Images in History

Marian Anderson (1897-1993) became the first black singer to perform at New York's Metropolitan Opera House on January 7, 1955. The African-American contralto (shown with then-First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt) had been prohibited for years (as were other black singers) from singing at public gatherings made up of whites, until President Franklin D. Roosevelt and wife Eleanor arranged an open-air "Marian Anderson" concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday, April 9, 1939. More than 75,000 people of all colors attended the event, which was broadcast nationwide and heard by millions.

Peter the Great (Pyotr Alexeyevich Romanov; 1672-1725) departs the Netherlands on January 7, 1698, en route to England on a State Visit. An enlightened monarch, Peter established policies of modernization and expansion that transformed Russia into a world power. He built magnificent structures such as the Peterhof Palace in St. Petersburg, at right, replete with golden statues, fountains, pools, jets and a grand cascade, completed in the year of his death.

French and American aviation pioneers Jean-Pierre Blanchard (1753-1809) and Dr. John Jeffries (1744-1819) fly in a new hot air balloon from London to Ingress in Kent on January 7, 1785. Both men would be the first to fly cross the English Channel in another hot-air balloon.

A PYB Catalina crewman cooks a meal while flying on patrol in the Aleutians on January 7, 1942. The PBY, used as a scout and sea plane during WW II, had a range of 2,530 miles and could stay aloft for more than 12 hours.

"Big Boy" opens on January 7, 1925 in New York, a unique comedy-musical starring actor-singer Al Jolson (1886-1950), shown here in dressing room wearing traditional blackface (from his minstrel days).

Abstract visionary painter Edward Ross Balchowsky (AKA: "Eddie;" 1916-1989) completes Power Lines on January 7, 1988 in Chicago, Illinois (11x14 inches, crayon and ink composites).

Politician Millard Fillmore
Born January 7, 1800
Died March 8, 1874
13th President (1850-1853).

Actress Terry Moore
Born January 7, 1929
Shown in 1959 when
appearing in the film
Cast a Long Shadow.

Fullback Bronko Nagurski
Born November 3, 1908
Died January 7, 1990
Shown when playing for
the Chicago Bears in 1930.

Actress Ingrid Thulin
Born January 27, 1926
Died January 7, 2004
Shown while appearing
in The Damned (1969)

William Henry Theodore "Theo" Durrant (1871-1898) (top left), also known as "The Demon of the Belfry," is hanged on January 7, 1898. Durrant murdered two women parishioners of the San Francisco Emanuel Baptist Church in 1895, where he was employed as assistant superintendent.

In the image at bottom left, he happily accepts a bouquet at his trial from a young women. At top right, he is shown carrying the body of one of his victim's, Blanche Lamont, to the top of the belfry of the Emanuel Baptist Church.

Almost as strange as their offspring (and seemingly indifferent to their son's execution), Durrant's parents dined on the same day in the warden's office at San Quentin Prison where their son's body lay nearby in a coffin, as shown at bottom right.