals of the charismatic rebel leader Fidel Castro.  

Secretary of State John Foster Dulles overrode Smith's concerns. The secretary counseled President Dwight D. Eisenhower to recognize the Urrutia government, since it seemed to be "free from Communist taint" and interested in "friendly relations with the United States." Dulles and other U.S. officials may have viewed recognition of the new Cuban government as a way to forestall the ascension to power of more radical elements in the Cuban revolution. In addition, several other nations, including a number of Latin American countries, had already extended recognition.  Despite this promising beginning, relations between Cuba and the United States almost immediately deteriorated. U.S. officials realized that Castro, who was sworn in as the premier of Cuba in February 1959, wielded the real power in Cuba. His policies concerning the nationalization of American-owned properties and closer economic and political relations with communist countries convinced U.S. officials that Castro's regime needed to be removed. Less than two years later, the United States severed diplomatic relations, and in April 1961, unleashed a disastrous--and ineffectual--attack by Cuban exile forces against the Castro government (the Bay of Pigs invasion).











Jan 7, 1776: Samuel Adams writes that the confederation is not dead, but sleepeth

From Philadelphia, Samuel Adams writes to his friend Colonel James Warren that the idea of a confederation, or loose political union, among the colonies "is not dead, but sleepeth. To those who believed they would see the confederation completed long ago Adams wrote, I do not despair of it -- since our Enemies themselves are hastening it.  

The following day, Samuel's cousin, John Adams, wrote Warren's wife, Mercy Otis Warren, and inquired if she would prefer an American Monarchy or Republic. While John declared his own preference for a republic, he wished it only if We must erect an independent Government in America, which you know is utterly against my Inclination. Although he regaled Mrs. Warren with the many virtues of republican government, Adams remained concerned that, there is so much Rascallity, so much Venality and Corruption, so much Avarice and Ambition, such a Rage for Profit and Commerce among all Ranks and Degrees of Men even in America, that I sometimes doubt whether there is public Virtue enough to Support a Republic.  

Even among the inter-bred social elites of Massachusetts, there was no unanimity of opinion on the political course the colonies should take. Two days after John Adams equivocated over the sustainability of an American republic in his letter to Warren, Thomas Paine published Common Sense and swayed public opinion towards independence. Six months later, Congress charged Adams, by then considered an American Atlas for his passionate arguments for independence, to serve with Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin on the committee to draft the Declaration of Independence. Only his knowledge that Thomas Jefferson was the better writer kept Adams from drafting the famed document himself.









Jan 7, 1999: Clinton's Senate impeachment trial begins     

On this day in 1999, the United States Senate begins its impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton, the first president to be impeached by the House of Representatives since Andrew Johnson in 1868.  

The impeachment trial was the culmination of a slew of scandals involving the president and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton that included investigations into allegedly improper Arkansas real-estate deals, suspected fundraising violations, claims of sexual harassment and accusations of cronyism involving the firing of White House travel agents.  

Independent counsel Kenneth Starr was appointed to investigate the Paula Jones sexual harassment case; the investigation led Starr to Monica Lewinsky, a former White House intern who had been accused of having an affair with Clinton. In 1998, the scandal broke to the press and Clinton vehemently denied the relationship. A year of federal grand-jury testimony from various individuals in both camps followed, while Clinton continued to refute the allegations and invoked executive privilege when subpoenaed. Clinton later admitted to the affair, but his initial attempts to cover it up enabled House Republican leaders to begin the impeachment process for perjury and obstruction of justice.  Though Democratic leaders preferred to merely censure the president, a divided House of Representatives impeached Clinton on December 19, 1998. The issue then passed to the Senate. After a five-week trial, Clinton was acquitted.











