Historical Events
- Jan 1 24th Orange Bowl: #4 Oklahoma beats #16 Duke, 48-21
- Jan 1 24th Sugar Bowl: #7 Mississippi beats #11 Texas, 39-7
- Jan 1 44th Rose Bowl: #2 Ohio State beats Oregon, 10-7
- Jan 1 BOAC Britannia flies London to NY in a record 7h57m
- Jan 1 European Economic Community, better known as the European Common Market starts operation
- Jan 1 WMBD TV channel 31 in Peoria, IL (CBS) begins broadcasting
- Jan 2 Dmitri Shostakovich' 2nd Piano concert, premieres in NY
- Jan 3 Australian cricket fast bowler Lindsay Kline takes a hat-trick (Eddie Fuller, Hugh Tayfield, Neil Adcock) as South Africa dismissed for 99 in follow-on 2nd Test at Cape Town
- Jan 3 The West Indies Federation is formed, made up of former British Caribbean territories, with the capital Port of Spain
Hillary Reaches the South Pole
Jan 4 NZ team led by Edmund Hillary reaches the South Pole, the 1st to reach the Pole overland using motor vehicles and the 1st since Amundsen in 1911 and Scott in 1912
- Jan 4 Sputnik 1 reenters atmosphere & burns up
- Jan 6 Bollingen Prize for poetry awarded to E. E. Cummings
- Jan 6 WIPR TV channel 6 in San Juan, PR (PBS) begins broadcasting
Gibson's 'Flying V'
Jan 7 Gibson Guitars receives US patent for their 'Flying V' electric guitar model; eventually used by Albert Collins, Jimi Hendrix, Marc Bolan of T-Rex, Dave Davies of the Kinks, and Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top
- Jan 7 USSR reduces army to 300,000
Robertson Scores 56
Jan 9 In basketball Oscar Robertson (Cin) scores 56, Seton Hall team 54
Great Balls of Fire
Jan 10 Jerry Lee Lewis' "Great Balls of Fire" reaches #1 on the UK pop charts
- Jan 12 8th NFL Pro Bowl, LA Memorial Coliseum: Western Conference beats Eastern Conference, 26-7; MVPs: Hugh McElhenny, SF 49ers, HB; Gene Brito, Washington Redskins, DE
- Jan 12 NCAA adds 2 point conversion to football scoring
Schayes Sets Record
Jan 12 Syracuse National Dolph Schayes sets NBA record at 11,770 points
- Jan 13 9,000 scientists of 43 nations petition UN for nuclear test ban
- Jan 13 Moroccan Liberation Army ambushes Spanish patrol in the Battle of Edchera.
- Jan 13 US newspaper "Daily Worker" ceases publication
- Jan 15 New York Yankees announce that 140 MLB games to be televised on WPIX TV this season in a deal worth over $1 million dollars
- Jan 16 William Gibson's "Two for the Seesaw" premieres in NYC
- Jan 18 Willie O’Ree is the 1st African-American to appear in the NHL, making his debut for the Boston Bruins in a 3-0 victory in Montreal
- Jan 19 Canadian Football Council renamed Canadian Football League
- Jan 20 A group attempting the 1st surface crossing of Antarctic join up at the South Pole
- Jan 20 KUED TV channel 7 in Salt Lake City, UT (PBS) begins broadcasting
8th NBA All-Star Game
Jan 21 8th NBA All-Star Game, Kiel Auditorium, St. Louis, Mo: East beats West, 130-118; MVP: Bob Pettit, Milwaukee Hawks, C
- Jan 21 KMOT TV channel 10 in Minot, ND (NBC) begins broadcasting
- Jan 21 Phillies agree to televise 78 games into NYC (doesn't happen)
- Jan 21 St Louis Hawks forward Bob Pettit becomes first member of the losing team to win the NBA All-Star MVP award; scores 28 points and grabs 26 rebounds, even though East beats West, 130-118
- Jan 22 KRSD (now KEVN) TV channel 7 in Rapid City, SD (ABC) 1st broadcast
- Jan 23 "Body Beautiful" opens at Broadway Theater NYC for 60 performances
- Jan 23 Dictator Marcos Perez Jiménez flees Venezuela, Larrazabal takes power
Longest Innings in Test History
Jan 23 Pakistani cricket batsman Hanif Mohammad scores record 337 runs in 970 minutes in drawn 1st Test v West Indies at Bridgetown, longest innings in Test history
- Jan 24 After warming to 100,000,000 degrees, 2 light atoms are bashed together to create a heavier atom, resulting in 1st man-made nuclear fusion
Laskow Heads Defense Forces
Jan 26 Haim Laskow replaces Moshe Dayan as Israeli Chief of the General Staff - in charge of Israeli Defense Forces
- Jan 26 Jack Smith takes over from Art Baker as TV host of "You Asked for It"
- Jan 26 Japanese ferry Nankai Maru capsized off southern Awaji Island, Japan, 167 killed.
