Events in History
- Jan 1 People's Democracy (PD) begin a march from Belfast to Derry, inspired by ML King's Selma to Montgomery march in the US
Event of Interest
Jan 2 Australian Rupert Murdoch gains control of the 'News of the World'
- Jan 2 Luis Ferré becomes the first statehooder Governor of Puerto Rico
- Jan 2 Operation Barrier Reef begins in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam
- Jan 3 Rep Adam Clayton Powell Jr seated by Congress
- Jan 4 A People's Democracy march between Belfast and Derry is repeatedly attacked by loyalists and off-duty police officers
- Jan 4 France begins arms embargo against Israel
- Jan 5 Bollingen prize for poetry presented to John Berryman & Karl Shapiro
- Jan 5 Neville Williams' "Chronology of the Expanding World" completed
- Jan 5 USSR Venera 5 launched for 1st successful planet landing (Venus)
- Jan 7 US Congress doubles presidential salary
- Jan 9 First trial flight of Concorde supersonic jetliner, Bristol, England
Event of Interest
Jan 9 Prime Minister of Northern Ireland Terence O'Neill travels to London to meet Home Secretary James Callaghan and brief him on the growing violence in Northern Ireland
- Jan 10 Pirate Radio Station Free Derby begins operation by Northern Ireland
- Jan 10 Sweden is the 1st Western country to recognize North Vietnam
- Jan 10 USSR's Venera 6 launched for parachute landing on Venus
- Jan 11 Jethro Tull's This Was Jethro Tull album debuts
- Jan 14 25 members of US aircraft carrier Enterprise die during maneuvers
- Jan 14 Soyuz 4 launched; rendezvous with Soyuz 5 two days later
- Jan 15 Nuclear test at Pacific Ocean
- Jan 15 Prime Minister of Northern Ireland Terence O'Neill announces that an official inquiry will analyse the 'troubles' in Northern Ireland
- Jan 15 Soyuz 5 launched by Soviet Union
- Jan 16 Jan Palach, a Czech student, self-immolates in protest after the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia
- Jan 16 Soviet Soyuz 4 & Soyuz 5 perform 1st transfer of crew in space
- Jan 17 Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 5 lands
- Jan 18 Expanded 4 party Vietnam peace talks began in Paris
- Jan 18 United Airlines Flight 266 crashes into Santa Monica Bay, killing all 38 people on-board
- Jan 20 Richard M Nixon inaugurated as US president
- Jan 20 U of Az reports 1st optical id of pulsar (in Crab Nebula)
- Jan 21 A partial meltdown at the Lucens nuclear reactor in Switzerland seriously contaminating the cavern containing the reactor; the plant is sealed and decommissioned
- Jan 22 Orbiting Solar Observatory 5 launched into earth orbit
- Jan 23 Cream releases their last album "Goodbye"
- Jan 24 Deputy Prime Minister Brian Faulkner resigns from the Northern Ireland cabinet in protest at the lack of 'strong government' on the part of PM Terence O'Neill
- Jan 24 Queen Juliana of the Netherlands appointed honorary citizen of Addis Ababa
Event of Interest
Jan 24 Spanish dictator General Franco announces state of emergency
- Jan 24 Students protest the erection of steel gates around the London School of Economics
- Jan 25 US-North Vietnamese peace talks begin in Paris
- Jan 26 Minister of Health and Social Services William Morgan resigns from the Northern Ireland government
- Jan 26 Police break up a march by hundreds of demonstrators in central Prague
- Jan 27 14 spies hanged in Baghdad
- Jan 27 9 Jews publicly executed in Damascus, Syria
Event of Interest
Jan 27 Ian Paisley sentenced to 3 years
Birthdays in History
- Jan 1 Christi Paul, American news anchor
- Jan 2 Karl-Heinz Grasser, Austrian politician
- Jan 12 David Mitchell, English novelist (Cloud Atlas), born in Southport, England
- Jan 17 Lukas Moodysson, Swedish film writer & director, born in Lund, Sweden
- Jan 19 Edwidge Danticat, Haitian-American author, born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti
- Jan 20 Patrick K. Kroupa, American hacker & activist, born in Los Angeles, California
- Jan 21 Tsubaki Nekoi, Japanese manga artist
- Jan 28 Linda Sanchez, American politician
- Jan 30 Carolyn Kepcher, American businesswoman & reality TV show star (The Apprentice), born in Westchester County, New York
Deaths in History
- Jan 3 Jean Focas, Greco-French astronomer (b. 1909)
- Jan 4 Daisy and Violet Hilton, British conjoined twins, die at 60
- Jan 5 Franz Theodor Csokor, Austrian author (Gottes General), dies at 83
- Jan 11 Richmal Crompton, British author (b. 1890)
- Jan 15 Theodor Werner, German painter, dies at 82
- Jan 18 Hans Freyer, German sociologist and philosopher, dies at 81
- Jan 19 Jan Palach, Czech student, dies of burns from self-immolation at 20
Allen Dulles (1893-1969)
Jan 30 American Central Intelligence Agency director (1953-1961), dies of influenza complicated by pneumonia at 75
Authors
Civil Rights Activists
Inventors
Kings
Revolutionaries
Scientists