Elwood Haynes (1857–1925) was an American inventor, metallurgist, automotive pioneer, entrepreneur and industrialist. He invented the metal alloys stellite and martensitic stainless steel and designed one of the earliest automobiles in the United States. His design is recognized as the first that was acceptable for mass production and, with the Apperson brothers, he formed the first company in the United States to profitably produce automobiles. Because of his many advances in the automotive industry, he is sometimes called the Father of the Automobile. His frequent travels drew his interest to the idea of a mechanical device that could transport without need of a horse, and he began to formulate plans for a motorized vehicle in the early 1890s; he successfully road tested his first car, the Pioneer, on July 4, 1894. He formed a partnership with Elmer and Edgar Apperson in 1896 to start Haynes-Apperson for the commercial production of automobiles, and he renamed it Haynes Automobile Company in 1905, following the loss of his partners. He formed Haynes Stellite Company to produce one of the new alloys he invented and received lucrative contracts during World War I, making Haynes a millionaire in 1916. (more...)

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Two mating wasps of the subfamily Cremastinae. Species classified in this subfamily are parasitoids of Lepidoptera and Coleoptera larvae in tunnels, leaf rolls, buds and galls.

Photo credit: Muhammad Mahdi Karim
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• Tsutomu Yamaguchi, the only person officially recognized to have survived both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings (Nagasaki bombing pictured), dies of stomach cancer aged 93.
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January 7: Christmas (Julian calendar)

• 1598 – Boris Godunov became the first non-Rurikid Tsar of Russia.
• 1610 – Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei first observed three of the eventual four Galilean moons through his telescope: Io, Europa, and Callisto.
• 1785 – Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard and American John Jeffries became the first to cross the English Channel by balloon.
• 1797 – The first official Italian tricolour (pictured) was adopted by the government of the Cispadane Republic.
• 1924 – The International Hockey Federation, the global governing body for field hockey, was founded in Paris in response to the sport's omission from the 1924 Summer Olympics.
• 1975 – The National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women was established to promote empowerment and gender equality for the women in the Philippines.

More anniversaries: January 6 – January 7 – January 8

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