7 January in history.

1610

Galileo sees Jupiter's moons. Pointing his homemade telescope at Jupiter, Galileo Galilei noticed small points of light beside it. They turned out to be moons circling another world, proof that not everything in the sky goes around the Earth.

Wikipedia: Galileo Galilei

Photo: WhatADrag07 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

More from 7 January

1. 

   1927

   Calling across the Atlantic

   A commercial telephone service between New York and London opened, letting people talk across the ocean for the first time.

   Wikipedia: History of the telephoneWikipedia: Transatlantic communications cable

   Photo: Unknown author Unknown author ; film commissioned by AT&T. / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

2. 1939

   Francium is discovered

   French physicist Marguerite Perey identified the element francium. It was the last element to be found in nature rather than made in a laboratory.

   Wikipedia: Marguerite PereyWikipedia: Francium

3. 

   1954

   A computer translates Russian

   In New York, IBM and Georgetown University gave the first public demonstration of a machine translating sentences from one language to another.

   Wikipedia: Georgetown–IBM experimentWikipedia: Machine translation

   Photo: Dan / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

4. 

   1955

   Marian Anderson sings at the Met

   Contralto Marian Anderson sang the role of Ulrica in Verdi's Un ballo in maschera at New York's Metropolitan Opera. No African American singer had performed with the company before.

   Wikipedia: Marian AndersonWikipedia: Metropolitan Opera

   Photo: Carl Van Vechten / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

Moments chosen for discovery, creativity and courage. Each one links to a source where you can read more; photos are credited to their owners.