Events in History
- Jan 1 Aruba becomes independent from neighbor island Curacao
- Jan 1 International Peace Year begins
- Jan 1 NYC transit fare rises from 90 cents to $1.00
- Jan 1 South African Government closes its borders with Lesotho, cutting off important food and fuel supplies, after Lesotho refuses to sign a non-aggression pact
- Jan 1 Spain & Portugal are 11th & 12th to join European Economic Community
- Jan 2 191.66 million shares traded in NY Stock Exchange
- Jan 6 British Defense Secretary Michael Heseltine resigns after the 'Westland affair'
- Jan 6 Impala Platinum fires 20,000 black mine workers in Johannesburg
- Jan 6 STS 61-C scrubbed at T-31sec because of liquid oxygen valve problem
- Jan 7 Netherlands Bank issues 250 guilder notes
- Jan 7 STS 61-C mission scrubbed at T -9m because of weather problems
Event of Interest
Jan 7 US President Reagan announces economic sanctions against Libya
- Jan 9 After losing a patent battle with Polaroid, Kodak must give up its instant camera business.
- Jan 10 NASA's STS-61-C mission scrubbed T -9m because of bad weather at Florida's Kennedy Space Center
- Jan 10 Palau signs Compact of Free Association with US
- Jan 11 Douglas Wilder of Virginia, 1st African American Lieutenant Governor since reconstruction sworn in
- Jan 12 24th space shuttle (61-C) mission-Columbia 7-launched
- Jan 13 ABC's TV premiere of "The Right of The People", whose writer and director is said to have been inspired by the 14 December 1980 massacre at Bob's Big Boy in Los Angeles
- Jan 13 NCCA institutes eligibility requirements based on college exams
- Jan 13 South Yemen President Ali Nasser Mohammed's bodyguard shoots opponents
- Jan 14 Constitution of Guatemala takes effect
- Jan 14 Vinicio Cerezo becomes only the second freely elected President of Guatemala since CIA-sponsored coup in 1954
- Jan 16 First meeting of the Internet Engineering Task Force.
- Jan 16 Police arrested 3 IRA-terrorists in Amsterdam
- Jan 18 24th Space Shuttle (61-C) Mission-Columbia 7-returns to Earth
- Jan 18 NY Lotto pays $30.5 million to one winner (#s are 19-20-27-34-41-46)
- Jan 19 Cerebral Palsy telethon raises $17 million
Event of Interest
Jan 19 Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres visits Netherlands
- Jan 19 Spain recognizes Israel
Event of Interest
Jan 20 1st US federal holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr. or MLK Day
- Jan 20 Chunnel announced (railroad tunnel under Channel)
- Jan 20 Military coup in Lesotho under major general Lekhanya & premier Leabua Jonathan
- Jan 21 Bomb attack in East-Beirut, 27 killed
- Jan 22 Ghorbanifar 1st suggests diversion of cash to contras, says North
- Jan 23 Columbia returns to Kennedy Space Center via Davis-Monthan AFB
- Jan 24 Leon Brittan, Trade and Industry Secretary under Thatcher is 2nd cabinet minister to resign after 'Westland affair'
- Jan 24 South Yemen Premier Haydar Bakr al-Attas becomes interim-president
Voyager 2 Spacecraft
Jan 24 Voyager 2 makes 1st fly-by of Uranus (81,593 km), finds new moons
USS Challenger Explodes
Jan 28 Space Shuttle Challenger explodes 73 seconds after liftoff from Cape Canaveral, with all 7 crew members killed, including Christa McAuliffe who was to be the first teacher in space
Birthdays in History
Deaths in History
- Jan 4 Christopher Isherwood, English novelist (Lions & Shadows), dies at 81
- Jan 6 Louis Lebeer, Dutch art historian, dies at 90
- Jan 7 Juan Rulfo, Mexican writer (Pedro Páramo), dies at 68
- Jan 7 Philip D. Eastman, American children's book writer and illustrator (b. 1909)
- Jan 8 Yaroslav Seifert, Czech poet (Nobel 1984), dies at 84
- Jan 10 Joseph Kraft, American columnist, dies at 61
- Jan 11 Sid Chaplin, UK novelist (b. 1916)
- Jan 12 Marcel Arland, French author (L'ordre, Lumière du Soir), dies at 86
- Jan 14 Walter Leblanc, Belgian painter, dies at 53
- Jan 16 Herbert W. Armstrong, American evangelist, author, and publisher (b. 1892)
- Jan 23 Joseph Beuys, West German avant-garde artist (Fluxus movement), dies at 64
- Jan 24 L. Ron Hubbard, American sci-fi writer (Death Quest) and founder of the Scientology cult, dies at 74
- Jan 25 Ernst Schnabel, German writer and pioneer of the radio documentary, dies at 72
- Jan 28 Christa McAuliffe, American teacher, dies in the Challenger space shuttle disaster at 37
- Jan 28 Ellison S Onizuka, Hawaii, Mjr USAF/ast, dies in Challenger disaster
- Jan 28 Francis R Scobee, Wash, USAF/astronaut, dies in Challenger disaster
- Jan 28 Greg Jarvis - Crew of Space Shuttle Challenger (b. 1944)
- Jan 28 Judith Arlene Resnik, Akron Oh, astr, dies in Challenger disaster
- Jan 28 Michael J. Smith, American astronaut (51L-Challenger disaster), dies in Challenger at 40
- Jan 28 Ronald E McNair, American astronaut and physicist, dies in Challenger disaster at 35
Authors
Civil Rights Activists
Inventors
Kings
Revolutionaries
Scientists