As of today, January 7, 2023

What happened like today in Greece and the world.

421: The wedding of Emperor Theodosius II with Athenaida, daughter of the philosopher Leontius, is celebrated in Constantinople with grandeur. Shortly before the sacrament, the later Augusta had been baptized a Christian with the name Evdokia.

1186: The emperor of Byzantium, Isaac II Angelos Komnenos, with general Alexios Vranas, defeats in a great battle near Strymonas the Normans, who were marching against Constantinople after the capture of Dyrrachium and Thessaloniki.

1325: Alfonso IV becomes king of Portugal.

1558: France captures Calais, England’s last possession on French soil.

1598: Boris Godunov becomes Tsar of Russia, after the death of Theodore I.

1610: The Italian mathematician and astronomer, Galileo (Galileo Galilei), discovers four of Jupiter’s moons: Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.

1968: Surveyor 7, the last spacecraft in the Surveyor series, lifts off from Cape Canaveral’s Launch Complex 36.

1969: The trial for the assassination of Robert Kennedy begins in Los Angeles, with the accused Sirhan Sirhan.

1977: Port Authorities locate and seize 11 tons of hashish on the Cypriot-flagged M/S “Gloria” in the Isthmus of Corinth. The case will be made into a popular song by Vassilis Tsitsanis, entitled “The steamer from Persia”.

1979: Vietnamese troops occupy Phnom Penh, driving out Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge.

1989: Akihito succeeds his father Hirohito and becomes the 125th Emperor of Japan.

1990: The Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy is closing its gates to tourists for the first time in 800 years, due to work to prevent collapse.

1994: The Commission, through its vice-president Henning Kristoffersen, recommends a freeze on public sector recruitment.

1998: The Lunar Prospector spacecraft launches and enters orbit around the moon. He would later discover frozen water on the surface of the moon.

1999: In the US Senate, the process begins with the question of the impeachment of the American president, Bill Clinton, because of the “Monica Lewinsky” case. The procedure is being done for the first time after 130 years. He will be acquitted later…

2004: Costas Simitis announces the early appeal to the polls on March 7. PASOK will go to the elections with George Papandreou as its leader, while until then he remains the prime minister of the country.

2009: A reshuffle of the government of Costas Karamanlis is announced by the government representative. The “tsar of the economy” Giorgos Alogoskoufis remains outside the government, while the changes in the financial staff are sweeping.

2015: Twelve dead and eleven injured from the attack of two armed hooded men on the offices of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, an action without precedent in the history of the French press. The attackers, two brothers of Algerian origin, were members of Al-Qaeda and according to eyewitnesses, they shouted “We took revenge for the Prophet”.

Births

1502 – Pope Gregory XIII

1768 – Joseph Bonaparte, King of Naples

1796 – Charlotte, Princess of Wales

1800 – Millard Fillmore, 13th president of the United States.

1827 – Sandford Fleming, Scottish engineer

1834 – Philip Rice, German physicist and inventor

1845 – Louis III, King of Bavaria

1875 – Gustavus Flatov, German gymnast

1881 – Henrik Gallen, Austrian director, screenwriter and actor

1883 – Andrew Cunningham, British admiral

1899 – Francis Poulenc, French composer

1903 – Ioannis Despotopoulos, Greek architect

1916 – Fernando Sancho, Spanish actor

1918 – Kevin Lynch, American urban planner and author

1925 – Gerald Durrell, British naturalist

1928 – Emilio Pericoli, Italian singer

1934 – Tassos Papadopoulos, Cypriot politician

1937 – Ali Soili, president of the Comoros

1939 – Prince Michael of Greece

1943 – Sadako Sasaki, Japanese symbol of the innocent victims of war

[1945–RailaOdingaPrimeMinisterofKenya

1947 – Sadik Ahmed, Greek politician

1948 – Itchiro Mizuki, Japanese actor and singer

1949 – Eduardos Kontogiorgakis, Argentine soccer player

1950 – Elias Andriopoulos, Greek composer

1956 – David Caruso, American actor

1956 – Kostas Petropoulos, Greek basketball player and coach

1963 – Christos Thivaios, Greek songwriter

1963 – Clint Mansell, English musician and composer

1963 – Rand Paul, American politician

1964 – Nicolas Cage, American actor

1967 – Nick Clegg, English politician

1971 – Jeremy Renner, American actor

1979 – Bipasha Basu, Indian actress and model

1984 – Max Riemelt, German actor

1985 – Lewis Hamilton, English racing driver

1987 – Davide Astori, Italian football player

1987 – Sirusho (née Shiranous Haroutunian), Armenian singer

1991 – Eden Hazard, Belgian footballer

Deaths

1131 – Cnut Lavard, Danish prince

1285 – Charles of Andegavos, king of Naples

1325 – Dionysios, King of Portugal

1355 – Ines de Castro, Queen of Portugal

1451 – Amadeus VIII, Count of Savoy

1536 – Catherine of Aragon, Queen of England

1547 – Albert VII, Duke of Mecklenburg

1655 – Pope Innocent I

1715 – François Fénelon, French theologian and writer

1830 – Thomas Lawrence, English painter

1858 – Mustafa Resit Pasha, Ottoman politician

1864 – Spyridon Kalogeropoulos, Greek politician

1882 – Ignacy Lukasiewicz, Polish pharmacist and inventor

1893 – Josef Stefan, Slovenian physicist and mathematician

1904 – Emmanuel Roidis, Greek writer

1927 – Nikolaos Kalogeropoulos, Greek politician

1938 – George Gerogiannis, Greek politician

1943 – Nikola Tesla, Serbian inventor and electrical engineer

1951 – René Guénon, French writer

1954 – Christoforos Pantazidis, Greek politician

1958 – Konstantinos Vlachothanasis, Greek doctor and politician

1972 – Eftychia Papagiannopoulou, Greek lyricist

1982 – Athanasios Efstathiou, Greek politician

1984 – Alfred Kastler, French physicist

1988 – Trevor Howard, English actor

1989 – Stefanos Kotsianos, Greek lawyer and politician

1989 – Hirohito, Emperor of Japan

1995 – Murray Rothbard, American economist

1998 – Richard Hamming, American mathematician

2002 – Georgios Tzatzanis, Greek jurist and politician

2006 – Leon Karapanagiotis, Greek journalist

2007 – Tasos Bandis, Greek actor

2009 – Maria Dimitriadis, Greek singer

2015 – Georges Volinsky, French cartoonist

2016 – Anna Synodinou, Greek actress

2017 – Mario Soares, Portuguese politician

2019 – Stratis Filippotis, Greek writer and publisher.