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January 7

January 7

January 7 is the seventh day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 358 days remaining (359 in leap years). The day is 人日 (Jinjitsu), 七草の節句 in Japan.

Events

- 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.
- 1601 - Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex leads revolt in London against Queen Elizabeth
- 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, becoming the first togreen-white-red tricolour as official flag. It is the birthday of the flag of Italy.
- 1835 - HMS Beagle anchors off the Chonos Archipelago.
- 1894 - W.K. Dickson receives a patent for motion picture film.
- 1896 - Fannie Farmer publishes her first cookbook.
- 1901 - Alferd Packer is released from prison after serving 18 years for cannibalism.
- 1904 - The distress signal "CQD" is established only to be replaced two years later by "SOS."
- 1911 - Mary Pickford marries Owen Moore.
- 1922 - Dáil Éireann ratifies the Anglo-Irish Treaty by 64-57 votes.
- 1924 - George Gershwin completes Rhapsody in Blue.
- The International Hockey Federation (FIH) is founded in Paris by seven member states: Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, France, Hungary, Spain, and Switserland.
- 1926 - George Burns marries Gracie Allen.
- 1927 - First international telephone call - New York City to London.
- 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 - 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
- 1975 - OPEC agrees to raise crude oil prices by 10%.
- 1979 - Phnom Penh fell to the advancing Vietnamese troops, so 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 - Akihito becomes Emperor of Japan.
- 1990 - The Leaning Tower of Pisa is closed to the public due to safety concerns.
- 1996 - One of the worst blizzards in American history hits eastern states killing more than 100.
- 1999 - The impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton begins.

Births

- 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)
- 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)
- 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
- 1941 - Iona Brown, British violinist and conductor (d. 2004)
- 1941 - John E. Walker, English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1942 - Vasily Alexeev, Russian weightlifter
- 1945 - Tony Conigliaro, American baseball player (d. 1990)
- 1946 - Jann Wenner, American publisher
- 1948 - Kenny Loggins, American singer
- 1949 - Steven Williams, American actor
- 1950 - Erin Gray, American actress
- 1956 - David Caruso, American actor
- 1957 - Nicholson Baker, American novelist
- 1957 - Katie Couric, American television host
- 1957 - Julian Solis, Puerto Rican boxer
- 1964 - Nicolas Cage, American actor
- 1966 - Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, American publicist (d. 1999)
- 1967 - Mark Lamarr, British comedian
- 1971 - David Yost, American actor
- 1976 - Eric Gagné, Canadian baseball player
- 1976 - Alfonso Soriano, Dominican Major League Baseball player
- 1977 - Dustin Diamond, American actor
- 1979 - Bipasha Basu, Indian model and actress
- 1980 - Mariangel Ruiz, Venezuelan hostees, actress, and model
- 1990 - Liam Aiken, American Actor

Deaths

- 1400 - Thomas Holland, 1st Duke of Surrey, English politician (executed) (b. 1374)
- 1536 - Catherine of Aragon, queen of Henry VIII of England (b. 1485)
- 1566 - Louis de Blois, Flemish mystic (b. 1506)
- 1619 - Nicholas Hilliard, English painter
- 1625 - Ruggiero Giovannelli, Italian composer
- 1658 - Theophilus Eaton, Connecticut colonist (b. 1590)
- 1694 - Charles Gerard, 1st Earl of Macclesfield, English royalist general
- 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, U.S. Secretary of the Interior (b. 1808)
- 1872 - James Fisk, American entrepreneur (b. 1834)
- 1878 - François-Vincent Raspail, French chemist (b. 1794)
- 1893 - Jožef Stefan, Slovenian physicist, mathematician, and poet (b. 1835)
- 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 - Don Martin, American illustrator (b. 1931)
- 2002 - Gyula Várady, Hungarian footballer (b. 1919)
- 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)

Holidays and observances

- Catholicism - Feast day of St. Raymond of Penafort.
- Christmas Day in the Julian calendar. This is the day on which Christmas is celebrated in most Orthodox churches, e.g. the Coptic Orthodox, Macedonian Orthodox, Serbian Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, Anthiochian Orthodox as well as the Greek Orthodox Church in Athens & Egypt.
- European traditional - Distaff day: women's traditional work begins again after Epiphany.

