January 7, first African American sings with the Metropolitan Opera

Today is Wednesday, Jan. 7, the seventh day of 2026. There are 358 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Jan. 7,1955, Marian Anderson became the first African American to sing with the Metropolitan Opera in New York, in Verdi’s “Un Ballo in Maschera.”

Also on this date:

In 1610, astronomer Galileo Galilei observed three of Jupiter’s moons for the first time and a fourth days later.

In 1979, Vietnamese forces captured the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, overthrowing the communist Khmer Rouge government whose brutal policies are blamed for the deaths of 1.7 million people, including the killing of thousands of Vietnamese villagers in cross-border raids.

In 1999, President Bill Clinton’s Senate impeachment trial began on grounds of perjury to a grand jury and obstruction of justice. The Republican-controlled House voted in October 1998 to start proceedings after months of controversy over Clinton’s relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, with whom he denied having a sexual relationship. The Senate acquitted Clinton on Feb. 12, falling far short of the 67 votes needed to convict on each charge.

In 2015, masked gunmen stormed the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo, a French newspaper that had caricatured the Prophet Muhammad, methodically killing 12 people, including the editor, before escaping. (Two suspects were killed two days later.)

In 2022, three white men convicted of murder after Ahmaud Arbery was chased and killed while jogging in a south Georgia community were sentenced to life in prison. The judge denied any chance of parole for the father and son who armed themselves and initiated the deadly pursuit of the 25-year-old Black man in 2020 after spotting him running in their neighborhood in Brunswick.

In 2023, Republican Kevin McCarthy was elected speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives in a historic post-midnight 15th ballot, overcoming holdouts from his own ranks after a chaotic week that tested the new GOP majority’s ability to govern.