On this day: 07/01/-49

The Senate of Rome says that Caesar will be declared a public enemy unless he disbands his army. This prompts the tribunes who support him to flee to Ravenna, where Caesar is waiting.

On this day: 07/01/1325

Alfonso IV becomes King of Portugal.

On this day: 07/01/1558

French troops, led by Francis, Duke of Guise, take Calais, the last continental possession of England.

On this day: 07/01/1608

Fire destroys Jamestown, Virginia.

On this day: 07/01/1610

Galileo Galilei makes his first observation of the four Galilean moons: Ganymede, Callisto, Io and Europa, although he is not able to distinguish the last two until the following day.

On this day: 07/01/1738

A peace treaty is signed between Peshwa Bajirao and Jai Singh II following Maratha victory in the Battle of Bhopal.

On this day: 07/01/1782

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

On this day: 07/01/1785

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

On this day: 07/01/1835

HMS Beagle, with Charles Darwin on board, drops anchor off the Chonos Archipelago.

On this day: 07/01/1894

Thomas Edison makes a kinetoscopic film of someone sneezing. On the same day, his employee, William Kennedy Dickson, receives a patent for motion picture film.