On This Day - What happened 7 January

On 7 January 1610, Galileo observed with his telescope what he described at the time as "three fixed stars, totally invisible by their smallness", all close to Jupiter, and lying on a straight line through it.

On January 6, 1759, Washington, at age 26, married Martha Dandridge Custis, the 28-year-old widow of wealthy plantation owner Daniel Parke Custis. The marriage took place at Martha's estate; she was intelligent, gracious, and experienced in managing a planter's estate, and the couple created a happy marriage.

On 7 January 1849, Dickens visited Norwich and Yarmouth in Norfolk, with two close friends, John Leech (1817–1864) and Mark Lemon (1809–1870). Leech was an illustrator at Punch, a satirical magazine, and the first illustrator for A Christmas Carol by Dickens in 1843. Lemon was a founding editor of Punch, and soon a contributor to Household Words, the weekly magazine Dickens was starting up; he co-authored Mr Nightingale's Diary, a farce, with Dickens in 1851. The two towns, especially the second, became important in the novel, and Dickens informed Forster that Yarmouth seemed to him to be "the strangest place in the world" and that he would "certainly try my hand at it". During a walk in the vicinity of Yarmouth, Dickens noticed a sign indicating the small locality of Blunderston, which became in his novel the village of "Blunderstone" where David is born and spends his childhood.

In the state of Veracruz, textile workers rioted in January 1907 at the huge Río Blanco factory, the world's largest, protesting against unfair labor practices. They were paid in credit that could be used only at the company store, binding them to the company.

On 7 January 1912, the Yili Uprising with Feng Temin began. Qing governor Yuan Dahua fled and handed over his resignation to Yang Zengxin, because he could not handle fighting the revolutionaries.

Anglo-Irish Treaty was then ratified in triplicate: by Dáil Éireann on 7 January 1922.

The offensive halted on 7 January 1942, after having the German armies pushed back 100–250 km (62–155 mi) from Moscow.

In response, on January 7, 1953, Truman announced the detonation of the first U.S. hydrogen bomb, which was much more powerful than the Soviet Union's atomic weapons.

Monroe began a new battle for control over her career and left Hollywood for the East Coast, where she and photographer Milton Greene founded their own production company, Marilyn Monroe Productions (MMP) – an action that has later been called "instrumental" in the collapse of the studio system. Announcing its foundation in a press conference in January 1955, Monroe stated that she was "tired of the same old sex roles. I want to do better things

On 7 January 1957, Governor-General Robert Lacoste summoned General Salan and General Massu commander of the 10th Parachute Division (10e DP) and explained that, as the Algiers police force was incapable of dealing with the FLN and controlling the Pied-noirs, Massu was to be granted full responsibility for the maintenance of order in Algiers.

OPEC decides to freeze prices until April 1.

The changes to the IMF articles of agreement reflecting these changes were ratified in 1976 by the Jamaica Accords.

On January 7, 1989, at 7:55 AM, the grand steward of Japan's Imperial Household Agency, Shoichi Fujimori, officially announced the death of Emperor Hirohito at 6:33 AM and revealed details about his cancer for the first time.

On January 7, 1989, Reagan underwent surgery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center to repair a Dupuytren's contracture of the ring finger of his left hand.

The tower was closed to the public on 7 January 1990.

On 7 January 1993, Orthodox Christmas Day, 8th Operational Unit Srebrenica, a unit of the ARBiH under the command of Bratunac Killings, attacked the village of Kravica near Bratunac. 46 Serbs died in the attack: 35 soldiers and 11 civilians.

On 7 January 1995, Russian Major-General Viktor Vorobyov was killed by mortar fire, becoming the first on a long list of Russian generals to be killed in Chechnya.

The Senate trial began on January 7, 1999, with Chief Justice of the United States William Rehnquist presiding. The first day consisted of formal presentation of the charges against Clinton, and of Rehnquist swearing in all arguants in the trial.

He set an NBA record for three-pointers in a game on January 7, 2003, when he made 12 against the Seattle SuperSonics.

The 2012 FIFA Ballon d'Or Gala was the third year for FIFA's awards for the top football players and coaches of the year. The awards were given out in Zürich on 7 January 2013., with Lionel Messi winning a record fourth consecutive Ballon d'Or.

On the January 7, 2013 episode of Raw, The Rock returned to confront his Rumble opponent CM Punk.

PlayStation Now (PS Now) is a Gaikai-based video game streaming service used to provide PlayStation gaming content to PlayStation 3 (PS3), PlayStation 4 (PS4), PlayStation Vita, PlayStation TV and BRAVIA televisions. The service currently allows users to pay for access to a selection of original PlayStation 3 titles on either a per-game basis or via a subscription. PlayStation Now was announced on January 7, 2014 at the 2014 Consumer Electronic Show.

On 7 January 2020, a stampede took place at the burial procession for Soleimani in Kerman attended by hundreds of thousands of mourners, killing 56 and injuring 212 more.

On January 7, 2020, OnePlus unveiled the Concept One smartphone at CES 2020. The OnePlus Concept One uses electrochromic glass to “hide” the rear-facing camera setup. The glass of the phone uses organic particles to create changes in transparency so that the glass covering the camera lenses can instantly shift from opaque black to transparent, presenting a clean, unbroken surface when not in use. OnePlus calls it a manifest of its ‘burdenless’ design philosophy. This optimal solution is called ‘Electronic CMF.' The rest of the design is inspired by the McLaren 720S supercar, with Papaya Orange leather on the rear of this concept phone and a sliver of glass right down the center of the rear panel of the device.

On 7 January of 49, the Senate passed a senatus consultum ultimum, which vested Pompey with dictatorial powers. Pompey's army, however, was composed largely of untested conscripts.

Theodore Ivanovich, also known as Feodor I, died at 40.

Stephen Groombridge, English Astronomer, was born in Kent in the 18th century.