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On This Day In History for January 7, 2026

This is the 7th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 358 days remaining in 2026.

It was on this date in 1610, that Galileo Galilei made his first observation of the four Galilean moons: Ganymede, Callisto, Io and Europa, although he was not able to distinguish the last two until the following night..
244 years ago today, The first American commercial bank, the Bank of North America, opened.
It was also this date in 1785 that Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard and American John Jeffries travelled from Dover, England, to Calais, France, in a gas balloon.
191 years ago today, HMS Beagle, with Charles Darwin on board, dropped anchor off the Chonos Archipelago.
That same date in 1894, Thomas Edison made a kinetoscopic film of someone sneezing. On the same day, his employee, William Kennedy Dickson, received a patent for motion picture film.
January 7, 1904, The distress signal “CQD” was established only to be replaced two years later by “SOS”.
Also today in 1927, The first transatlantic commercial telephone service was established from New York City to London.
On January 7, 1948, Kentucky Air National Guard pilot Thomas Mantell crashed while in pursuit of a supposed UFO.
That same date in 1968, Surveyor 7, the last spacecraft in the Surveyor series, lifted off from Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 36A..
Also on January 7, 1985, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency launched Sakigake, Japan’s first interplanetary spacecraft and the first deep space probe to be launched by any country other than the United States or the Soviet Union.

Happy birthday goes out on this date to:

Scottish-Canadian engineer, created Universal Standard Time, Sandford Fleming, born on this date in 1827.
German physicist and academic, invented the Reis telephone, Johann Philipp Reis was born 192 years ago today.
Born January 7, 1837, English businessman, founded the White Star Line Shipping Company Thomas Henry Ismay.
French mathematician and politician, Émile Borel was born 155 years ago today.
Born January 7, 1890, American soldier, pulp magazine writer, and pioneer of the American comic book Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson.
American cartoonist, created The Addams Family, Charles Addams was born 114 years ago today.
Also turning 85 today is English chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate John E. Walker.
American actor, Nicolas Cage is 62 today.

Listener Birthdays

8 – Elvis!
9 – Lingo from the Brit & Yankee pubcast
13 – Tim Cook

And that’s the way it was, on this day in history for January 7, 2026

If you want to get on the Technorama Birthday Calendar, visit our website and look for the Birthday Calendar link.

News

NYC Phone Ban Reveals Some Students Can’t Read Clocks – Slashdot

Hacks & Strange Stories

Zork Running On 4-Bit Intel Computer | Hackaday

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Media Corner

Chuck finally built a Plex server (now that he has more storage)

Pass me the remote

Kreg
- Playdate (Prime)
- After the Hunt (Prime)
Chuck
- Severance Season 2 (Apple TV)
- House of David (Amazon)
- Stranger Things Season 5 (Netflix)
- The Lost Bus (Apple TV)

Geek Library

The Ridiculous Engineering Of The World’s Most Important Machine

Question of the week

What is your Digital New Year’s Resolution?

Patreon Topic this week

Kreg’s Digital Resolutions
- Syncing with Boox with my Synology NAS
Chuck’s Notion Dev Project
Chuck’s USB cable

End of Show Stuff

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