External links

- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/7 BBC: On This Day] ---- January 6 - January 8 - December 7 - February 7 — listing of all days ko:1월 7일 ms:7 Januari ja:1月7日 simple:January 7 th:7 มกราคม

January 7

January 7 is the seventh day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 358 days remaining (359 in leap years). The day is 人日 (Jinjitsu), 七草の節句 in Japan.

Events

Births

Deaths

Holidays and observances

External links

7 (number)

For the 1995 American murder thriller movie, go to Se7en. 7 (seven) is the natural number following 6 and preceding 8. The SI prefix for 1000⁷ is zetta (Z), and for its reciprocal zepto (z).

In mathematics

:
- Seven is the fourth-smallest prime number; the next is 11. :
- Seven is a Mersenne prime, since 2³ - 1 = 7. :
- Seven is the fourth Mersenne prime exponent. :
- Seven is the first Newman-Shanks-Williams prime. :
- Seven is the third Lucas prime. :
- Seven is the first Woodall prime. :
- Seven is also the second lucky prime. :
- Seven is the second safe prime. :
- Seven is the fourth factorial prime :
- Seven is the smallest number that can't be represented as a sum of fewer than four nonzero squares. :
- Seven is also a self number. :
- Although the divisible by seven (7) test is not well known (especially compared to the popular divisible by three (3) test), there is an easy way to test if a natural number is evenly divisible by seven (7): ::# Remove the last digit, ::# Double it, and ::# Subtract it from the remaining digits. ::# Repeat until you end up with a result that is a multiple of seven (7). (i.e. -7, 0, or +7) ::For example, the number 1358 is evenly divisible by seven, since: :::135 - (8
- 2) = 119 :::11 - (9
- 2) = -7 ::Using Number Theory the proof is rather easy, once we rewrite the number n in the form: :::n = 10a + b ::Where: :::a is the remaining digits, and :::b is the last digit. ::Then: :::10a + b = 0 (mod 7) :::5
- (10a + b) = 0 (mod 7) :::49a + a + 5b = 0 (mod 7) :::a + 5b - 7b = 0 (mod 7) :::a - 2b = 0 (mod 7) :
- 999,999 divided by 7 is exactly 142,857, so vulgar fractions with 7 in the denominator have six-digit repeating sequences in their decimal expansions. 1/7 = 0.142857142.... :
- A seven-sided polygon is a heptagon. The regular n-gons for n ≤ 6 can be constructed by ruler and compass alone, but the regular heptagon cannot. Figurate numbers representing heptagons (including seven) are called heptagonal numbers. Seven is also a centered hexagonal number. :
- There are seven frieze groups, the groups consisting of symmetries of the plane whose group of translations is isomorphic to the group of integers. :
- A group or a series of seven is a heptad. :
- 7 is the only dimension, besides the familiar 3, in which a vector cross product can be defined.

In numeral systems

Base	Numeral system
2	binary	111
3	ternary	21
4	quaternary	13
5	quinary	12
6	senary	11
7	septenary	10
over 7 (octal, decimal)		7

The Arabic glyph

Image:Evo7glyph.png In the beginning, various Hindus wrote 7 more or less in one stroke as a curve that looks like an uppercase J upside down. The western Ghubar Arabs' main contribution was to make the longer line diagonal rather than straight, though they showed some tendencies to making the character more rectilinear. The eastern Arabs developed the character from a 6-look-alike into an uppercase V-look-alike. Both modern Arab forms influenced the European form, a two-stroke character consisting of a horizontal upper line joined at its right to a line going down to the bottom left corner, a line that is slightly curved in some font variants. As is the case with the European glyph, the Cham and Khmer glyph for 7 also evolved to look like their glyph for 1, though in a different way, and so they were also concerned with making their 7 more different. For the Khmer this often involved adding a horizontal line above the glyph. This is analogous to the horizontal stroke through the middle that is sometimes used in handwriting in the Western world but which is almost never used in computer fonts. Image:Digital7sL.png On the seven-segment displays of pocket calculators and digital watches, 7 is the number with the most common glyph variation (0 and 6 also have variant glyphs). Most calculators use three line segments, but on Sharp, Casio and a few other brands of calculators, 7 is written with four line segments. In fonts with text figures, 7 usually has a descender, for example, Image:TextFigs078.png.

