Historical Events
- Jan 1 19th Fiesta Bowl: #5 Florida State beats #6 Nebraska, 41-17
- Jan 1 56th Orange Bowl: #4 Notre Dame beats #1 Colorado, 21-6
- Jan 1 56th Sugar Bowl: #2 Miami beats #7 Alabama, 33-25
- Jan 1 76th Rose Bowl: #12 Southern California beats #3 Michigan, 17-10
1st African American NY Mayor
Jan 1 David Dinkins sworn in as 1st African American mayor of New York City
- Jan 1 FCC implements "SYNDEX" giving independent stations more rights over cable TV outlets for exclusive syndicated programs
Spain's First Win
Jan 1 Hopman Cup Tennis, Perth: Arantxa Sánchez Vicario beats American Pam Shriver 6-3, 6-3 to clinch 2-1 win for Spain's first title
- Jan 1 Mitsuko Nishiwaki beats Nakano to become Japan Women wrestling champ
- Jan 1 NYC MTA stops token redemption at subway stations
- Jan 1 Sports News Network begins operation on cable TV
- Jan 2 Dow Jones hits record 2,800 (2,810.15)
Noriega Surrenders
Jan 3 Panama's leader General Manuel Noriega surrenders to US authorities
- Jan 4 307 dead and 700 injured after overloaded passenger train collides with empty freight train in Pakistan
- Jan 5 J Donald Crump appointed 8th Commissioner of CFL
- Jan 6 NY Lotto pays $35 million to one winner (#s are 18-25-26-32-42-44)
- Jan 7 Lynn Jennings runs world record indoor 5km indoor at 15:22.64
- Jan 7 Tower of Pisa closed to the public after leaning too far
- Jan 9 64th US manned space mission STS 32 (Columbia 10) launches into orbit
- Jan 9 Boston Celtics worst ever (6 pts in 2nd vs NJ Nets) & lose 87-78
Palmer and Morgan Elected
Jan 9 Jim Palmer & Joe Morgan elected to Baseball Hall of Fame
- Jan 9 US Supreme Court strikes down Dallas' ordinance imposing strict zoning on sexually oriented businesses
Martial Law Ends
Jan 10 China lifts martial law, imposed after the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989
- Jan 10 NCAA approves random drug testing for college football players
- Jan 11 200,000 demand return of Lithuania's independence
- Jan 11 Actor Joseph Cotton (84) undergoes cancer operation to remove his larynx
- Jan 11 Bob Knight becomes college basketball's Big 10 winningest coach with his 229th victory
Lafontaine's Sets Record
Jan 11 NHL New York Islander Pat Lafontaine sets team record by scoring goals in 11 straight games
Al Sharpton Stabbed
Jan 12 Civil rights activist Reverend Al Sharpton is stabbed in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn
Broncos Defeat Browns
Jan 14 AFC Championship, Mile High Stadium, Denver: Denver Broncos beat Cleveland Browns 37-21
- Jan 14 NFC Championship, Candlestick Park, SF: San Francisco 49ers beat Los Angeles Rams, 30-3
No Hope for Gulf Peace
Jan 14 Un Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar says he has lost all hope for peace in Gulf
Forman vs. Cooney
Jan 15 42-year-old former world heavyweight boxing champion George Foreman stops Gerry Cooney in 2 rounds in Atlantic City in a non-title bout; Cooney's last fight
- Jan 15 6th Soap Opera Digest Awards: Santa Barbara wins
- Jan 15 AT&T experiences long distance problems due to a computer glitch
- Jan 15 Golden State coach Don Nelson becomes 2nd man in NBA history to appear in 1,000 games both as a player and coach (joining Lenny Wilkens) as the Warriors lose to the Indiana Pacers, 144-105
- Jan 15 In a bizarre twist in the NHL, Washington Capitals fire coach Brian Murray, who had been head coach since 1981; replace him with his brother Terry, who had been coaching in the minors
- Jan 15 In a shrewd move, Detroit Tigers sign 1st baseman Cecil Fielder who spent previous season in Japan; hits 51 homers this MLB season and becomes a premier power hitter for most of the 1990s
- Jan 16 2 Bank of Credit & Commerce members plea guilty to money laundering
