Today in History....January 7

* 1610, astronomer Galileo Galilei began observing three of Jupiter's moons

* 1789, the first U.S. presidential election was held. Americans voted for electors who, a month later, chose George Washington to be the nation's first president

* 1904, the Marconi International Marine Communication Co. of London announced that the telegraphed letters "CQD" would serve as a maritime distress call (it was later replaced by "SOS")

* 1927, commercial transatlantic telephone service was inaugurated between New York and London

* 1942, the World War II siege of Bataan began

* 1953, President Truman announced in his State of the Union address that the United States had developed a hydrogen bomb

* 1999, for the second time in history, an impeached American president (this time Clinton) went on trial before the Senate

* 1999, U.S. Representative Dan Burton, R-Ind., subpoenaed Elian Gonzalez to testify before Congress in a bid to keep Elian in the United States for at least another month while courts decided whether the 6-year-old should be returned to Cuba. (Elian never actually testified.)

* 2003, police in London announced they had found traces of the deadly poison ricin in a north London apartment and arrested six men in connection with the virulent toxin that had been linked to al-Qaida terrorists and Iraq

* 2004, President Bush proposed legal status -- at least temporarily -- for millions of illegal immigrants working in the U.S.