Jan 7, 1785: Across the English Channel in a balloon

Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard and American John Jeffries travel from Dover, England, to Calais, France, in a gas balloon, becoming the first to cross the English Channel by air. The two men nearly crashed into the Channel along the way, however, as their balloon was weighed down by extraneous supplies such as anchors, a nonfunctional hand-operated propeller, and silk-covered oars with which they hoped they could row their way through the air. Just before reaching the French coast, the two balloonists were forced to throw nearly everything out of the balloon, and Blanchard even threw his trousers over the side in a desperate, but apparently successful, attempt to lighten the ship.  

Fourteen months earlier, French inventor Jean Francois Pilatre de Rozier and French army officer Francois Laurent had made the first manned hot air balloon flight when they flew over Paris for approximately 25 minutes. In January 1785, Rozier was among those racing to become the first balloonist to cross the English Channel, but just a few days before Blanchard and Jeffries' flight, he and his co-pilot were killed when their balloon caught fire during an attempted crossing.


Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:

754 - Pope Stefanus II arrives in Ponthion

1325 - Afonso IV succeeds Dionysius as King of Portugal

1558 - Calais, last English possession in France, retaken by French

1566 - Antonio "Michele" Ghislieri is elected Pope Pius V

1579 - England signs an offensive & defensive alliance with Netherland

1584 - Last day of the Julian calendar in Bohemia & Holy Roman empire

1598 - Boris Godunov seizes Russian throne on death of Feodor I

1601 - Robert, Earl of Essex leads revolt in London against Queen Elizabeth

1608 - Fire destroys Jamestown, Virginia

1610 - Galileo discovers 1st 3 Jupiter satellites, Io, Europa & Ganymede

1618 - Francis Bacon becomes English lord chancellor

1622 - Germany & Transylvania sign Peace of Nikolsburg

1654 - Fire after heavy storm destroys 2/3 of De Rijp Neth, 1 dies

1698 - Russian Czar Peter the Great departs Neth to England

1714 - Typewriter patented by Englishman Henry Mill (built years later)

1761 - Battle at Panipat India: Afghan army beats Mahratten

1782 - 1st US commercial bank, Bank of North America, opens in Philadelphia

1784 - 1st US seed business established by David Landreth, Philadelphia

1785 - 1st balloon flight across English Channel (Blanchard & Jeffries)

Russian Tsar Peter the GreatRussian Tsar Peter the Great 1797 - The modern Italian flag is first used.

1817 - 2nd Bank of US opens

1822 - 1st printing in Hawaii

1822 - Liberia colonized by Americans

1830 - 1st US Railroad Station opens (Baltimore)

1835 - HMS Beagle anchors off Chonos Archipelago

1842 - Gioacchino Rossini's opera "Stabat Mater" premieres in Paris

1861 - Florida troops takeover Ft Marion at St Augustine

1862 - Battle of Manassas Junction, VA

1862 - Romney Campaign-Stonewall Jackson march towards Romney, WV

1868 - Arkansas constitutional convention meets in Little Rock

1868 - Mississippi constitutional convention meets in Jackson

1888 - Start of Sherlock Holmes adventure "Valley of Fear" (BG)

1890 - W B Purvis patents fountain pen

1892 - Mine explosion kills 100, Krebs, Oklahoma-blacks trying to help rescue white survivors, driven away with guns

1893 - Hermann Sudermanns "Heimat," premieres in Berlin

1894 - Motion picture experiment of comedian Fred Ott filmed sneezing

1896 - Fanny Farmer publishes her 1st cookbook

1899 - Walter Camp publishes his 1st All-American football team in Collier's

1903 - Start of Sherlock Holmes "Adventure of Blanched Soldier" (BG)

1903 - Vincent d'Indy's opera "L'etranger," premieres in Brussel

Inventor and Nobel Laureate Guglielmo MarconiInventor and Nobel Laureate Guglielmo Marconi 1904 - Marconi Co establishes "CQD" as 1st intl radio distress signal

