Events in History
- Jan 1 Chrysler UK renamed Talbot
Event of Interest
Jan 1 Comic strip "The Far Side" by Gary Larson debuts in The San Francisco Chronicle
- Jan 1 International Decade of Water & Sanitation begins
- Jan 1 Mob storms Russian embassy in Tehran
- Jan 1 Premier Adbou Diouf becomes president of Senegal
- Jan 1 Sweden changes order of succession to throne
- Jan 1 Victoria is crowned princess of Sweden.
- Jan 2 British Steel workers go on a national strike
- Jan 3 Babrak Karmal defends the Soviet-backed coup in first public appearance since taking power as President of Afghanistan
- Jan 3 Gold hits record $634 an ounce
Election of Interest
Jan 6 Indira Gandhi's Congress Party wins elections in India
- Jan 6 The beginning of the first GPS epoch.
Event of Interest
Jan 7 US President Jimmy Carter authorizes legislation to bail out the Chrysler Corporation with a 1.5 billion dollar loan
- Jan 9 63 beheaded in Mecca, Saudi Arabia
- Jan 13 Head of narcotic brigade arrested for drug smuggling in Belgium
- Jan 13 Togo's constitution becomes effective
- Jan 15 Pam Gems' "Piaf!" premieres in London
- Jan 17 NASA launches Fltsatcom-3
- Jan 17 Provisional Irish Republican Army bomb prematurely detonates on a passenger train near Belfast, kills three and injuring five (including the bombers)
- Jan 18 Gold reaches $1,000 an ounce
- Jan 18 Studio 54 owners Steve Rubell & Ian Schrager sentenced to 3½ years in prison for tax evasion & fined $20,000
- Jan 20 US female Figure Skating championship won by Linda Fratianne
- Jan 20 US male Figure Skating championship won by Charles Tickner
- Jan 21 Gold hits record $850 an ounce
Event of Interest
Jan 22 Russian dissidents Andrei Sakharov and Yelena Bonner arrested in Moscow and banished to Gorky
Event of Interest
Jan 27 Robert Mugabe returns to Rhodesia after 5 years in exile
Event of Interest
Jan 30 Edward Albee's "Lady from Dubuque" premieres in NYC
- Jan 31 Police storm occupied Spanish embassy in Guatemala City, killing 41
Birthdays in History
- Jan 1 Elin Nordegren, Swedish model
- Jan 3 Liya Kebede, Ethiopian model
- Jan 5 Bennie Joppru, National Football League tight end, born in Dickinson, North Dakota
- Jan 11 Lovieanne Jung, American softball player, born in Honolulu, Hawaii
- Jan 14 Sosuke Sumitani, Japanese announcer, born in Tokyo, Japan
- Jan 17 Maksim Chmerkovskiy, Ukrainian ballroom dancer, born in Odessa, Ukraine
- Jan 20 Philippe Cousteau Jr., French oceanographer and grandson of Jacques Cousteau, born in Santa Monica, California
- Jan 22 Subhash Ram Prajapati, Nepalese writer, born in Bhaktapur, Nepal
- Jan 28 Jesse James, American drug dealer and fugitive, born in Hollywood, California
Deaths in History
Joy Adamson (1910-1980)
Jan 3 Austrian naturalist and author (Born Free), murdered at 69 by her servant
- Jan 8 John Mauchly, American physicist who with J. Presper Eckert, designed the first general purpose electronic digital computer (ENIAC), dies at 72
- Jan 8 Oscar Ewing, US government official (Everybody's Business), dies at 90
- Jan 10 George Meany, American labor leader ((AFL-CIO), dies at 86
- Jan 11 Barbara Pym, English novelist (b. 1913)
- Jan 14 Robert Ardrey, American author (b. 1908)
- Jan 16 Anna Maria Franciska van Wageningen-Salomons, Dutch author (Girl Student), dies at 94
- Jan 18 Cecil Beaton, British photographer, dies at 76
- Jan 19 William O. Douglas, American member US Supreme court (1939-75), dies at 81
Authors
Civil Rights Activists
Inventors
Kings
Revolutionaries
Scientists