5th Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Jan 17 5th Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees: Hank Ballard; Bobby Darin; The Four Seasons; The Four Tops; The Kinks; The Platters; Simon and Garfunkel; The Who; Louis Armstrong; Charlie Christian; Ma Rainey; Gerry Goffin and Carole King; and Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Eddie Holland
- Jan 17 MLB pitcher Dave Stewart signs record $3,500,000 per year Oakland A's contract
- Jan 18 South Africa says it is reconsidering ban on African National Congress
- Jan 18 Washington, D.C., Mayor Marion Barry arrested in drug enforcement sting
- Jan 19 Police break up protests in Johannesburg against the cricket players defying a boycott on playing in apartheid South Africa
- Jan 19 Test debut of Mushtaq Ahmed, v Australia at Adelaide
- Jan 19 Turning point in the exodus of hundreds of thousands of Kashmiri Hindus from Indian-administrated Kashmir due to violence from Muslim militants
47th Golden Globes
Jan 20 47th Golden Globes: "Born on the Fourth of July", Tom Cruise and Michelle Pfeiffer win
- Jan 20 Black January - crackdown of Azerbaijani pro-independence demonstrations by Soviet army in Baku
- Jan 20 US 64th manned space mission STS 32 (Columbia 10) returns from space
41st NHL All-Star Game
Jan 21 41st NHL All-Star Game, Civic Arena, Pittsburgh, PA: Wales beats Campbell, 12-7; MVP: Mario Lemieux, Pittsburgh Penguins, C
- Jan 21 Bob Goodenow succeeds Alan Eagleson as NHL players association executive director
McEnroe Expelled
Jan 21 John McEnroe becomes 1st ever player to be expelled from the Australian Open
17th American Music Awards
Jan 22 17th American Music Awards: Paula Abdul & Bobby Brown win
Red Troops into Azerbaijan
Jan 22 President Mikhail Gorbachev sends Red Troops into the Soviet republic of Azerbaijan
- Jan 22 Robert Tappan Morris, Jr. is convicted of releasing the 1988 Internet worm.
Akram Scores a Century
Jan 22 Wasim Akram scores test century (123) at Adelaide
- Jan 22 Will Clark, NL's MVP signs a $15M 4-year contract with SF Giants
- Jan 23 Australian cricketer Dean Jones scores twin test tons vs. Pakistan at Adelaide Oval
- Jan 24 14th Commonwealth Games open in Auckland, New Zealand
- Jan 24 Japanese MUSES-A (Hiten) launched towards moon
- Jan 24 LAs' Pat Riley becomes the 13th and fastest coach to reach the 500-victory plateau as the Lakers down the Indiana Pacers, 120-111; Riley (500-184) surpasses Don Nelson (500-317) to reach milestone
- Jan 25 Avianca Flight 052 runs out of fuel and crashes into a hillside at Cove Neck, New York, killing 8 of the 9 crew members and 65 of the 149 passengers on board
- Jan 25 Former Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega is transferred to a Miami jail
- Jan 25 Honduras becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty
- Jan 25 The Burns' Day windstorm storm hits northwestern Europe
- Jan 26 Annular eclipse visible over Antarctica & South Atlantic
- Jan 26 Boston Red Sox hires Elaine Weddington as asst GM (highest-ranking African American female in a major-league front office)
- Jan 27 6th Sundance Film Festival: "Chameleon Street" wins Grand Jury Prize Dramatic
Graf Beats Fernández
Jan 27 Australian Open Women's Tennis: Steffi Graf beats American Mary Joe Fernández 6-3, 6-4 for her 3rd consecutive Australian singles crown
- Jan 28 "Independent on Sunday" begins publishing in London
- Jan 28 Australian Open Men's Tennis: American-based Czech star Ivan Lendl of wins 8th and last career Grand Slam title; beats Stefan Edberg 4-6, 7-6, 5-2; Edberg retires injured
- Jan 28 Romanian protest against Ion Iliescu government
Super Bowl XXIV
Jan 28 Super Bowl XXIV, Louisiana Superdome, New Orleans, LA: San Francisco 49ers beat Denver Broncos, 55-10; MVP: Joe Montana, SF, QB
