What Happened in January 1990

Historical Events

Event of Interest

Jan 3 Panama's leader General Manuel Noriega surrenders to US authorities

Panamanian General and Dictator Manuel Noriega — Panamanian General and Dictator
Manuel Noriega

Jan 4 307 dead and 700 injured after overloaded passenger train collides with empty freight train in Pakistan
Jan 5 J Donald Crump appointed 8th Commissioner of CFL
Jan 6 NY Lotto pays $35 million to one winner (#s are 18-25-26-32-42-44)
Jan 7 Lynn Jennings runs world record indoor 5km indoor at 15:22.64
Jan 7 Tower of Pisa closed to the public after leaning too far
Jan 9 64th US manned space mission STS 32 (Columbia 10) launches into orbit
Jan 9 Boston Celtics worst ever (6 pts in 2nd vs NJ Nets) & lose 87-78
Jan 9 Jim Palmer & Joe Morgan elected to Baseball Hall of Fame
Jan 9 US Supreme Court strikes down Dallas' ordinance imposing strict zoning on sexually oriented businesses
Jan 10 "Les Miserables" opens at Mechanic Theatre, Baltimore
Jan 10 China lifts martial law (imposed after Tiananmen Square massacre)
Jan 10 NCAA approves random drug testing for college football players
Jan 11 200,000 demand return of Lithuania's independence
Jan 11 Actor Joseph Cotton undergoes vocal cancer operation at 84

Jan 11 Bobby Knight becomes basketball's Big 10 winningest coach (229)

Event of Interest

Jan 11 Pat LaFontaine sets NY Islander record of scoring goals in 11 straight

NHL Star Pat LaFontaine — NHL Star
Pat LaFontaine

Event of Interest

Jan 12 Civil rights activist Reverend Al Sharpton is stabbed in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn

Minister and Civil Rights Activist Al Sharpton — Minister and Civil Rights Activist
Al Sharpton

Jan 12 Romania bans Communist party (1st Warsaw Pact member to do so)
Jan 13 1st elected African American Governor inaugurated (Douglas Wilder-Virginia)
Jan 14 11th ACE Cable Awards: CNN wins the Golden CableACE for the coverage of the events in Beijing, China
Jan 14 Un Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar says he has lost all hope for peace in Gulf
Jan 14 AFC Championship Game: Denver Broncos beat Cleveland Browns 37-21
Jan 14 NFC Championship Game: San Francisco 49ers beat Los Angeles Rams 30-3

Boxing Title Fight

Jan 15 42 year old George Foreman KOs Gerry Cooney in 2 rounds in Atlantic City

Boxing Champ George Foreman — Boxing Champ
George Foreman

Jan 15 6th Soap Opera Digest Awards - Santa Barbara wins
Jan 15 AT&T experiences long distance problems due to a computer glitch
Jan 15 Blue Jay Cecil Fielder signs with Detroit as a free agent
Jan 15 NY Knicks Trent Tucker scores with 1/10 sec, beats Bulls, 109-106
Jan 16 2 Bank of Credit & Commerce members plea guilty to money laundering
Jan 17 5th Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Awards: Bobby Darin
Jan 17 Dave Stewart signs record $3,500,000 per year Oak A's contract
Jan 17 Who, Simon & Garfunkel, 4 Seasons, 4 Tops, Hank Ballard, Platters & The Kinks inducted into Cleveland's Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
Jan 18 South Africa says it is reconsidering ban on African National Congress
Jan 18 Washington DC, Mayor Marion Barry arrested in drug enforcement sting
Jan 19 Test debut of Mushtaq Ahmed, v Australia at Adelaide
Jan 19 Police break up protests in Johannesburg against the cricket players defying a boycott on playing in apartheid South Africa

Film and TV Awards

Jan 20 47th Golden Globes: "Born on the Fouth of July", Tom Cruise, & Michelle Pfeiffer win

Jan 20 US 64th manned space mission STS 32 (Columbia 10) returns from space
Jan 20 Black January - crackdown of Azerbaijani pro-independence demonstrations by Soviet army in Baku

Jan 21 41st NHL All-Star Game: Wales beat Campbell 12-7 at Pittsburgh
Jan 21 Bob Goodenow succeeds Alan Eagleson as NHL players association executive director

Event of Interest

Jan 21 John McEnroe becomes 1st ever player to be expelled from the Australian Open

Tennis Player John McEnroe — Tennis Player
John McEnroe

Jan 21 Patty Sheehan wins LPGA Jamaica Golf Classic

Music Awards

Jan 22 17th American Music Awards: Paula Abdul & Bobby Brown win

Singer & Judge of American Idol Paula Abdul — Singer & Judge of American Idol
Paula Abdul

Jan 22 Wasim Akram scores Test century (123) at Adelaide
Jan 22 Will Clark, NL's MVP signs a $15M 4-year contract with SF Giants
Jan 22 Robert Tappan Morris, Jr. is convicted of releasing the 1988 Internet worm.