Cooper Beats Anderson
Jan 27 Australian Championships Men's Tennis: Ashley Cooper wins 2nd straight Australian title; beats fellow Australian Malcolm Anderson 7-5, 6-3, 6-4
Barrett Defeats Coghlan
Jan 27 Australian Championships Women's Tennis: Angela Mortimer Barrett of England beats Lorraine Coghlan of Australia 6-3, 6-4
- Jan 27 Ferenc Munnich succeeds Kadar as premier of Hungary
- Jan 28 Construction began on 1st private thorium-uranium nuclear reactor
Campanella Paralyzed
Jan 28 Dodger catcher Roy Campanella is paralyzed in an automobile wreck
- Jan 28 The Lego Group patents their design of interlocking Lego bricks, still compatible with bricks produced today
- Jan 29 Murderer, Charles Starkweather, captured by police in Wyoming
- Jan 30 1st 2-way moving sidewalk goes into service in Dallas, Texas
- Jan 30 Dore Schary's "Sunrise at Campobello" premieres in NYC
- Jan 30 MLB Commissioner Ford Frick announces that players and coaches, rather than fans, will vote on selections for the All-Star Game; vote returns to the fans in 1970
- Jan 30 UK House of Lords passes bill allowing women to take seats
"Jackpot Bowling"
Jan 31 "Jackpot Bowling" premieres on NBC with Leo Durocher as host
- Jan 31 Earth's radiation belt first discovered by space scientist James van Allen and his team at Iowa University [1]
- Jan 31 US launches their 1st artificial satellite, Explorer 1
Famous Birthdays
- Jan 1 Dave Silk, American ice hockey right wing (Olympic gold 1980), born in Scituate, Massachusetts
- Jan 1 Grandmaster Flash [Joseph Saddler], Barbadian-American hip-hop DJ and rapper ("Message"), born in Bridgetown, Barbados
- Jan 1 Ren Woods, actress (Fanta-Roots), born in Portland, Oregon
- Jan 2 Vladimir Ovchinnikov, Russian concert pianist (Tchaikovsky Prize, 1982; Leeds, 1987), born in Belebey, Bashkir ASSR (now Bashkortostan)
- Jan 3 Shim Hyung-rae, South Korean filmmaker
- Jan 4 Andy Borowitz, American comedian and satirist
- Jan 4 Gary Jones, Welsh-born actor
- Jan 4 Julian Sands, English actor (A Room With a View; Arachnophobia; 24), born in Otley, Yorkshire, England (d. 2023)
- Jan 4 Matt Frewer, actor (Max Headroom, Doctor Doctor), born in Washington, D.C.
- Jan 5 Ezra Moseley, Barbadian cricket fast bowler (2 Tests; 9 ODIs, West Indies; Barbados; Glamorgan), born in Waldrons Village, Christ Church, Barbados (d. 2021)
- Jan 6 Scott Bryce, American actor (As the World Turns), born in New York City
- Jan 6 Themos Anastasiadis, Greek journalist, television presenter and newspaper editor
- Jan 7 Donna Rice Hughes, American author and speaker, born in New Orleans, Louisiana
- Jan 7 Linda Kozlowski, American actress (Crocodile Dundee), born in Fairfield, Connecticut
- Jan 7 Peter Mokaba, South African politician (South African Youth Congress), born in Pietersburg, South Africa
- Jan 8 Rey Misterio Sr., Mexican wrestler, born in Tijuana, Mexico
Mehmet Ali Ağca (66 years old)
Jan 9 Turkish attempted assassin of Pope John Paul II, born in Hekimhan, Turkey
- Jan 9 Stephen Neale, British philosopher, born in England
- Jan 10 Anatoly Pisarenko, Soviet weightlifter, born in Kyiv, Ukraine
- Jan 11 Diego León Montoya Sánchez, Colombian crime boss and leader of the Norte del Valle drug cartel, born in Trujillo, Colombia
- Jan 11 Vicki Peterson, rock guitarist/vocalist (Bangles - "Manic Monday"), born in Los Angeles, California
- Jan 12 Curt Fraser, American ice hockey coach, born in Cincinnati, Ohio
- Jan 13 Ricardo Acuna, Chile, tennis star
- Jan 13 Sandy Stewart, American songwriter, singer, and keyboardist (Cat Dancer), born in Houston, Texas
- Jan 14 Colin Ferguson, Jamaican murderer (6 people on the LIRR on Dec 7, 1993), born in Kingston, Jamaica
- Jan 15 Boris Tadić, President of Serbia, born in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Jan 16 Anatoli Boukreev, Kazakhstani-Russian mountaineer, born in Korkino, Russia (d. 1997)
- Jan 16 Lena Ek, Swedish politician, born in Mönsterås, Sweden
- Jan 17 Jez Strode, British rock drummer (Kajagoogoo), born in London. England
- Jan 18 Jeffrey N Williams, United States Army officer & NASA astronaut, born in Village of Superior, Wisconsin
- Jan 18 Larry Smith, American NBA player, born in Rolling Fork, Mississippi
- Jan 19 Thomas Kinkade, American painter, born in Sacramento, California (d. 2012)
Lorenzo Lamas (66 years old)
Jan 20 American actor (Lance-Falcon Crest, California Fever), born in Los Angeles, California