In science

- The atomic number of nitrogen.
- The number of periods, or horizontal rows of elements, on the periodic table.
- The number of carbon atoms in heptane, a hydrocarbon.
- The neutral pH - the pH level of pure water In astronomy, : The number of objects in the solar system visible to the naked eye, the classical "planets" (Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Sun). A fact that is believed to have led to the concept of seven days of the week. : Messier object M7, a magnitude 3.5 open cluster in the constellation Scorpius. : The New General Catalogue [http://www.ngcic.org/ object] NGC 7, a 14th magnitude spiral galaxy in the constellation Sculptor : The seven daughters of Atlas in the Pleiades (also called the "seven sisters"). : The Saros [http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/SEsaros/SEsaros1-175.html number] of the solar eclipse series which began on -2590 April 8 and ended on -1310 May 16. The duration of Saros series 7 was 1280.1 years, and it contained 72 solar eclipses. : The Saros [http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/LEsaros/LEsaros1-175.html number] of the lunar eclipse series which began on -2595 July 15 and ended on -1008 February 22. The duration of Saros series 7 was 1586.6 years, and it contained 89 lunar eclipses.

Language

In Cantonese, the 16th most popular language in the world, the number 7 is pronounced exactly like the word for the male genitalia. It is coined for the negative phrase "You are 7", which has a slightly different meaning to "You are the male genitalia". It is very popular among teens.

In music

- The number of notes in the musical scale
- In music, the Roman numeral vii is the subtonic (bVII) or leading tone (VII) scale degree, chord, or diatonic function, when distinguished V = major and v = minor
- The number of completed, numbered symphonies of Jean Sibelius and Sergei Prokofiev

Albums

There are several albums titled 7:
- A 2003 album by Enrique Iglesias: see 7 (Enrique Iglesias album).
- A 2000 album by S Club 7: see 7 (S Club 7 album)
- A 1997 album by Zap Mama: see 7 (Zap Mama album)
- A 1996 album by Apoptygma Berzerk: see 7 (Apoptygma Berzerk album)
- A 1992 album by James: see Seven (James album).
- A 1986 album by George Strait: see 7 (George Strait album)
- A 1985 album by David Meece: see 7 (David Meece album)
- A 1981 album by Madness: see 7 (Madness album)
- A 1991 album by Mannheim Steamroller: see Fresh Aire 7

In religion

- A highly symbolic number in the Hebrew Bible, being, for example, the day on which God rested in Genesis
- The number of ayat in surat al-Fatiha
- The number of heavens in Islamic tradition
- The number of the Deadly Sins: lust, avarice, envy, pride, sloth, gluttony and wrath
- The seven terraces of Mount Purgatory (one per deadly sin)
- The number of sacraments in the Roman Catholic faith
- Considered the usual number for a witches' coven
- The number of palms in an Egyptian Sacred Cubit
- The number of heads of the beast of the book of Revelation, and of some other monsters, like the hydra
- The minor symbol number of yang from the Taoist yin-yang.
- The number of times whoever slays Cain in the bible will be avenged upon.

In sports

- In rugby union, the openside flanker
- In baseball, seven represents the left fielder's position
- Retired nimber of former baseball star Mickey Mantle
- Boomer Esiason's jersey number

In technology

- The code for international direct dial phone calls to Russia and Kazakhstan
- On most phones, the 7 key is associated with the letters P, R, and S (there are a few phones that also put Q on 7, such as Sony Ericson cell phones), but on the BlackBerry it is the key for C and V.
- The number of digits in an American telephone number, excluding the area code
- The number of individual segments in one digit on a digital clock or calculator seven-segment display screen
- In all Microsoft Office programs, the F7 function key calls up the spelling and grammar checker
- In most Sonic the Hedgehog video games, the number of Chaos Emeralds
- In ASCII character set, the bell character
- The letter T in the computer language "leet" (1337)

In television

- In an episode of Seinfeld, the name George Costanza desired to give his first-born (with Susan Ross) due to a promise he had made to the widow of Mickey Mantle, whose number was 7
- The name of one of the monsters in the cartoon television show Seven Little Monsters
- A character added to the cast of Married... with Children who was quickly removed.