- Jan 29 Exxon Valdez capt Joseph Hazelwood goes on trial due to oil spill
Gretzky's 100 Point Record
Jan 30 LA center Wayne Gretzky sets NHL record by scoring his 100th point of the season for the 11th straight season; milestone comes with an assist in a 5-2 Kings' win over visiting New Jersey Devils
- Jan 31 1st ever all-sports daily "National" begins publishing
- Jan 31 1st McDonalds in the Soviet Union opens in Moscow
- Jan 31 Jushin "Thunder" Liger beats Naoki Sano to become New Japan IWGP champ
Famous Birthdays
- Jan 3 Yoichiro Kakitani, Japanese soccer midfielder (18 caps; Cerezo Osaka), born in Osaka, Japan
- Jan 4 Toni Kroos, German soccer midfielder (106 caps, FIFA World Cup 2014; Bayern Munich, Real Madrid), born in Greifswald, Germany
- Jan 7 Camryn Grimes, American actress, born in Van Nuys, California
- Jan 7 Elene Gedevanishvili, Georgian figure skater, born in Tbilisi, Georgia
- Jan 7 Gregor Schlierenzauer, Austrian ski jumper, born in Tyrol, Austria
- Jan 7 Liam Aiken, American actor, born in New York City
- Jan 8 Maci Wainwright, American country music singer, born in Edmond, Oklahoma
- Jan 10 Tao Li, Singaporean Olympic swimmer, born in Wuhan, China
- Jan 12 Sergey Karjakin, Ukrainian chess player, born in Simferopol
Liam Hemsworth (34 years old)
Jan 13 Australian actor (Hunger Games films), born in Melbourne, Victoria
- Jan 14 Grant Gustin, American actor and singer (The Flash; Glee), born in Norfolk, Virginia
- Jan 15 Chris Warren Jr., American actor, born in Indianapolis, Indiana
- Jan 15 Fernando Forestieri, Italian footballer, born in Rosario, Argentina
- Jan 18 Gift Ngoepe, South African-born baseball player, 1st black African to play in Major League Baseball, born in Pietersburg, South Africa
- Jan 18 Nacho [José Ignacio Fernández Iglesias] Spanish football player (Real Madrid, Spain), born in Madrid, Spain
- Jan 21 Jacob Smith, American actor
- Jan 26 Christopher Massey, American actor, born in Atlanta, Georgia
Peter Sagan (34 years old)
Jan 26 Slovakian professional cyclist (World Road Champion 2016), born in Žilina, Slovakia
- Jan 30 Eiza Gonzalez, Mexican actress and singer, born in Mexico City
- Jan 30 Jake Thomas, American actor (A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Lizzie McGuire), born in Knoxville, Tennessee
Famous Divorces
Andrew Lloyd Webber & Sarah Brightman
Jan 3 Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber (41) divorces singer/dancer Sarah Brightman (29) after almost 7 years of marriage
Jimmy Johnson
Jan 17 NFL coach Jimmy Johnson (46) divorces Linda Kay Cooper after 26 years of marriage
Michael Keaton
Jan 29 Actor Michael Keaton (38) divorces actress Caroline McWilliams (44) after 7 years of marriage
Famous Deaths
- Jan 1 Charles Boost, Dutch film critic, dies at 82
- Jan 1 James W. Wood, American astronaut (Dynasoar), dies at 65
- Jan 1 Joe Hardstaff Jr., English cricket batsman (23 Tests, 1,636 runs @ 46.74; Nottinghamshire CCC), dies at 78
- Jan 1 Suzuki Sochu, Japanese-born Zen teacher, dies at 80
Alan Hale Jr. (1921-1990)
Jan 2 American actor (Skipper-Gilligan's Island), dies of cancer at 68
- Jan 2 Vladimir Ussachevsky, Manchurian-American composer (Creation), dies at 78
- Jan 3 Arthur Gold, American pianist, half of Gold and Fizdale duo (b. 1917)
- Jan 3 Ken Hill, American actor (Cobra, Protocol), dies at 49
- Jan 4 Alberto Lleras Camargo, president of Colombia (1945-46, 58-62), dies
- Jan 4 Harold Edgerton, American electrical engineer and photographer who created high-speed photography techniques, dies at 86
- Jan 4 Robert Adams, American sci-fi author (Castaways in Time), dies at 57
- Jan 4 Sir Henry Bolte, Premier of Victoria 1955-1972 (b. 1908)
