Events in History
- Jan 1 International Cooperation Year begins
- Jan 1 Palestinian al-Fatah organization forms
- Jan 1 The People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan is founded in Kabul.
- Jan 2 Ayub Khan elected President of Pakistan
Event of Interest
Jan 2 Martin Luther King Jr. begins a drive to register black voters
- Jan 2 Obverse design of all Canadian coins is changed to depict present-day
- Jan 6 Geoff Boycott takes 3-47 against South Africa, his best Test bowling
- Jan 7 France announces it will convert $150 million of its currency to gold
- Jan 7 Twin brothers are in held in custody in London charged with abduction and murder
- Jan 8 Senator Everett Dirksen introduces a bill to make marigold the American natonal flower (it does not pass)
- Jan 8 Star of India returned to American Museum of Natural History
- Jan 10 Bollingen Prize for Poetry awarded to Horace Gregory [1]
- Jan 12 At 10:58 am PST burn up a nuclear rocket in Nevada
- Jan 15 Soviet underground nuclear test creates the atomic lake Chagan, Kazakhstan
- Jan 15 Washtenaw Community College in Ann Arbor, Michigan, forms
- Jan 16 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
- Jan 18 H L de Vries appointed Dutch governor of Suriname
Meeting of Interest
Jan 20 Generalissimo Francisco Franco meets with Jewish representatives to discuss legitimizing Jewish communities in Spain
- Jan 20 The Byrds record "Mr Tambourine Man"
- Jan 20 The US Jet Propulsion Laboratory proposes modified Apollo flight to fly around Mars & return
- Jan 21 Iranian premier Hassan Ali Mansur assassinated by 17-year-old Mohammad Bokharaei, a member of the Fadayan-e Islam
- Jan 22 US launches TIROS 9 weather satellite
- Jan 23 BPAA All-Star Tournament won by Dick Weber
- Jan 26 South Vietnam military coup under general Nguyen Khanh
- Jan 27 1st ground station-to-aircraft radio communication via satellite
- Jan 27 Groundbreaking for "Dragon Gateway" at Grant Avenue
Funeral of Winston Churchill
Jan 30 State funeral for Winston Churchill at St Paul's Cathedral in London; at the time, the world's largest ever state funeral
Birthdays in History
- Jan 4 Jergus Baca, Liptovsky Mikulas CZE, IHL defenseman (Team Slovakia 98)
- Jan 6 Bjorn Lomborg, Danish mathematician, born in Frederiksberg, Denmark
- Jan 6 Muhammed al-Ahari, American Muslim writer
- Jan 12 Biram Dah Abeid, Mauritanian politician & slavery abolitionist advocate, born in Rosso, Trarza
- Jan 14 Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, British TV chef (River Cottage), writer and environmental activist, born in London, England
- Jan 14 Shamil Basayev, Chechen rebel, born in Dyshne-Vedeno, Russia (d. 2006)
- Jan 19 J. B. Pritzker, American businessman (Pritzker Group), and politician (Governor of Illinois, 2019- present), born in Atherton, California
- Jan 21 Jam Master Jay, American disc jockey (d. 2002)
- Jan 26 Kevin McCarthy, American politician (Rep-R-California 2007-), born in Bakersfield, California
- Jan 26 Thomas Östros, Swedish politician, born in Malmberget, Sweden
Weddings in History
Michael Crichton
Jan 1 Novelist Michael Crichton (22) weds high school sweetheart Joan Radam
Deaths in History
T. S. Eliot (1888-1965)
Jan 4 American-born British poet (The Waste Land) and Nobel laureate (1948), dies in London at 76
- Jan 5 Paul Arntzenius, Dutch painter, graphic artist and etcher, dies at 81
- Jan 12 Lorraine Hansberry, American playwright (A Raisin in the Sun), and writer (To Be Young Gifted And Black), dies in NYC, dies of pancreatic cancer at 34
- Jan 12 Porcupine, in the National Zoo, dies at 27; oldest known rodent (Washington, DC)
- Jan 15 Pierre Ngendandumwe, premier of Burundi, murdered
- Jan 17 Hans Marchwitza, German writer and communist, dies at 75
Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Jan 24 British Prime Minister (Conservative: 1940-45, 1951-55) during World War II, and writer (Nobel Prize in Literature, 1953), dies of a stroke at 90
Authors
Civil Rights Activists
Inventors
Kings
Revolutionaries
Scientists