In other fields

There are seven continents on Planet Earth. Seven is the smallest positive integer requiring two syllables in English. There are seven musicians in a septet and seven babies born in a set of septuplets. The most famous set of septuplets are the McCaughey Septuplets, who were born in 1997. The British fifty-pence and twenty-pence coins are heptagons, with the sides curved to give them a constant diameter. Many cities are claimed to be constructed amidst seven hills; see Seven hills of Rome and List of cities claimed to be built on seven hills. Serial sevens are used as a diagnostic test in medicine. Seven is also:
- Seven is one of the two magazines along with Stella introduced by Sarah Sands of The Sunday Telegraph in the United Kingdom on November 6 2005.
- The maximum amount of times that you can fold a sheet of paper in half
- The largest number of sticks (or other cylindrical objects) that can be tied into a bundle such that the shape of the bundle remains fixed. This may have led to the number being viewed with mystical significance by ancient man.
- The number of spheres in the Ptolemaic system
- The name of musician/actor Andre Benjamin's and singer Erykah Badu's son, Seven.
- September was the seventh month in the ancient Roman calendar, as its name indicates. After the reform that led to the current order, the seventh month is July.
- In Astrology, Libra is the 7th astrological sign of the Zodiac.
- The traditional number of Wonders of the Ancient World.
- Viewed as a lucky number in many Western cultures, and in Japanese culture.
- The number of days in a week. Whether Saturday or Sunday is the seventh day varies across cultures.
- Septidi was the seventh day of the decade in the French Revolutionary Calendar
- Referred to in bingo as 'Lucky Seven'
- The number of the ages of man into which William Shakespeare divided a lifetime
- The figurative number of seas
- The number of colors of the rainbow (the asteroid 7 Iris is named after the rainbow goddess Iris)
- The number of basic principles of the bushido
- The number of points on a sheriff's star
- The average number of digits that can be stored in short-term memory
- The name of an elite agency of photojournalists founded by seven leading photographers, including James Nachtwey and others
- In the movie The Ring, the number of days until you die, after watching The Cursed Videotape.
- The title of:
- The film Seven (or Se7en), directed in 1995 by David Fincher and starring Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt and Kevin Spacey
- The album and song Seventh Son of a Seventh Son by Iron Maiden, also based on a book with the same name written by Orson Scott Card.
- The song "Seven" by David Bowie
- The stage name of musician Keith Volpone
- The number of "Zoomers" on the PBS children's show Zoom
- Part of the names of:
- Seven Pillars of Wisdom, a book written by T. E. Lawrence
- The Secret Seven, name of children adventure book by Enid Blyton
- The book Seven Years in Tibet
- Kurosawa's film The Seven Samurai, that inspired the 1960 movie with Steve McQueen The Magnificent Seven and its own sequels
- The video game Final Fantasy VII
- Several groupings called the Seven Sisters
- Seven Sisters, a 1998 song album by pop singer Meja
- The crewmember, Seven of Nine, in the Star Trek universe
- The World Sevens Series in Rugby Union, including the Hong Kong Sevens
- the sport itself
- The Seven Network of Australia
- The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, a book by Stephen Covey
- The metal band Avenged Sevenfold, also known as A7X.
- "Seven Nation Army," a popular single by the White Stripes
- The Seven Sages of Greece: Solon, Chilon, Thales, Bias, Cleobulus, Pittacus and Periander.
- The traditional count of Basque provinces as expressed in the slogan Zazpiak Bat
- In Galician folklore, the seventh son will be a werewolf. In other folklores, after six daughters, the seventh child is to be a son and a werewolf. In other European folklores, the seventh son of a seventh son will be a vampire.
- Sevens is a card game
- 007, codename for James Bond, a fictional secret spy agent
- When rolling two standard six-sided dice, you are statistically more likely to roll a seven than any other number
- In the Sailor Moon cartoon, the characters must find the seven Nijizuishou.
- Seven is the sum of any two opposite sides on a standard six-sided die
- In the Harry Potter series, seven is considered to be the most magically powerful number. Lord Voldemort is suspected to have split his soul into seven pieces.
- Many Bungie games directly and indirectly reference the number seven often. For example, the UESC Marathon from the self-titled game series was built by hollowing out Deimos, a moon discovered in 1877.
- In the InuYasha series, the Shichinintai are, as their name says, a band of seven mercenaries.
- Historical years: A.D. 7, 7 B.C., or 1907
- The number of dwarves in the movie Snow White