Event of Interest

Jan 22 President Mikhail Gorbachev sends Red Troops into the Soviet republic of Azerbaijan

Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev — Soviet General Secretary
Mikhail Gorbachev

Jan 23 Dean Jones scores twin Test tons v Pakistan at Adelaide Oval
Jan 24 Japanese MUSES-A (Hiten) launched towards moon
Jan 24 14th Commonwealth Games open in Auckland, New Zealand
Jan 25 Avianca Flight 52, runs out of fuel & crashes in Cove Neck NY, 73 die
Jan 25 Former Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega is transferred to a Miami jail
Jan 25 The Burns' Day windstorm storm hits northwestern Europe
Jan 25 Honduras becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty
Jan 26 Annular eclipse visible over Antarctica & South Atlantic
Jan 26 Boston Red Sox hires Elaine Weddington as asst GM (highest-ranking African American female in a major-league front office)
Jan 27 6th Sundance Film Festival: "Chameleon Street" wins Grand Jury Prize Dramatic
Jan 28 "Independent on Sunday" begins publishing in London

Event of Interest

Jan 28 Super Bowl XXIV: SF 49ers beat Denver Broncos, 55-10 in New Orleans Super Bowl MVP: Joe Montana, San Francisco, QB

NFL Quarterback Joe Montana — NFL Quarterback
Joe Montana

Jan 28 Romanian protest against Ion Iliescu government

Tennis Open

Jan 28 78th Men's Australian Open: Ivan Lendl beats Stefan Edberg (4-6, 7-6, 5-2)

Tennis Player and Eight-Time Major Champion Ivan Lendl — Tennis Player and Eight-Time Major Champion
Ivan Lendl

Jan 28 78th Women's Australian Open: Steffi Graf beats Mary Joe Fernandez (6-3, 6-4)
Jan 29 Exxon Valdez capt Joseph Hazelwood goes on trial due to oil spill
Jan 31 1st McDonalds in the Soviet Union opens in Moscow
Jan 31 1st ever all-sports daily "National" begins publishing
Jan 31 Jushin "Thunder" Liger beats Naoki Sano to become New Japan IWGP champ

Famous Birthdays

Jan 4 Toni Kroos, German football player (Real Madrid, German national team), born in Greifswald, East Germany
Jan 7 Liam Aiken, American actor
Jan 7 Elene Gedevanishvili, Georgian figure skater
Jan 7 Camryn Grimes, American actress, born in Van Nuys, California
Jan 7 Gregor Schlierenzauer, Austrian ski jumper
Jan 8 Maci Wainwright, American singer
Jan 10 Tao Li, Singaporean Olympic swimmer
Jan 12 Sergey Karjakin, Ukrainian chess player
Jan 13 Liam Hemsworth, Australian actor (Hunger Games films), born in Melbourne
Jan 14 Grant Gustin, American actor (The Flash), born in Norfolk, Virginia
Jan 15 Fernando Forestieri, Italian footballer
Jan 15 Chris Warren Jr., American actor
Jan 18 Gift Ngoepe, South African-born baseball player, 1st black African to play in Major League Baseball, born in Pietersburg, South Africa
Jan 21 Jacob Smith, American actor
Jan 26 Christopher Massey, American actor
Jan 26 Peter Sagan, Slovakian professional cyclist (World Road Champion 2016), born in Žilina, Slovakia
Jan 30 Jake Thomas, American actor (A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Lizzie McGuire), born in Knoxville, Tennessee
Jan 30 Eiza Gonzalez, Mexican actress/singer

Famous Divorces

Divorce of Interest

Jan 3 Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber (41) divorces singer/dancer Sarah Brightman (29) after almost 7 years of marriage

Divorce of Interest

Jan 17 NFL coach Jimmy Johnson (46) divorces Linda Kay Cooper after 26 years of marriage

NFL Head Coach Jimmy Johnson — NFL Head Coach
Jimmy Johnson

Divorce of Interest

Jan 29 Actor Michael Keaton (38) divorces actress Caroline McWilliams (44) after 7 years of marriage