1907 - Clyde Fitch' "Truth," premieres in NYC

1908 - England beat Australia by one wicket at the MCG

1910 - Stanley Cup: Ottawa Senators sweep Galt (Ont) in 2 games

1911 - 1st airplane bombing experiments with explosives, SF

1911 - Dutch Scouts Organization established in Amsterdam

1913 - William M Burton patents a process to "crack" petroleum

1914 - 1st steamboat passes through Panama Canal

1916 - German troops conquer Fort Vaux at Verdun

1923 - Baltimore Sun warns of Ku Klux Klan

1925 - Musical "Big Boy" with Al Jolson premieres in NYC

1927 - Coml transatlantic telephone service inaugurated between NY & London

1927 - Harlem Globetrotters play 1st game (Hinckley, Illinois)

1929 - "Buck Rogers," 1st sci-fi comic strip, premieres

1929 - "Tarzan," one of the 1st adventure comic strips, 1st appears

1930 - Edwin Justus Mayer's "Children of Darkness," premieres in NYC

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.

1932 - 1st game played at Orchard Lake Curling Club, Mich

1933 - 1st edition of People & Fatherland published in Netherlands

1934 - "Flash Gordon" comic strip (by Alex Raymond) debuts

1935 - Zoe Akins' "Old Maid," premieres in NYC

1936 - Tennis champs Helen Moody & Howard Kinsley volley 2,001 times (1h18m)

1939 - US worker's union leader Tom Mooney freed (jailed since 1916)

1942 - WW II siege of Bataan starts

1944 - Air Force announces production of 1st US jet fighter, the Bell P-59

1945 - Lord Haw-Haw reports total German victory at Ardennen

1946 - Cambodia becomes autonomous state inside French Union

1947 - Aust v Eng at MCG drawn in 6 days, 1st cricket draw in Aust since 1882

33rd US President Harry Truman33rd US President Harry Truman 1948 - US president Harry Truman raises taxes for Marshall-plan

1949 - 1st photo of genes taken at U of S California by Pease & Baker

1950 - "Happy as Larry" closes at Coronet Theater NYC after 3 performances

1950 - Hank Snow's 1st appearance on "Grand Ole Opry"

1950 - Mental health wing of Mercy Hospital burns, kills 41 (Davenport Ia)

1952 - French Plevin government falls

1953 - Pres Harry Truman announces development of hydrogen bomb

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 - Marian Anderson becomes 1st black singer to perform at Met (NYC)

1955 - WCIQ TV channel 7 in Mt Cheaha, AL (PBS) begins broadcasting

1956 - Vinoo Mankad scores 231 v NZ, 413 opening stand with Roy

1958 - USSR shrinks army to 300,000

1959 - US recognizes Fidel Castro's Cuban government

1961 - 1st NFL Playoff Bowl (runner-up bowl)-Detroit beats Cleveland 17-16

1961 - Trucial States (now UAE) issue their 1st postage stamps

Cuban President Fidel CastroCuban President Fidel Castro 1962 - AFL Pro Bowl: West beats East 47-27

1962 - Assassination attempt on Indonesian president Sukarno, fails

1962 - Bollingen Prize for poetry awarded to John Hall Wheelock

1963 - 1st class postage raised from 4 cents to 5 cents

1964 - Bahamas becomes self-governing

1964 - Dick Weber rolls highest bowling game in air (Boeing 707)

1965 - France announces it will convert $150 million of its currency to gold

1966 - Dance Theatre of Harlem debuts

1966 - Gene Kiniski beats Lou Thesz in St Louis, to become NWA champ

1967 - "Newlywed Game" premieres on ABC TV

1968 - "GE College Bowl" quiz show premieres on NBC TV

1968 - 1st class postage raised from 5 cents to 6 cents

1969 - US Congress doubles president salary

1970 - Farmers sue Max Yasgur for $35,000 in damages caused by "Woodstock"

1971 - -40°F (-40°C), Hawley Lake, Ariz (state record)

1972 - Iberian Airlines crashes into 800' peak on island of Ibiza, 104 die

1972 - LA Lakers chalk up 33rd consecutive win (NBA record)