Jinjitsu

In Japan, , literally "Human Day", is one of the . It is celebrated on the 7th of January. It is also known as , "the feast of seven herbs", from the custom of eating to ensure good health for the coming year. The name comes from an ancient Chinese custom, whereby each of the opening days of the first lunar month was assigned to a particular creature, which it was forbidden to kill on that day: thus the first seven days of the month were Chicken Day, Dog Day, Boar Day, Sheep Day, Cow Day, Horse Day, and Human Day: on this seventh day, no punishments were handed out to criminals. The celebration of the feast in Japan was moved from the 7th day of the first lunar month to the 7th of January in the Meiji period, when Japan adopted the solar calendar. ja:人日 Category:Festivals in Japan

1325

Events

- January 7:Alfonso IV becomes the King of Portugal.
- Muhammed Tughlaq succeeds his father Ghiyas al-Din Tughlaq as Sultan of Delhi.
- Tenochtitlan founded.

Births

- William de Ros, 4th Baron de Ros (died 1352)
- Francesco Landini, Florentine organist and composer (died 1397)
- Prince Narinaga, Japanese shogun (died 1338)
- Nicolas Oresme, French philosopher (died 1382)

Deaths

- January 7 - King Dinis of Portugal
- November 21 - Yuri of Russia, Prince of Moscow and Vladimir
- December 16 - Charles of Valois, son of Philip III of France (born 1270)
- Nizamuddin Auliya, Sufi saint (born 1238)
- Yuri III Danilovich, Russian grand prince (born 1281) Category:1325 ko:1325년 simple:1325

Alfonso IV of Portugal

Afonso IV of Portugal (Portuguese pron. IPA //; English Alphonzo), or Affonso (Archaic Portuguese), Alfonso or Alphonso (Portuguese-Galician) or Alphonsus (Latin), (February 8 1291 – May 28 1357), known as the Brave (Port. o Bravo), was the seventh king of Portugal from 1325 until his death. He was the only legitimate son of Dinis of Portugal by his wife Elizabeth. Elizabeth Afonso, born in Lisbon, was his father's only legitimate son and the rightful heir to the Portuguese throne. However, he was not, according to several sources, Dinis' favourite son; his half-brother, the illegitimate Afonso Sanches, enjoyed full royal favour. From early in life, the notorious rivalry led to several outbreaks of civil war. On January 7, 1325, Afonso's father died and he became king, taking full revenge on his brother. His rival was sentenced to exile in Castile, and stripped of all the lands and fiefdoms donated by their common father. Afonso Sanches, however, did not sit still. From Castile, he orchestrated a series of attempts to usurp the crown for himself. After a few failed attempts at invasion, both brothers signed a peace treaty, arranged by the Queen Isabella. In 1309, Afonso IV married princess Beatrice, daughter of King Sancho IV of Castile by his wife Maria de Molina. The first-born of this union, princess Maria of Portugal, married King Alfonso XI of Castile in 1328, at the same time that Afonso IV's heir, Peter, was promised to another Castilian princess, Constance of Penafiel. These arrangements were imperiled by the ill will of Alfonso XI of Castile, who was, at the time, publicly mistreating his wife. Afonso IV was not happy to see his daughter abused, and started a war against Castile. Peace arrived four years later, with the intervention of princess Maria herself. A peace treaty was signed in Seville in 1339 and, in the next year, Portuguese troops played an important role in the victory of the Battle of Rio Salado over the Marinids Moors in October 1340. The last part of Afonso IV's reign is marked not by open warfare against Castile, but by political intrigue. Civil war between King Peter I of Castile and his half-brother Henry of Trastamara led to the exile of many Castilian nobles to Portugal. These immigrants immediately created a faction among the Portuguese court, aiming at privileges and power that, somehow, could compensate what they lost at home. The faction grew in power, especially after Ines de Castro, daughter of an important nobleman and maid of the Crown Princess Constance, became the lover of her lady's husband: Peter, the heir of Portugal. Afonso IV was displeased with his son's choice of lovers, and hoped that the relationship would be a futile one. Unfortunately for internal politics, it was not. Peter was openly in love with Ines, recognized all the children she bore, and, worst of all, favoured the Castilians that surrounded her. Moreover, after his wife's death in 1349, Peter refused the idea of marrying anyone other than Ines herself. The situation became worse as the years passed and the aging Afonso lost control over his court. Peter's only male heir, future king Fernando of Portugal, was a sickly child, while the illegitimate children sired with Ines thrived. Worried about his legitimate grandson's life, and the growing power of Castile within Portugal's borders, Afonso ordered the murder of Ines de Castro in 1355. He expected his son to act reasonably, but the heir was not able to forgive him for the act. Enraged at the barbaric act, Peter put himself at the head of an army and devastated the country between the Douro and the Minho rivers before he was reconciled to his father in early 1357. Afonso died almost immediately after, in Lisbon in May. As king, Afonso IV is remembered as a soldier and a valiant general, hence the nickname the Brave. But perhaps his most important contribution was the importance he gave to the Portuguese navy. Afonso IV granted public funding to raise a proper commercial fleet and ordered the first maritime explorations. The Canary Islands (today a part of Spain) were discovered during his reign.