Famous Deaths

Jan 1 Charles Boost, Dutch film critic, dies at 82
Jan 1 Joe Hardstaff Jr, cricketer (23 Tests for England, 1636 runs), dies
Jan 1 Suzuki Sochu, Zen teacher (Rinzai line)/abbot of Ryutakuji, dies
Jan 1 James W. Wood, American astronaut (Dynasoar), dies at 65
Jan 2 Alan Hale Jr., American actor (Skipper-Gilligan's Island), dies of cancer at 68
Jan 2 Vladimir Alexis Ussachevsky, Manchuria composer (Creation), dies at 78
Jan 3 Ken Hill, actor (Cobra, Protocol), dies
Jan 3 Arthur Gold, American pianist, half of Gold and Fizdale duo (b. 1917)
Jan 4 Alberto Lleras Camargo, president of Colombia (1945-46, 58-62), dies
Jan 4 Robert F Adams, American sci-fi author (Castaways in Time), dies at 57
Jan 4 Harold Edgerton, American electrical engineer (b. 1903)
Jan 4 Sir Henry Bolte, Premier of Victoria 1955-1972 (b. 1908)
Jan 5 Arthur Kennedy, American actor (Fantastic Voyage, Peyton Place), dies of a brain tumor at 76
Jan 5 Bart LaRue, entertainer, dies
Jan 6 Hans Jaray, actor (Lydia, Fedora), dies
Jan 6 Ian Charleson, actor (Gandhi, Chariots of Fire), dies of AIDS at 40

Bronko Nagurski

Jan 7 Bronislau "Bronko" Nagurski, football hall of famer, dies at 81

Jan 7 Gail Lucas, entertainer, dies
Jan 7 Horace Stoneham, baseball owner (Giants), dies at 86
Jan 7 Joseph Robbie, lawyer/NFL owner (Miami Dolphins), dies at 73
Jan 8 Terry-Thomas [Thomas Terry Stevens], British actor (It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World), dies of Parkinson's disease at 78
Jan 9 Sir Edward McTiernan, Australian jurist, lawyer and politician (b. 1892)
Jan 9 Spud Chandler, American baseball player (AL MVP 1943), dies at 82
Jan 10 Juliet Berto, screenwriter/actress (Bastienne Bastien), dies at 42
Jan 10 Yvonne Peattie Marquard, actress (Donovan's Reef), dies
Jan 11 Mary Jane Carr, actress (Forbidden Trail, Second Wife), dies
Jan 11 Kittens Reichert [Catherine Alma Reichert], American silent screen child actor [House of Cards, Les Misérables], dies at 79
Jan 12 Laurence J Peter, author (Peter Princible), dies of a stroke at 70
Jan 12 Paul Amadeus Pisk, composer, dies at 96
Jan 14 David Arkin, actor (I Love You Alice B Toklas), dies
Jan 14 Mani Madhava Chakyar, Koodiyattam artist and Sanskrit scholar (b. 1899)
Jan 15 Gordon Jackson, Scottish actor (Upstairs, Downstairs, The Professionals, The Great Escape), dies after a short illness at 66
Jan 17 Charles Hernu, French minister of Defense (1981-85), dies
Jan 18 Melanie Appleby, rocker (Mel & Kim), dies of liver cancer at 23
Jan 18 Rusty Hamer, American actor (b. 1947)
Jan 19 Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, indian guru, dies at 58
Jan 19 Herbert Wehner, German ex-communist/chairman (1958-73), dies at 83
Jan 19 Semprini, English musician (b. 1908)
Jan 20 Barbara Stanwyck, [Ruby Stevens], actress (Big Valley), dies at 82
Jan 20 Miloslav Istvan, composer, dies at 61
Jan 20 Naruhito Higashi-Kuni, Japanese PM (1945), dies
Jan 20 Hayedeh, Persian singer (b. 1942)
Jan 23 Allen Collins, guitarist (Lynyrd Skynyrd), dies of pneumonia at 37
Jan 23 Mariano Rumor, Italy's PM (1968-70, 73-1974), dies
Jan 24 Madge Bellamy, American actress, dies of heart failure at 90
Jan 25 Alexander Lockwood, actor (Duel), dies

Ava Gardner

Jan 25 Ava Gardner, American actress (Barefoot Contessa, On the Beach), dies of pneumonia at 67

Jan 25 Ian Dudley Hardy, entertainer, dies
Jan 26 FHP "Boy" Trip, Dutch minister, dies
Jan 26 Lewis Mumford, American historian (b. 1895)
Jan 26 Bob Gerard, British racing driver (b. 1914)
Jan 27 Helen Jerome Eddy, actress (Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm), dies at 92
Jan 31 Rashad Khalifa, Egyptian-born imam (b. 1935)

1989
On This Day
1991