7 January 1954

After 253 days without an operational government, a second round of investiture votes produced Spain's first coalition government since the Second Republic.

A hot air balloon flight from Carterton, New Zealand, collided with a power line while landing, causing it to crash and killing all eleven people on board.

In Nag Hammadi, Egypt, Muslim gunmen opened fire on a crowd of Coptic Christians leaving church after attending Christmas Liturgy, killing eight of them, as well as one Muslim bystander.

The Fourth Republic of Ghana was inaugurated with Jerry Rawlings, the country's former military ruler, as president.

Representatives of Iranian leader Ruhollah Khomeini delivered a letter to Mikhail Gorbachev, inviting him to consider Islam as an alternative to communism, and predicting the dissolution of the Soviet Bloc.

In one of the most famous upsets in FA Cup history, Sutton United, a team in the fifth tier of English league football, defeated top-tier Coventry City.

The People's Army of Vietnam captured Phnom Penh, marking the end of large-scale fighting in the Cambodian–Vietnamese War.

Marian Anderson became the first African-American to perform with the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

Air National Guard pilot Thomas Mantell, flying in pursuit of an alleged UFO, was killed when his P-51 Mustang crashed near Fort Knox, Kentucky.

French physicist Marguerite Perey identified francium, the last element to be discovered in nature rather than by synthesis.

Australian aviator Guy Menzies (pictured) flew from Sydney to New Zealand's West Coast, making the first solo trans-Tasman flight.

The Italian tricolour was first adopted as an official flag by the government of the Cispadane Republic.

The Bank of North America (pictured) opened in Philadelphia as the de facto first central bank of the United States.

Through his telescope, Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei made the first observation of Jupiter's Galilean moons: Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, although he was not able to distinguish the first two until the following night.

The Parliament of 1327, which was instrumental in the transfer of the English Crown from King Edward II to his son, Edward III, began at the Palace of Westminster.

A series of wildfires ravage the Greater Los Angeles area, resulting in at least 16 deaths and 13,401 structures destroyed.

The 6.4Mw 2019–20 Puerto Rico earthquakes kill four and injure nine in southern Puerto Rico.

Two gunmen commit mass murder at the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris, executing twelve people and wounding eleven others.

A car bomb explodes outside a police college in the Yemeni capital Sanaa with at least 38 people reported dead and more than 63 injured.

A hot air balloon crashes near Carterton, New Zealand, killing all 11 people on board.

The Senate trial in the impeachment of U.S. President Bill Clinton begins.

A British Aerospace Jetstream 41 operating as United Express Flight 6291 crashes in Gahanna, Ohio, killing five of the eight people on board.

The Fourth Republic of Ghana is inaugurated with Jerry Rawlings as president.

Bosnian War: The Bosnian Army executes a surprise attack at the village of Kravica in Srebrenica.