Afonso's descendants

Afonso married Beatrice of Castile (1293-1359) in 1309, daughter of Sancho IV, King of Castile, and Maria de Molia and had four sons and three daughters.

1558

Events

- January 7 - French troops led by Francis, Duke of Guise take Calais, the last continental possession of England
- July 13 - Battle of Gravelines: In France, Spanish forces led by Count Lamoral of Egmont defeat the French forces of Marshal Paul des Thermes at Gravelines.
- April 24 - Mary I of Scotland marries Francis II of France
- November 17 - Elizabethan era begins: Queen Mary I of England dies and is succeeded by her half-sister Elizabeth.
- Tobacco comes to France

Births

- September 9 - Philippe Emmanuel, Duke of Mercoeur, French soldier (d. 1602)
- October 12 - Archduke Maximilian III of Austria (died 1618)
- François, Prince of Conti (died 1614)
- Hendrik Goltzius, Dutch painter (died 1617)
- Robert Greene, English writer (died 1592)
- Thomas Kyd, English playwright (died 1594)
- Meir Lublin, Polish rabbi (died 1616)
- Koriki Masanaga, Japanese military commander (died 1599)
- Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Monts, merchant (died 1628)
- Bessho Nagaharu, Japanese nobleman
- Oda Nobutaka, Japanese nobleman
- Olivier van Noort, first Dutchman to circumnavigate the world (died 1627)
- George Peele, English dramatist (died 1598)
- Chidiock Tichborne, English conspirator and poet (died 1586)
- Tokuhime, Japanese noblewoman
- Mihai Viteazul, Prince of Wallachia (1593-1601) See also :Category: 1558 births.

Deaths

- February 25 - Eleonore of Austria, Queen of Portugal and France (born 1498)
- March 25 - Marcos de Niza, French Franciscan explorer
- April 18 - Roxelana, wife of Suleiman the Magnificent
- April 20 - Johannes Bugenhagen, German reformer (born 1485)
- May 31 - Philip Hoby, English politician (born 1505)
- September 21 - Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (born 1500)
- October 18 - Maria of Austria, queen of Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia (b. 1505)
- October 21 - Julius Caesar Scaliger, humanist scholar (born 1484)
- November 17 - Queen Mary I of England (born 1516)
- November 17 - Reginald Cardinal Pole, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1500)
- December 15 - Thomas Cheney, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports
- December 28 - Hermann Finck, German composer (born 1527)
- Archibald Campbell, 4th Earl of Argyll, Scottish nobleman and politician (born 1507)
- Hugh Aston, English composer (born 1485)
- Jean Fernel, French physician (born 1497)
- Robert Recorde, Welsh physician and mathematician (born 1510)
- Francisco de Sa de Miranda, Portuguese poet (born 1485)
- Melin de Saint-Gelais, French poet (born 1487) See also :Category: 1558 deaths. Category:1558 ko:1558년

