MILESTONES: January 7 birthdays for Katie Couric, Lauren Cohan, Jeremy Renner
NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include “Mighty Joe Young” star Terry Moore, who was born in 1929; Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner, who was born in 1946; “Footloose” singer Kenny Loggins, who was born in 1948; painter and sculptor Robert Longo, who was born in Brooklyn in 1953; “CSI: Miami” star David Caruso, who was born in 1956; TV journalist Katie Couric, who was born in 1957; Go-Go’s bassist and songwriter Kathy Valentine, who was born in 1959; U.S. Sen. John Thune, who was born in 1961; Oscar-winning actor Nicolas Cage, who was born in 1964; “Avengers” star Jeremy Renner, who was born in 1971; former N.Y. Yankees second baseman Alfonso Soriano, who was born in 1976; “The Walking Dead” star Lauren Cohan, who was born in 1982; and “Nikita” star Lyndsy Fonseca, who was born in 1987.
***
BY THE SEAT OF THEIR PANTS: The first balloon flight across the English Channel took place on this day in 1785. Dr. John Jeffries, a Boston physician, and Jean-Pierre Francois Blanchard, a French aeronaut, crossed the channel from Dover, England, to Calais, France, landing in a forest after being forced to throw overboard all ballast, equipment and even most of their clothing to avoid a forced landing in the channel’s icy waters. Blanchard’s trousers are said to have been the last article thrown overboard.