1972 - Lewis F Powell Jr becomes a Supreme Court Justice

1972 - William Hubbs Rehnquist, sworn in as Supreme Court Justice

1972 - LA Lakers 33 straight win streak snapped, losing to Bucks 120-104

1973 - "Purlie" closes at Billy Rose Theater NYC after 14 performances

1973 - British Darts Organisation founded in North London

1973 - Jo Ann Prentice wins LPGA Burdine's Golf Invitational

1973 - Johnny Watkins bowls six overs 0-21 v Pakistan Never again

1973 - US poet James Merrill wins Bollingen Prize

1973 - WNPB TV channel 13 in Marquette, MI (PBS) begins broadcasting

1974 - Dutch rations gasoline

1975 - "Shenandoah" opens at Alvin Theater NYC for 1050 performances

1975 - Bollingen Prize for poetry awarded to AR Ammons (Sphere)

1975 - Gary Geld & Peter Udell's musical "Shenandoah," premieres in NYC

1975 - Led Zeppelin fans riot before Boston concert, causing $30,000 damage

1977 - Huyman Rights Charta '77 established in Prague

1978 - Angola revises its constitution

1979 - Vietnamese forces capture Phnom Penh from Khmer Rouge

1980 - Minn ends Phila Flyers' NHL record 35 game unbeaten streak ends

1982 - "Fame" premieres on NBC TV

1982 - Islander's Bryan Trottier's 10th career hat trick

1983 - Australia regain the Ashes with a 2-1 series win v England

US President & Actor Ronald ReaganUS President & Actor Ronald Reagan 1983 - President Reagan ends US arms embargo against Guatemala

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

1985 - "King & I" opens at Broadway Theater NYC for 191 performances

1985 - Japanese space probe Sakigake launched to Halley's comet

1985 - KHQ-AM in Spokane WA changes call letters to KLSN (now KAQQ)

1985 - Lou Brock & Hoyt Wilhelm, elected to Baseball's Hall of Fame

1986 - Netherlands Bank issues 250 guilder notes

1986 - STS 61-C mission scrubbed at T -9m because of weather problems

1986 - US President Reagan proclaims economic sanctions against Libya

1987 - French airplanes harass Libyan positions in Duadi Doum

1987 - Kapil Dev takes his 300th Test wicket, at 28 the youngest

1989 - Akhito becomes emperor of Japan

1989 - Intl Conference on Limitation of Chemical Weapons opens in Paris

1989 - NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers longest win streak (11)

1989 - Cleve Cavs block 21 NY Knick shots tying NBA regulation game record

1990 - Lynn Jennings runs world record 5K indoor at 15:22.64

1990 - Tower Of Pisa closed to the public after leaning too far

1991 - "Nia Peeples Party Machine" premieres on TV

1992 - AT&T releases video-telephone ($1,499)

1992 - Last day of Test cricket for Imran Khan

1992 - Tom Seaver & Rollie Fingers elected to Baseball's Hall of Fame

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

1994 - South Africa beat Australia in the Sydney Test by 5 runs

1994 - US female Figure Skating championship won by Tonya Harding

1994 - United Express commuter plane crashes in Ohio, killing 5

1995 - "Christmas Carol" closes at Richard Rodgers Theater NYC after 18 perfs

1995 - "Passion" closes at Plymouth Theater NYC after 280 performances

1996 - "Crazy after You" closes at Shubert Theater NYC after 1622 perfs

1996 - "Fool Moon" closes at Ambassador Theater NYC after * performances

1996 - 16th United Negro College Fund raises $12,600,000

1997 - Newt Gingrich, narrowly re-elected speaker of the House

White House Intern Monica LewinskyWhite House Intern Monica Lewinsky 1998 - Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky signs affidavit denying she had an affair with President Bill Clinton

1999 - President Bill Clinton begins his impeachment trial in the Senate.