- Jan 21 Miguel Alejandro, American actor (Popi), born in New York City
- Jan 22 Charles White, American College Football Hall of Fame running back (Heisman Trophy 1979, USC; Pro Bowl 1987, Cleveland Browns, LA Rams), born in Los Angeles, California (d. 2023)
- Jan 22 Nikos Anastopoulos, Greek football player and manager, born in Dafni, Greece
- Jan 24 Frank Ullrich, German world biathlon champion, born in Trusetal, Germany
- Jan 24 Jools Holland, British rock keyboardist (Squeeze), and TV presenter (Later...), born in Blackheath, London
- Jan 24 Neil Allen, American baseball player, born in Kansas City, Kansas
- Jan 25 Dinah Manoff, American actress (Elaine-Soap, Carol Weston-Empty Nest), born in New York City
- Jan 25 Gary Brian Tibbs, British rock bassist (Adam & The Ants; Roxy Music), born in London, England
- Jan 25 Harti Weirather, Austrian alpine skier, born in Reutte, Austria
Anita Baker (66 years old)
Jan 26 American jazz and soul singer ("Giving You the Best That I Got"; "Sweet Love"), born in Toledo, Ohio
- Jan 26 B. James Lowry, American country session guitarist and producer (The Boys Band), born in Pensacola, Florida
Ellen DeGeneres (66 years old)
Jan 26 American comedian (Ellen Morgan-Ellen), born in New Orleans, Louisiana
- Jan 26 Norman Hassan, British reggae percussionist, and trombone player (UB40 - "Red Red Wine"; "I Got You Babe"), born in Birmingham, England
- Jan 26 Salvador Sánchez, Mexican boxer (WBC, lineal featherweight title 1980-82), born in Santiago Tianguistenco, Mexico (d. 1982)
- Jan 27 Alan Milburn, British MP
- Jan 27 Charles Waltz, American multi-instrumentalist rocker (Shooting Star), born in Kansas City, Missouri
- Jan 27 James Grippando, American novelist
- Jan 27 Kadri Mälk, Estonian artist and jewelry designer
- Jan 29 Judy Norton-Taylor, American actress (Mary Ellen - The Waltons), born in Santa Monica, California
- Jan 30 Brett Butler, American comedian (Grace-Grace Under Fire), born in Montgomery, Alabama
- Jan 30 Rob van Zandvoort, Dutch rock vocalist & keyboardist (Jack of Hearts), born in Kerkrade, Netherlands
- Jan 31 Tom Schuman, American pianist (Spyro Gyra - "Morning Dance"), born in Buffalo, New York
Famous Weddings
Sammy Davis Jr.
Jan 1 American entertainer Sammy Davis Jr. marries Loray White; divorce in 1959
Jayne Mansfield
Jan 13 American actress Jayne Mansfield (24) weds Hungarian-American bodybuilder Mickey Hargitay (32) at the Wayfarers Chapel in Rancho Palos Verdes, California; divorce in 1964
Malcolm X & Betty Shabazz
Jan 14 Human rights activist Malcolm X marries fellow activist Betty Shabazz in Lansing, Michigan
Paul Newman & Joanne Woodward
Jan 29 Academy Award-winning actor Paul Newman (33) weds "The Three Faces of Eve" actress Joanne Woodward (27) at the El Rancho hotel-casino in Las Vegas
Famous Divorces
Jayne Mansfield
Jan 8 Actress Jayne Mansfield and public relations manager Paul Mansfield's divorce is finalized, after 7-1/2 years of marriage
Famous Deaths
- Jan 1 David Broekman, Dutch musician (Think Fast), dies at 55
- Jan 1 Edward Weston, American photographer, dies at 71
- Jan 4 John Anderson, 1st Viscount Waverley, British civil servant, politician and Chancellor of the Exchequer (1943-45), dies at 75
- Jan 6 Josephine CMA, princess of Belgium/nun, dies at 85
- Jan 7 Petru Groza, Austro-Hungarian born Romanian communist and President of Romania (1945-58), dies at 74
- Jan 8 Mary Colter, American architect and designer (Fred Harvey Company, Santa Fe Railroad), dies at 88
- Jan 8 Paul Pilgrim, American athlete (Olympic gold 1904, 06), dies at 74
- Jan 9 Paul Fechter, German writer (Der Zauberer Gottes), dies at 77
- Jan 9 Willis Rodney Whitney, American Chemist, founder of the General Electric research laboratory, and pioneer of industrial scientific research, dies at 89
- Jan 10 Charles de Trooz, Belgian writer, dies at 52
- Jan 11 Alec Rowley, English composer, dies at 65
- Jan 12 Arthur Shepherd, American composer and conductor, dies from surgery complications at 77
- Jan 12 Charles Mallory Hatfield, U.S. rainmaker (b. 1875)
- Jan 13 Edna Purviance, American actress (Charlie Chaplin, Sunnyside), dies at 61
- Jan 13 Jesse L. Lasky, U.S. film producer (b. 1880)
- Jan 30 Earnest Heinrich Heinkel, German aeronautical engineer (1st rocket-powered aircraft), dies at 70
- Jan 30 Jean Crotti, Swiss-French artist, dies at 79