Calais

:This article is about the French city. Alternate meanings: Boreads (mythical), Calais, Maine, Calais, Vermont Calais, Vermont Calais, Vermont Calais (Dutch: Kales) is a town in northern France, located at 50°57N 1°52E. It is in the département of Pas-de-Calais, of which it is a sous-préfecture. Population of the city (commune) at the 1999 census was 77,333 inhabitants (74,800 as of February 2004 estimates). Population of the whole metropolitan area (aire urbaine) at the 1999 census was 125,584. Calais overlooks the Strait of Dover, the narrowest point in the English Channel, which is only 34 km (21 miles) wide here, and is the closest French town to England. The white cliffs of Dover can easily be seen on a clear day. The old part of the town, Calais proper (or Calais-Nord), is situated on an artificial island surrounded by canals and harbours. The modern part of the town, St-Pierre, lies to the south and southeast.

History

The origins of Calais are obscure. It was founded as a fishing village some time prior to the 10th century. In 997, it was improved by the Count of Flanders and fortified by the Count of Boulogne in 1224. Its strategic position made it a key target for the growing power of the kingdom of England, and the town was besieged and captured by King Edward III of England in 1347, after a siege of eleven months following the Battle of Crécy. The angry king demanded reprisals against the town's citizens for holding out for so long and ordered that the town's population be killed en masse. He agreed to spare them on the condition that six of the principal citizens would come to him, bareheaded and barefooted and with ropes around their necks, and give themselves up to die. When they came, he ordered that they should be executed, but he pardoned them when his queen, Philippa of Hainault, begged him to spare their lives. He drove out most of the French, however, and settled the town with people from England, so that it might serve as a gateway to France. The municipal charter of Calais, previously granted by the Countess of Arlois, was reconfirmed that year by Edward. In 1360 the Treaty of Brétigny assigned Guines, Marck and Calais – collectively the "Pale of Calais" – to English rule in perpetuity, but this was only informally and partially implemented. In 1363 the town was made a staple port. It had become a parliamentary borough sending burgesses to the House of Commons by 1372. However it remained part of the diocese of Thérouanne. The town came to be called the "brightest jewel in the English crown" due to its great importance as the gateway for the tin, lead, cloth and wool trades (or "staples"). Its customs revenues amounted at times to a third of the English government's revenue, with wool being the most important element by far. Out of its population of about 12,000 people, as many as 5,400 were recorded as having been connected with the wool trade. The governorship or Captaincy of Calais was a lucrative and highly prized public office; the famous Dick Whittington was simultaneously Lord Mayor of London and Mayor of the Staple in 1407. Calais was regarded for many years as being an integral part of Kingdom of England, with its representatives sitting in the English Parliament. Over one of its gates carried the inscription: :Then shall the Frenchmen Calais win :When iron and lead like cork shall swim This was, however, at odds with reality. The continued English hold on Calais depended on expensively-maintained fortifications, as the town lacked any natural defences. Maintaining Calais was a costly business that was frequently tested by the forces of France and the Duchy of Burgundy, with the Franco-Burgundian border running nearby. The duration of the English hold over Calais was to a large extent the result of the feud between Burgundy and France, under which both sides coveted the town but preferred to see it in the hands of the English rather than their domestic rivals. The stalemate was broken by the eventual victory of the French crown over Burgundy, and the incorporation of the duchy into France. The end of English rule over Calais came on January 7, 1558 when the French, under Francis, Duke of Guise, took advantage of a weakened garrison and decayed fortifications to retake it. The loss was regarded by Queen Mary I of England as a dreadful misfortune. When she heard the news, she reportedly said "When I am dead and opened, you shall find 'Calais' lying in my heart" (Holinshed's Chronicles, IV, 1808). The region around Calais, known as the Calaisis, was renamed the Pays Reconquis ("Reconquered Country") in commemoration of its recovery. The town was captured by the Spanish in 1596 in an invasion mounted from the nearby Spanish Netherlands but it was returned to France under the Treaty of Vervins in 1598. During the 18th century, Calais achieved an unusual scientific claim to fame. When the metre was originally defined in terms of the size of the Earth, it was based on the distance from Calais to Perpignan. This is close to the longest continuous north-south line segment within France. Calais was on the front lines of the conflict with the United Kingdom during the Napoleonic Wars. In 1805, it hosted Napoleon's army and invasion fleet for his abortive invasion of England. The British returned to Calais again during World War I, due to its proximity to the front lines in Flanders. It was a key port for the supply of arms and reinforcements to the Western Front. The town was virtually razed to the ground during World War II. In May 1940, it was a key objective of the invading German forces and became the scene of a last-ditch defence that allowed the defeated British forces to be evacuated from nearby Dunkirk in the Battle of Dunkirk. 3,000 British and 800 French troops, assisted by Royal Navy warships, held out from 22 May to 27 May 1940 against two German panzer divisions. The town was flattened by round-the-clock bombing and only 30 of the 3,800-strong defending force were evacuated before the town fell. During the ensuing German occupation, it became the command post for German forces in the Pas-de-Calais/Flanders region and was very heavily fortified, as it was generally believed by the Germans that the Allies would invade at that point. It was also used as a launch site for V1 flying bombs and for much of the war, the Germans used the region as the site for railway guns used to bombard the south-eastern corner of England. In the event, the invasion took place well to the west in Normandy on D-Day. Calais was very heavily bombed and shelled in a successful effort to disrupt German communications and persuade them that the Allies would target the Pas-de-Calais for invasion (rather than Normandy). The town, now largely in ruins, was liberated by Canadian forces in October 1944.

