| 7 January 1251 | Florence, Italy, Holy Roman Empire [political events] | The Italian city-republic of Florence admits the exiled anti-imperialist party, the Guelphs. A new constitution is formed led by the capitano del popolo (‘captain of the people’) independent of the nobles. |
| 7 January 1328 | Italy, Holy Roman Empire [administration] | King Ludwig IV of Bavaria enters Rome, Italy, and is crowned emperor by the ‘four syndics of the Roman people’. Pope John XXII declares a crusade against Ludwig who retaliates by declaring John deposed. |
| 7 January 1537 | Florence, Italy, Holy Roman Empire [political events] | The tyrannical Alessandro de' Medici, Duke of Florence, is assassinated by a distant relative; his cousin Cosimo I the Great de' Medici succeeds him when the city fails to take the opportunity to rebel against Medici rule. |
| 7 January 1558 | France, England [political events] | French forces under Francis, Duke of Guise, capture Calais on the north French coast from England. Guines and Ham castles fall by the end of the month. The loss of Calais, the last English possession on the continent, is regarded as a national disaster in England, and support for the Hispanophile regime of Queen Mary I plummets. |
| 7 January 1566 | Papal States, Italy [political events] | Antonio Ghislieri is elected Pope Pius V, succeeding Pius IV who died on 9 December 1565. |
| 7 January 1619 | England [births and deaths] | Nicholas Hilliard, first great English portraitist and miniaturist of the Renaissance, dies in London, England (c. 72). |
| 7 January 1892 | Egypt [administration] | At the age of 18, Abbas succeeds Tewfik as khedive of Egypt, ruling until 1914 and demonstrating hostility towards British influence. |
| 7 January 1899 | France [births and deaths] | Francis Poulenc, French composer, born in Paris, France (–1963). |
| 7 January 1927 | USA, UK [telephone services] | A transatlantic telephone service begins between London, England, and New York City, provided by the American Telephone and Telegraph company (AT&T). |
| 7 January 1943 | USA [births and deaths] | Nikola Tesla, Croatian-born US electrical engineer who discovered the rotating magnetic field and invented a polyphase system of alternating current, dies in New York City (86). |
| 7 January 1977 | Czechoslovakia [human rights] | Human-rights supporters in Czechoslovakia publish the manifesto ‘Charter 77’, pressing for implementation of the 1975 Helsinki human-rights guarantees given at the 1975 Helsinki conference in Finland. |
| 7 January 1979 | Cambodia, Vietnam [political events] | Vietnamese troops and Cambodian rebels capture the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, and oust the Khmer Rouge regime. |
| 7 January 1989 | Japan [political events] | On the death of Emperor Hirohito of Japan after a 62-year reign, he is succeeded by his son, Crown Prince Akihito. |
| 7 January 1989 | Japan [births and deaths] | Hirohito, emperor of Japan 1927–89, dies in Tokyo, Japan (87). |
| 7 January 1998 | World, Germany [biology] | Doctors meeting at the World Medical Association's conference in Hamburg, Germany, call for a worldwide ban on human cloning. US president Clinton calls for legislation banning cloning. |