2012 - Hot air balloon crashes in Carterton, New Zealand, killing 11

2013 - Lionel Messi wins the FIFA Ballon d'Or for the third consecutive year

1558 - Calais, the last English possession on mainland France, was recaptured by the French.   1610 - Galileo Galilei sighted four of Jupiter's moons. He named them Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.   1782 - The Bank of North America opened in Philadelphia. It was the first commercial bank in the United States.   1785 - French aeronaut/balloonist Jean-Pierre Blanchard successfully made the first air-crossing of the English Channel from the English coast to France.   1789 - Americans voted for the electors that would choose George Washington to be the first U.S. president.   1887 - Thomas Stevens completed the first worldwide bicycle trip. He started his trip in April 1884. Stevens and his bike traveled 13,500 miles in almost three years time.   1894 - W.K. Dickson received a patent for motion picture film.   1896 - "Fannie Farmer Cookbook" cookbook was published.   1904 - The distress signal "CQD" was established. Two years later "SOS" became the radio distress signal because it was quicker to send by wireless radio.   1926 - George Burns and Gracie Allen were married.   1927 - Transatlantic telephone service Service began between New York and London. 31 calls were made on this first day.   1927 - In Hinckley IL, the Harlem Globetrotters played their first game.   1929 - The debut of "Buck Rogers 2429 A.D." occurred in newspapers around the U.S. The title of the comic strip was later changed to "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century."   1932 - Chancellor Heinrich Brüning declared that Germany cannot, and will not, resume reparations payments.   1935 - French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval and Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini signed the Italo-French agreements.   1940 - "Gene Autry’s Melody Ranch" debuted on CBS Radio. The show aired for 16 years.   1941 - The NBC Blue radio network presented "The Squeaky Door" for the first time. The show was later known as "Inner Sanctum."   1942 - The World War II siege of Bataan began.   1949 - The announcement of the first photograph of genes was shown at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.   1953 - U.S. President Harry Truman announced the development of the hydrogen bomb.   1954 - The Duoscopic TV receiver was unveiled this day. The TV set allowed the watching of two different shows at the same time.   1959 - The United States recognized Fidel Castro's new government in Cuba.   1968 - The cost of a U.S. first class stamp was raised to 6 cents.   1975 - OPEC agreed to raise crude oil prices by 10%, which began a time of world economic inflation.   1979 - Vietnamese forces captured the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, overthrowing the Khmer Rouge government.   1980 - U.S. President Jimmy Carter signed legislation that authorized $1.5 billion in loans for the bail out of Chrysler Corp.   1989 - Crown Prince Akihito became the emperor of Japan following the death of his father, Emperor Hirohito.   1990 - The Leaning Tower of Pisa was closed to the public. The accelerated rate of "leaning" raised fears for the safety of its visitors.   1996 - Alvaro Arzu was elected president of Guatemala.   1996 - One of the biggest blizzards in U.S. history hit the eastern states. More than 100 deaths were later blamed on the severe weather.   1998 - Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky signed an affidavit denying that she had an affair with U.S. President Clinton.   1999 - U.S. President Clinton went on trial before the Senate. It was only the second time in U.S. history that an impeached president had gone to trial. Clinton was later acquitted of perjury and obstruction of justice charges.   2002 - Microsoft Corp. chairman Bill Gates introduced a new device code named Mira. The device was tablet-like and was a cross between a handheld computer and a TV remote control.   2009 - Russia shut off all gas supplies to Europe through Ukraine. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin publicly endorsed the move and urged greater international involvement in the energy dispute.   2010 - Apple's iPad was unveiled.



1896 Fanny Farmer published her first cookbook. 1927 Transatlantic commercial telephone service began between New York and London. 1953 Harry Truman announced that the U.S. had developed the hydrogen bomb. 1955 Marian Anderson made her Metropolitan Opera debut. 1979 Vietnamese forces captured the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, overthrowing Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge government. 1989 Japan's Emperor Hirohito died. 1999 The impeachment trial of President William Clinton began in the Senate.

The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:

http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php

http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/jan07.htm

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory