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1325 - Alfonso IV becomes King of Portugal.

1558 - France takes Calais, the last continental possession of England.

1566 - Pius V becomes Pope.

1598 - Boris Godunov seizes the throne of Russia.

1608 - Fire destroys Jamestown, Virginia.

1610 - Galileo Galilei observes the four largest moons of Jupiter for the first time. He named them and in turn the four are called the Galilean moons.

1782 - The first American commercial bank opens (Bank of North America).

1785 - Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard and American John Jeffries travel from Dover, England, to Calais, France, in a gas balloon.

1797 - The current flag of Italy is first used.

1835 - HMS Beagle anchors off the Chonos Archipelago.

1894 - W.K. Dickson receives a patent for motion picture film.

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

1922 - Dáil Éireann ratifies the Anglo-Irish Treaty by a 64-57 vote.

1924 - George Gershwin completes Rhapsody in Blue.

1924 - The International Hockey Federation (FIH) is founded in Paris by seven member states: Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, France, Hungary, Spain, and Switzerland.

1927 - First transatlantic telephone call - New York City to London.

1927 - The Harlem Globetrotters play their first game.

1935 - World War II: Benito Mussolini and French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval sign the Italo-French agreements.

1942 - World War II: Siege of the Bataan Peninsula begins.

1945 - British General Bernard Montgomery holds a press conference in which he claims credit for victory in the Battle of the Bulge.

1950 - A fire at the Mercy Hospital in Davenport, Iowa, kills 41 people.

1953 - President Harry Truman announces that the United States has developed a hydrogen bomb.

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

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

1972 - Iberia Airlines Caravelle 6-R crashed into Mont San Jose on approach to Ibiza Airport killing all 104 on board.

1979 - Phnom Penh fell to the advancing Vietnamese troops, driving out Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge.

1980 - President Jimmy Carter authorizes legislation giving $1.5 billion in loans to bail out Chrysler Corporation.

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

1989 - Hirohito, Emperor of Japan during World War II, dies.

1990 - The Leaning Tower of Pisa is closed to the public due to safety concerns.

1999 - The impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton begins.

2003 - Kobe Bryant, of the Los Angeles Lakers, breaks the NBA record for most 3-point field goals in a game with 12.

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1 BC (O.S.) - Jesus of Nazareth, central figure of Christianity, date celebrated by Eastern Orthodox churches as Christmas (d. circa 30) (Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas on December 25 according to the Julian Calendar, which for now coincides with January 7 on the Gregorian Calendar, but this will eventually shift.)

1355 - Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester, son of Edward III of England (d. 1397)

1502 - Pope Gregory XIII (d. 1585)

1528 - Jeanne d'Albret, Queen of Navarre (d. 1572)

1647 - Wilhelm Ludwig, Duke of Württemberg (d. 1677)

1685 - Jonas Alströmer, Swedish industrialist (d. 1761)

1706 - Johann Heinrich Zedler, German publisher (d. 1751)

1718 - Israel Putnam, American Revolutionary War general (d. 1790)

1768 - Joseph Bonaparte, King of Naples (d. 1844)

1800 - Millard Fillmore, 13th President of the United States (d. 1874)

1827 - Sir Sandford Fleming, a Canadian engineer and inventor, known for the introduction of Universal Standard Time (d. 1915)

1831 - Heinrich von Stephan, German labor organizer (d. 1897)

1834 - Johann Philipp Reis, German physicist and inventor (d. 1874)

1844 - Bernadette Soubirous, French saint (d. 1879)

1860 - Emanuil Manolov, Bulgarian composer (d. 1902)

1871 - Felix Édouard Justin Émile Borel, French mathematician, politician, and resistance fighter (d. 1956)

1873 - Adolph Zukor, Hungarian producer (d. 1976)

1875 - Thomas Hicks, American runner (d. 1963)

1891 - Zora Neale Hurston, American author (d. 1960)

1896 - Arnold Ridley, British playwright and actor (d. 1984)

1899 - Francis Poulenc, French composer (d. 1963)

1903 - Warren Hull, American actor (d. 1974)

1903 - Alan Napier, English actor (d. 1988)

1908 - Red Allen, American musician (d. 1967)

1910 - Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Pakistani poet (d. (1984)

1910 - Orval Faubus, Governor of Arkansas (d. 1994)

1911 - Butterfly McQueen, American actress (d. 1995)

1912 - Charles Addams, American cartoonist (d. 1988)

1913 - Johnny Mize, baseball player (d. 1993)

1916 - Paul Keres, Estonian chess player (d. 1975)

1922 - Vincent Gardenia, Italian-born actor (d. 1992)

1922 - Jean-Pierre Rampal, French flutist (d. 2000)

1922 - Alvin Dark, baseball player and manager

1923 - Hugh Kenner, Canadian literary critic (d. 2003)

1925 - Gerald Durrell British naturalist, zookeeper, author, and television presenter (d. 1995)

1928 - William Peter Blatty, American screenwriter

1929 - Terry Moore, American actress

1934 - Charlie Jenkins, American runner

1935 - Kenny Davern, American jazz clarinetist

1935 - Valeri Kubasov, cosmonaut

1937 - Paul Revere, American musician

1938 - Roland Topor, French illustrator (d. 1997)

1938 - Rory Storm, British singer (d. 1972)

1939 - Maury Povich, TV host (Current Affair, Maury)/Connie Chung's husband

1941 - Iona Brown, British violinist and conductor (d. 2004)

1941 - John E. Walker, English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate

1942 - Vasily Alexeev, Russian weightlifter

1944 - Arne Scheie, Norwegian sports commentator

1945 - Tony Conigliaro, American baseball player (d. 1990)

1945 - Dick Marty, Swiss politician

1946 - Jann Wenner, American publisher

1947 - Shobha De, Indian writer

1947 - Hristo Spasov Tsanoff, Bulgarian composer

1948 - Kenny Loggins, American singer

1949 - Steven Williams, American actor

1950 - Erin Gray, American actress

1950 - Juan Gabriel, Mexican singer and songwriter

1951 - Helen Worth, British actress

1951 - James Beard, American wrestling referee

1952 - Sammo Hung, Hong Kong actor, producer and director

1956 - David Caruso, American actor

1957 - Nicholson Baker, American novelist

1957 - Katie Couric, American television host

1957 - Julian Solis, Puerto Rican boxer

1959 - Kathy Valentine, American musician (The Go-Gos)

1962 - Aleksandr Dugin, Russian politician

1964 - Nicolas Cage, American actor, director, and producer

1964 - Kenneth Wajda, American filmmaker

1966 - Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, American publicist (d. 1999)

1967 - Mark Lamarr, British comedian and broadcaster

1967 - Guy Hebert, American professional hockey goaltender

1970 - Doug E. Doug, American actor

1970 - Joao Ricardo, Angolan footballer

1971 - David Yost, American actor

1971 - C.W. Anderson, American professional wrestler

1972 - Donald Brashear, American ice hockey player (Philadelphia Flyers)

1973 - Jonna Tervomaa, Finnish singer

1976 - Eric Gagné, Canadian baseball player

1976 - Alfonso Soriano, Dominican Major League Baseball player

1977 - Michelle Behennah, British model

1977 - Dustin Diamond, American actor

1979 - Bipasha Basu, Indian model and actress

1980 - Mariangel Ruiz, Venezuelan hostess, actress, and model

1981 - Marquis Daniels, American basketball player

1990 - Liam Aiken, American actor

1990 - Elene Gedevanishvili, Georgian figure skater

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1400 - Thomas Holland, 1st Duke of Surrey, English politician (executed) (b. 1374)

1536 - Catherine of Aragon, first wife of Henry VIII of England (b. 1485)

1566 - Louis de Blois, Flemish mystic (b. 1506)

1619 - Nicholas Hilliard, English painter (bc. 1547)

1625 - Ruggiero Giovannelli, Italian composer (bc. 1560)

1658 - Theophilus Eaton, Connecticut colonist (b. 1590)

1694 - Charles Gerard, 1st Earl of Macclesfield, English royalist general (bc. 1618)

1700 - Raphael Fabretti, Italian antiquarian (b. 1618)

1758 - Allan Ramsay, Scottish poet (b. 1686)

1767 - Thomas Clap, first president of Yale University (b. 1703)

1770 - Carl Gustaf Tessin, Swedish politician (b. 1695)

1783 - William Tans'ur, English hymnist (b. 1700)

1786 - Jean-Étienne Guettard, French physician and scientist (b. 1715)

1830 - Thomas Lawrence, English painter (b. 1769)

1864 - Caleb Blood Smith, 6th U.S. Secretary of the Interior (b. 1808)

1872 - James Fisk, American entrepreneur (b. 1834)

1878 - François-Vincent Raspail, French chemist (b. 1794)

1892 - Tewfik Pasha, Khedive of Egypt (b. 1852)

1893 - Jožef Stefan, Slovenian physicist, mathematician, and poet (b. 1835)

1913 - Jack Boyle, baseball player (b. 1866)

1919 - Henry Ware Eliot American industrialist and philantropist (b. 1843)

1920 - Edmund Barton, first Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1849)

1943 - Nikola Tesla, Serbian-born inventor and electrical engineer (b. 1856)

1951 - René Guénon, French-Egyptian author (b. 1886)

1964 - Cyril Davies, American musician (b. 1932)

1972 - John Berryman, American poet (b. 1914)

1984 - Alfred Kastler, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1902))

1986 - Juan Rulfo, Mexican novelist (b. 1917)

1988 - Trevor Howard, English actor (b. 1913)

1989 - Hirohito, Emperor of Japan (b. 1901)

1990 - Bronko Nagurski, American football player (b. 1908)

1995 - Murray Rothbard, American economist (b. 1926)

1996 - Károly Grósz, Hungarian politician (b. 1930)

1998 - Vladimir Prelog, Croatian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b.1906)

2000 - Gary Albright, professional wrestler (b. 1963)

2002 - Naughtia Childs porn star (suicide) (b. 1979)

2002 - Jon Lee, Welsh drummer (Feeder) (suicide) (b. 1968)

2002 - Avery Schreiber, American actor (b. 1935)

2005 - Pierre Daninos, French novelist (b. 1913)

2005 - Eileen Desmond, Irish politician (b. 1932)

2006 - Heinrich Harrer, Austrian mountaineer and explorer (b. 1912)

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Catholicism - Feast day of St. Raymond of Peñafort.

Christmas Day in the Julian calendar. This is the day on which Christmas is celebrated in most Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches.

European traditional - Distaff day: women's traditional work begins again after Epiphany.