- Jan 1 "Musical Jubilee" closes at St James Theater NYC after 92 performances
Event of Interest
Jan 1 After 45 years of coaching, Paul Brown announces his retirement from the National Football League
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 coordinated 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
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
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
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
Ringo Starr
- Jan 11 "Pacific Overtures" opens at Winter Garden Theater NYC for 193 performances
Event of Interest
Jan 11 Dorothy Hamill wins her 3rd consecutive national figure skating championship
Dorothy Hamill
- 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
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
Gerald Ford
#1 in the Charts
Jan 17 "I Write the Songs" by Barry Manilow hits #1
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
Album Release
Jan 23 RCA releases "Station to Station", David Bowie's 10th studio album, recorded in Los Angeles; it peaked in the U.S. charts at No.3, and No. 5 in the U.K.
David Bowie
- 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
George Foreman
Golden Globes
Jan 24 33rd Golden Globes: "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", Jack Nicholson, & Louise Fletcher win
Jack Nicholson
Louise Fletcher
Event of Interest
Jan 26 David Mamet's "American Buffalo" premieres in NYC
David Mamet
Television Premiere
Jan 27 "Laverne & Shirley" TV spinoff from "Happy Days" starring Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams premieres on ABC TV
Penny Marshall
- Jan 27 9th ABA All-Star Game: Denver 144 beats ABA 138 at Denver
- Jan 27 Morocco-Algeria battles in West Sahara
- Jan 27 Viv Richards scores his 1st Test century against Australia
- Jan 28 E. A. S. Prasanna takes 8-76 to rip through NZ at Eden Park
- Jan 28 NBA Atlanta Hawks begin a 28 game road losing streak
- Jan 29 Zeiss planetarium in Hague destroyed by fire
- Jan 29 Bombs set off in London's West End by the IRA; 1 person is injured
- Jan 30 1st-class debut of Dav Whatmore, in Johannesburg
- Jan 30 George H. W. Bush becomes 11th director of CIA (until 1977)
- Jan 30 William E Colby, ends term as 10th director of CIA
- Jan 31 "Love Rollercoaster" by Ohio Players hits #1
- Jan 31 Lance Gibbs becomes highest Test wicket-taker at 308
Music Awards
Jan 31 3rd American Music Awards: Olivia Newton-John & John Denver win
Olivia Newton-John
John Denver