Economy

1944 The city's proximity to England has made it a major port for centuries. It is the principal ferry crossing point between England and France, with the vast majority of cross-Channel being made between Dover and Calais. The French end of the Channel Tunnel is also situated in the vicinity of Calais, in Sangatte some 4 miles (6 km) to the west of the town. The mainstay of the town's economy is, naturally, its port, but it also has a number of indigenous industries. The principal ones are lace making, chemicals, and paper manufacture. It possesses direct rail links to Paris (148 miles / 238 km to the south). Due to the large difference in taxation between Britain and France on such items as alcoholic beverages and tobacco, massive shopping complexes targeted at British day-trippers have sprung up on and around Calais. Such day trippers are colloquially known as "booze cruisers" and have been the target of considerable attention from the UK Customs and Excise authorities.

Sights

UK Customs and Excise Virtually the entire town was flattened in the Second World War, so there is little in Calais that pre-dates the war. For most visitors, the town is simply a place to pass through en route to other destinations. The town centre is dominated by its distinctive hotel de ville (town hall), built in the Flemish Renaissance style (and visible well out to sea). Directly in front of the town hall is a copy of the statue The Burghers of Calais (French Les Bourgeois de Calais), by Auguste Rodin. The German wartime military headquarters, situated near the train station in a small park, is today open to the public as a war museum. Immediately to the west is the Côte d'Opale, an extremely scenic cliff-lined section of coast that parallels the White Cliffs on the English coast and is part of the same geological formation. On clear days, the buildings of Calais can quite readily be seen with the naked eye from the English shore, twenty one miles away.

External links

- [http://www.mairie-calais.fr/ Official Website]
- [http://www.calais.cci.fr/ Info about the port and city (in French)]
- [http://www.calais-port.com/defaultuk.html Port of Calais]
- [http://france-for-visitors.com/north/calais/index.html Visiting the city of Calais] (Guide in English with PDF map)
- [http://www.dover-to-calais.com/ General information on calais] Category:Artificial islands Category:Communes of Pas-de-Calais ja:カレー (フランス) simple:Calais

England

:For an explanation of often-confusing terms like England, (Great) Britain and United Kingdom see British Isles (terminology). England is a nation and the largest and most populous constituent country of the