Tuesday 7th of January 1502

226th Pope Gregorius XIII is born as Ugo Boncompagni in Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy.

Tuesday 7th of January 1536

Princess of Wales and first wife of Henry VIII Catalina de Aragón dies of cancer at the age of 51 in Kimbolton Castle, Kimbolton, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom.

Rumours of poisoning were born after the apparent discovery during Catalina's embalming that there was a black growth on her heart that might have been caused by poisoning. Modern medical experts are in agreement that her heart's discolouration was due not to poisoning but to cancer, something which was not understood at the time.

Friday 7th of January 1611

Start of the trial against 51-year-old Countess and serial killer Erzsébet de Ecsed Báthory aka Die Blutfrau in Nagybiccse, Žilina, Hungary.

Báthory and her accomplices were on trial for violating and killing over 650 girls and maidens in Austria, Hungary and Czechoslowakia. Her servants Ilona Nagy’s fingers were torn off with red hot pincers, Dorottya Szentes Szeoch and Janos Ficzko Ujvary were decapitated, drained of all their blood and thrown into the fire, while Báthory is sentenced to be walled in in her own castle.

Thursday 7th of January 1655

236th Pope Innocentius X dies of natural causes at the age of 81 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

Tuesday 7th of January 1800

13th President of the United States Millard Fillmore is born in Park Road, Moravia, New York, United States.

Thursday 7th of January 1892

Serial killer Joe Joseph D. Ball aka The Alligator Man aka The Butcher of Elmendorf is born in The Sociable Inn, Farm to Market Road 327, Elmendorf, Texas, United States.

Friday 7th of January 1898

Double murderer Theodore William Henry Durrant aka The Demon in the Belfry is executed by hanging at the age of 27 in San Quentin State Prison, San Quentin, California, United States.

Friday 7th of January 1898

Presumed murderer Jack O’Neil is executed by hanging in Buckland, Massachusetts, United States.

O'Neil's last words were "I shall meet death like a man and I hope those who see me hanged will live to see the day when it is proved I am innocent - and it will be, some time". A few months later a dying Shellburne Falls soldier fighting the Spaniards in Cuba confessed to the murder. O'Neil became the last man to be executed in Massachussetts.

Wednesday 7th of January 1925

Suspected serial killer Pietro Pacciani aka Il Mostro di Firenze is born in Mercatale, Toscana, Italy.

Friday 7th of January 1938

Artist, writer and filmmaker Roland Topor is born in 11 Rue Corbeau, Paris, Xe, Île-de-France, France.

Thursday 7th of January 1943

Inventor, electrical engineer, physicist and futurist Nikola Tesla aka The Man who Invented the Twentieth Century dies of coronary thrombosis at the age of 87 in New Yorker Hotel Room #3327, 481 Eighth Avenue, New York City, New York, United States.

Tesla's corpse was found by his maid Alice Monaghan after she had ignored the 'do not disturb' sign that he had placed on his door two days prior to his death.

Monday 7th of January 1946

6-year-old Suzanne Degnan is abducted, killed and cut to pieces by serial killer William Heirens aka Catch Me Before I Kill More in 5943 North Kenmore Avenue, Chicago, Edgewater, Illinois, United States.

Friday 7th of January 1949

Victim of Jerry Brudos aka The Lust Killer Linda Katherine Slawson is born in Olmsted County, Minnesota, United States.

Saturday 7th of January 1967

Mass murderer Richard James Paris hands his 22-year-old bride Christine 14 sticks of dynamite and shoots into the package at the age of 28 in The Orbit Inn Motel, Fremont at 7th St., Las Vegas, Nevada, United States.

Also died in the blast: 68-year-old George Brooks and his 57-year-old new bride Arnell, and 60-year-old John Auwaerter and his 58-year-old wife Lillian, while several others were severely injured. All of the victims were decapitated and one skull was found lying in an adjoining alley - it had been blown through the roof and over the wall. The leg of a woman was found embedded in a wall.

Friday 7th of January 1972

104 die in Iberia Airlines Sud Aviation SE 210 Caravelle Flight 602 crash and explosion in Ibiza Town, Islas Baleares, Spain.

The aircraft captain's last words were "Get me a beer ready, we are here."

Sunday 7th of January 1973

19-year-old Cynthia Ann 'Cindy' Schall is abducted and killed by serial killer Edmund Kemper aka The Co-ed Killer in Cabrillo College, Aptos, California, United States.

Kemper kept Schall's body hidden in a closet in his room overnight. When his mother left for work the next morning he had sex with Schall's corpse and removed the bullet before dismembering and decapitating it in his mother's bathtub. Kemper kept the severed head for several days before burying it in his mother's garden facing upward toward her bedroom – later remarking that his mother always wanted 'people to look up to her'.

Sunday 7th of January 1973

Spree killer Mark James Robert Essex is killed in a bullet spray at the age of 24 in Downtown Howard Johnson's Hotel, 330 Loyola Avenue, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States.

Essex confronted 11 hours of siege during which he killed 7 and wounded 13 people, including a police officer with a a 5-shot Ruger Model 44 .44-caliber semi-automatic carbine. Essex was barraged with fatal gunfire from police sharpshooters on the roofs of adjacent buildings as well as the automatic weapons aboard a helicopter. An autopsy later revealed more than 200 gunshot wounds. On New Year's Eve 1972 Essex had already killed two cops. Before the attack the television station WWL received a handwritten note from Essex. It read: "Africa greets you. On December 31, 1972, aprx. 11 p.m., the downtown New Orleans Police Department will be attacked. Reason — many, but the death of two innocent brothers will be avenged. And many others."

Sunday 7th of January 1973

Double murderer Jason Eric Massey is born in Ellis County, Texas, United States.

Friday 7th of January 1977

22-year-old Barbara Kiel is attacked by serial killer Bernd Bopp aka Der Hammermörder in Mainz, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany.

Kiel survived.

Thursday 7th of January 1988

Murderer Robert Streetman is executed by lethal injection at the age of 28 in Huntsville Prison, 815 12th Street, Huntsville, Texas, United States.

Saturday 7th of January 1989

Emperor of Japan Hirohito aka Emperor Shōwa dies of duodenal cancer at the age of 88 in Fukiage Palace, Tokyo, Kantō, Japan.

Sunday 7th of January 1990

40-year-old Self-proclaimed prophet and cult leader Jeffrey Don Lundgren aka The Volunteer is arrested with his wife Alice Keeler and his son Damon in Santa Fe Motel, National City, California, United States.

In the next days 10 more members of his cult are arrested. They were charged with the murder of the Avery family of five on 10 April 1989 in Kirtland, Ohio.

Friday 7th of January 1994

27-year-old Catherine Rocher is raped and stabbed to death by serial killer Guy Georges aka Le Tueur de la Bastille in 70 du bd Reuilly, Paris, XIIe, Île-de-France, France.

Wednesday 7th of January 1998

56-year-old Mathematician and serial bomber Theodore John 'Ted' Kaczynski aka The Unabomber attempts to commit suicide by hanging in his prison cell in Sacramento, California, United States.

Thursday 7th of January 1999

Double murderer John Walter Castro is executed by lethal injection at the age of 37 in Oklahoma State Penitentiary, McAlester, Oklahoma, United States.

Wednesday 7th of January 2004

A snappy shot of my home-made Guillotine in Antwerpen, Antwerpen, Belgium.