Events in History
- Jan 1 Greece is 10th country to join European Economic Community
- Jan 1 International Year for the Disabled begins
- Jan 1 Palau (Trust Territory of Pacific Is) becomes self-governing
Historic Publication
Jan 1 Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa publishes his historical novel "The War of the End of the World"
- Jan 1 Roger Smith becomes CEO of General Motors
- Jan 4 "Frankenstein" opens & closes on Broadway
- Jan 4 "Red Right 88", trailing 14–12 Clevelands Browns attempt an end zone pass play (Red Right 88) and a game-winning field goal in the final minute, but pass intercepted by Raiders safety Mike Davis and Oakland wins
Event of Interest
Jan 4 British police arrest Peter Sutcliffe, the "Yorkshire Ripper"
- Jan 5 Peter Sutcliffe, a truck driver confesses that he is the "Yorkshire Ripper" and murdered 13 women
- Jan 6 50th hat trick in Islander history-John Tonelli scored 5 goals
- Jan 8 India all out 63 in one-day international v Australia
Event of Interest
Jan 8 Isabel Allende begins a letter to her dying grandfather that will become her first novel "The House of the Spirits"
- Jan 9 Francisco Balsamao elected President of Portugal
- Jan 10 El Salvador guerrilla group FMLN opens "general offensive"
- Jan 10 John Severin sets 100-mi unicycle speed record, 9 h 21 m
- Jan 11 British team led by Ranulph Fiennes completes longest & fastest crossing of Antarctica, reaching Scott base after 75 days (2,500 miles)
- Jan 11 Palau adopts constitution
- Jan 12 -35°F (-37°C), Chester, Massachusetts (state record)
- Jan 13 Barbara Sonntag, Colo, crochets record 147 stitches/min for 1/2 hour
- Jan 13 Bollingen Prize for poetry awarded to May Swenson and Howard Nemerov
- Jan 14 US Federal Communications Commission frees stations to air as many commercials an hour as they wish
Event of Interest
Jan 15 Pope John Paul II receives Lech Wałęsa and Solidarity delegation at the Vatican
- Jan 16 Protestant gunmen shoot & wound Bernadette Devlin McAliskey & husband
Event of Interest
Jan 17 President of the Philippines Ferdinand Marcos ends martial law
- Jan 18 Iran accepts US offer of $7.9 billion in frozen assets
- Jan 18 Phil Smith and Phil Mayfield become the first two people to BASE jump from objects in all four categories (buildings, cliffs, bridges, antennae) after parachuting off a Houston skyscraper
- Jan 19 US & Iran sign agreement to release 52 American hostages
- Jan 20 Adm Stansfield Turner, USN (Ret), ends term as 12th director of CIA
- Jan 20 Frank C. Carlucci, ends his term as deputy director of CIA
- Jan 20 Islander Glenn Resch's 25th & last shut-out opponent-Flames 5-0
Ronald Reagan Inaugurated
Jan 20 Ronald Reagan inaugurated as the 40th President of the United States of America
Iran Hostage Crisis
Jan 20 The US diplomats and citizens held hostage at the US embassy in Tehran are released and begin their journey home after 444 days
- Jan 21 Bernhard Goetz is assaulted for 1st time on a New York City subway train
- Jan 21 Norman Stronge and his son James (both former Ulster Unionist Members of Parliament) are assassinated by the Irish Republican Army at their home Tynan Abbey, which is then burnt down
- Jan 23 1st Richard Nixon museum opens in San Clemente California
- Jan 23 Jochem Bird elected mayor of West Berlin
- Jan 25 52 Americans held hostage by Iran for 444 days arrived back in US
Event of Interest
Jan 25 Mao's widow Jiang Qing sentenced to death
Event of Interest
Jan 28 William J. Casey becomes 13th director of CIA (until 1987)
- Jan 31 Gaetan Boucher skates world record 1000m (1:13.39)
Birthdays in History
- Jan 4 Alicia Garza, American writer and civil rights activist (co-founded #BlackLivesMatter), born in Oakland, California
Jared Kushner (42 years old)
Jan 10 American real estate developer and son-in-law and advisor to Donald Trump, born in Livingston, New Jersey
- Jan 14 Abdelmalek Cherrad, Algerian football, born in La Tronche, France
- Jan 14 Adar Poonawalla, Indian vaccine manufacturer (CEO of Serum Institute of India)
Deaths in History
- Jan 3 Princess Alice of Albany (b. 1883)
- Jan 5 Harold Urey, American physical chemist (Deuterium, Nobel 1934), dies at 87
- Jan 5 Lanza del Vasto, Italian philosopher (b. 1901)
- Jan 5 Paul Félix, Flemish architect (Song of the Sun), dies at 67
- Jan 6 A. J. Cronin, Scottish writer (Citadel, Shining Victory), dies at 84
- Jan 7 Alvar Lidell, UK radio broadcaster (b. 1908)
- Jan 7 Eric Robinson, Australian politician (b. 1926)
- Jan 10 Fawn M. Brodie, American historian (b. 1915)
- Jan 13 Emiel van Hemeldonck, Belgian writer (Mary, My Child), dies at 83
- Jan 14 John O'Grady, Australian writer (Nino Culotta) (b. 1907)
- Jan 15 David E. Lilienthal, American attorney and government administrator (Tennessee Valley Authority, 1933-46; Chairman of Atomic Energy Commission, 1946-50), dies at 81
- Jan 15 Emanuel Celler, American politician (Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York), dies at 92
- Jan 21 James Stronge former Ulster Unionist Member of Parliament, assassinated by IRA, alongside his father Norman
- Jan 21 Norman Stronge, former Ulster Unionist Member of Parliament, assassinated by IRA alongside son James
- Jan 22 Fannie Thomas, American who became the oldest known American at her death, dies at 113 years and 273 days
- Jan 22 Ishtiaq Hussain Qureshi, Pakistani historian and educationist, dies at 77
- Jan 25 Adele Astaire [Lady Charles Cavendish], American dancer and entertainer, sister of Fred Astaire (Last Man on Earth, Millie), dies at 82
- Jan 27 Leo Collard, Belgian controversial minister of Education (1946/54-58), dies at 78
Authors
Civil Rights Activists
Inventors
Kings
Revolutionaries
Scientists