TODAY IN HISTORY - JANUARY 7TH

1608 – Fire destroys Jamestown, Virginia.

1782 – The first American commercial bank, the Bank of North America, opens.

1800 – Millard Fillmore, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 13th President of the United States (d. 1874) is born.

1827 – Sandford Fleming, Scottish-Canadian engineer, created Universal Standard Time (d. 1915) is born.

1831 – Heinrich von Stephan, German postman, founded the Universal Postal Union (d. 1897) is born.

1873 – Adolph Zukor, Hungarian-American film producer, co-founded Paramount Pictures (d. 1976) is born.

1894 – William Kennedy Dickson receives a patent for motion picture film.

1895 – Hudson Fysh, Australian pilot and businessman, co-founded Qantas Airways Limited (d. 1974) is born.

1904 – The distress signal "CQD" is established only to be replaced two years later by "SOS".

1912 – Charles Addams, American cartoonist, created The Addams Family (d. 1988) is born.

1927 – The first transatlantic telephone service is established from New York, New York to London.

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.

1935 – Benito Mussolini and French Foreign minister Pierre Laval sign the Franco-Italian Agreement.

1944 – Lou Henry Hoover, American wife of Herbert Hoover, 33rd First Lady of the United States (b. 1874) dies.

1946 – Jann Wenner, American publisher, co-founded Rolling Stone is born.

1948 – Kentucky Air National Guard pilot Thomas Mantell crashes while in pursuit of a supposed UFO.

1954 – Georgetown-IBM experiment: The first public demonstration of a machine translation system, is held in New York at the head office of IBM.

1957 – Katie Couric, American television journalist, anchor, and author is born.

1959 – The United States recognizes the new Cuban government of Fidel Castro.

1968 – Surveyor Program: Surveyor 7, the last spacecraft in the Surveyor series, lifts off from launch complex 36A, Cape Canaveral.

1980 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter authorizes legislation giving $1.5 billion in loans to bail out the Chrysler Corporation.

1989 – Hirohito, Japanese emperor (b. 1901) dies.

1999 – The Senate trial in the impeachment of U.S. President Bill Clinton begins.

2015 – Two gunmen commit mass murder at the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris, killing twelve people and injuring another eleven.