Historical Events in January 1976

Liberty Bell

Jan 1 Liberty Bell moves to new home behind Independence Hall
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Jan 1 NBC replaces the peacock logo
Jan 1 Venezuela nationalizes oil fields

Event of Interest

Jan 1 After 45 years of coaching, Paul Brown announces his retirement from the National Football League

American Football Coach Paul Brown — American Football Coach
Paul Brown

Jan 1 42nd Orange Bowl: #3 Oklahoma beats #5 Michigan, 14-6
Jan 3 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
Jan 3 Australian Open Women's Tennis: Australian Evonne Goolagong Cawley beats Renata Tomanova of Czechoslovakia 6-2, 6-2 for her 3rd straight home singles title
Jan 4 "Candide" closes at Broadway Theater NYC after 740 performances
Jan 4 "Home Sweet Homer" opens & closes at Palace Theater NYC
Jan 4 The Ulster Volunteer Force shoot dead 6 Catholic civilians in 2 co-ordinated attacks in County Armagh, North Ireland
Jan 4 Australian Open Men's Tennis: In an all-Australian final Mark Edmondson upsets John Newcombe 6-7, 6-3, 7-6, 6-1 for his first and only Grand Slam title

AFC Championship

Jan 4 AFC Championship, Three Rivers Stadium, Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh Steelers beat Oakland Raiders, 16-10

NFL Coach and Sportscaster John Madden — NFL Coach and Sportscaster
John Madden

Jan 4 NFC Championship, LA Memorial Coliseum: Dallas Cowboys beat Los Angeles Rams, 37-7
Jan 5 "MacNeil-Lehrer Report" premieres on PBS
Jan 5 Cambodia is renamed "Democratic Kampuchea"

Jan 5 Greg Chappell scores 182* for Australia at SCG against West Indies
Jan 5 In retaliation for the Reavey and O'Dowd killings, the South Armagh Republican Action Force shoot dead 10 Protestant civilians after stopping their minibus in County Armagh
Jan 6 China performs nuclear test at Lop Nor, PRC

Event of Interest

Jan 6 Ted Turner purchases Atlanta Braves for reported $12 million

Founder of CNN Ted Turner — Founder of CNN
Ted Turner

Jan 8 Franklin Mint strikes 1st gold coins for Netherlands Antilles

Event of Interest

Jan 9 Bryan Trottier failed in 4th Islander penalty shot

NHL Star Bryan Trottier — NHL Star
Bryan Trottier

Jan 9 C. W. McCall CB song "Convoy" hits #1 on the country music charts

Event of Interest

Jan 9 Ringo Starr releases "Oh My My" in UK

Beatles Drummer Ringo Starr — Beatles Drummer
Ringo Starr

Jan 11 "Pacific Overtures" opens at Winter Garden Theater NYC for 193 performances
Jan 11 Dorothy Hamill wins her 3rd consecutive national figure skating championship
Jan 11 Military coup in Ecuador, President Guillermo Lara leaves
Jan 11 Stephen Sondheim's musical "Pacific Overtures" premieres in NYC
Jan 11 US male Figure Skating championship won by Terry Kubicka
Jan 12 UN Security Council votes 11-1 to seat Palestine Liberation Organisation
Jan 13 Sarah Caldwell is 1st woman to conduct at NYC Metropolitan Opera House as she led orchestra in a performance of "La Traviata"
Jan 13 Future undisputed world middleweight boxing champion Marvin Hagler suffers his first career loss in a controversial 10-round majority decision to Bobby Watts at the Philadelphia Spectrum

Historic Invention

Jan 13 American inventor Ray Kurzweil and the National Federation of the Blind unveil the Kurzweil Reading Machine, the first omni-font optical character recognition system

Inventor and Author Ray Kurzweil — Inventor and Author
Ray Kurzweil

Jan 14 "The Bionic Woman" with Lindsay Wagner debuts on ABC (later NBC)
Jan 14 Ted Turner becomes CEO of Atlanta Braves

Event of Interest

Jan 15 Sara Jane Moore sentenced to life for attempting to shoot US President Gerald Ford

38th US President Gerald Ford — 38th US President
Gerald Ford

Jan 15 US-German Helios B solar probe launched into solar orbit
Jan 15 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
Jan 16 "Donny & Marie" [Osmond] musical variety show premieres on ABC TV
Jan 16 Peter Frampton released platinum live album "Frampton Comes Alive"

#1 in the Charts

Jan 17 "I Write the Songs" by Barry Manilow hits #1

Musician Barry Manilow — Musician
Barry Manilow

Jan 17 Hermes rocket launched by European Space Agency
Jan 17 Blondie release their debut single "X Offender" written by Debbie Harry and Gary Valentine
Jan 18 Super Bowl X, Miami Orange Bowl, Miami, FL: Pittsburgh Steelers beat Dallas Cowboys, 21-17; MVP: Lynn Swann, Pittsburgh, WR
Jan 20 29th NHL All-Star Game, Spectrum, Philadelphia: Wales Conference beats Campbell Conference, 7-5; MVP: Peter Mahovlich, Montreal, C
Jan 21 Supersonic Concorde has its 1st commercial flights
Jan 22 Bank robbery in Beirut nets $20-50 million (record)
Jan 23 Ian Redpath hits his only 2 sixes in Cricket Tests, v WI Adelaide
Jan 23 Wash Caps end 25 game winless streak (0-22-3) beat NY Rangers 7-5
Jan 23 The Provisional Irish Republican Army truce of February 1975 is officially brought to an end
Jan 23 The results to U.S. advice columnist Ann Landers' question (if they could do it all over, would parents still become parents) state that 70% of 10,000 responding parents were negative about being parents
Jan 24 Cleveland Cavaliers biggest margin victory-43 pts (beat Milwaukee 132-89)

Boxing Title Fight

Jan 24 Former world heavyweight boxing champion George Foreman KOs Ron Lyle in 5th round at Caesar's Palace, Las Vegas; Foreman knocked down twice in 4th; 'The Ring' Fight of the Year

Boxing Champ George Foreman — Boxing Champ
George Foreman

Golden Globes

Jan 24 33rd Golden Globes: "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", Jack Nicholson, & Louise Fletcher win

Actor Jack Nicholson — Actor
Jack Nicholson

Actress Louise Fletcher — Actress
Louise Fletcher

Jan 25 Surinder Amarnath scores 124 on Test debut Ind v NZ Auckland
Jan 26 Belgium Catholic elite starts amnesty campaign for war criminals
Jan 26 David Mamet's "American Buffalo" premieres in NYC
Jan 26 Israel opens "Good Fence" to Lebanon
Jan 26 NFL Pro Bowl, Louisiana Superdome, New Orleans: NFC beats AFC, 23-20; MVP: Billy Johnson, Houston Oilers, WR