- Jan 5 Arthur Kennedy, American Tony Award-winning stage and screen actor (Death of a Salesman; Fantastic Voyage; Peyton Place; Some Came Running),dies of complications from thyroid cancer at 75
- Jan 5 Bart LaRue, American character actor, dies of a heart attack at 57
- Jan 6 Hans Jaray, Austrian actor (Lydia, Fedora) and playwright, dies at 83
- Jan 6 Ian Charleson, Scottish actor (Gandhi, Chariots of Fire), dies of AIDS at 40
Bronko Nagurski (1908-1990)
Jan 7 Canadian-American College and Pro Football Hall of Fame fullback (Chicago Bears), dies at 81
- Jan 7 Gail Lucas, American entertainer, dies at 37
- Jan 7 Horace Stoneham, American baseball executive (owner New York / San Francisco Giants 1936-76), dies at 86
- Jan 7 Joseph Robbie, American lawyer and NFL owner and founder of the Miami Dolphins, dies at 73
- Jan 8 Terry-Thomas [Thomas Terry Hoar-Stevens], English comedian and actor (I'm All Right Jack, Private's Progress), dies of Parkinson's disease at 78
- Jan 9 Sir Edward McTiernan, Australian jurist, lawyer and politician (b. 1892)
- Jan 9 Spud Chandler, American baseball player (AL MVP 1943), dies at 82
- Jan 10 Juliet Berto, screenwriter/actress (Bastienne Bastien), dies at 42
- Jan 10 Yvonne Peattie Marquard, actress (Donovan's Reef), dies
- Jan 11 Kittens Reichert [Catherine Alma Reichert], American silent screen child actor [House of Cards, Les Misérables], dies at 79
- Jan 11 Mary Jane Carr, American actress (Forbidden Trail, Second Wife), dies at 74
- Jan 12 Laurence J. Peter, Canadian author (Peter Principle), dies of a stroke at 70
- Jan 12 Paul Amadeus Pisk, Austrian-American composer, musicologist, and educator, dies at 96
- Jan 14 David Arkin, American actor (I Love You Alice B Toklas), takes his own life at 49
- Jan 14 Mani Madhava Chakyar, Koodiyattam artist and Sanskrit scholar (b. 1899)
- Jan 15 Gordon Jackson, Scottish actor (Upstairs, Downstairs, The Professionals, The Great Escape), dies after a short illness at 66
- Jan 17 Anna Arnold Hedgeman, African-American social activist (NYC cabinet), dies at 90
- Jan 17 Charles Hernu, French politician (Minister of Defense, 1981-85; Mayor of Villeurbanne, 1977-90), and environmental antagonist, dies at 66
- Jan 17 Fritz "Freddie" Brocksieper, German big band jazz drummer, and bandleader, dies at 77
- Jan 18 Melanie Appleby, English singer (Mel & Kim), dies of liver cancer at 23
- Jan 18 Russell "Rusty "Hamer, American actor (Make Room for Daddy - "Rusty"), takes his own life at 52
- Jan 19 (Alberto) Semprini, British pianist and radio broadcaster (BBC's Semprini Serenade), dies at 81
- Jan 19 Arthur Goldberg, American jurist and statesman (UN ambassador, Supreme Court justice 1962-65), dies at 81
- Jan 19 Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, Indian leader of the Rajneesh movement, dies at 58
- Jan 19 Herbert Wehner, German politician (Member of the Bundestag, 1949-83; chairman of the SPD, 1969-83), dies of complications from Binswanger's disease at 83
- Jan 19 Myles Horton, American educator and Civil Rights Movement teacher, dies at 84
- Jan 20 Barbara Stanwyck [Ruby Stevens], actress (Big Valley), dies at 82
- Jan 20 Hayedeh [Ma'soumeh Dadehbala], Persian classical, pop, and folk singer, dies of a heart attack at 47
- Jan 20 Prince Naruhiko Higashikuni, Japanese imperial prince and 30th Prime Minister of Japan, dies at 102
- Jan 23 (Larken) Allen Collins, American southern rock guitarist, and songwriter (Lynyrd Skynyrd - "Free Bird"; "Gimme Three Steps"; Rossington-Collins Band - "Don't Misunderstand Me"), dies from chronic pneumonia, a complication of the paralysis suffered in a drunk driving accident, at 37
- Jan 23 Mariano Rumor, Italian politician (Prime Minister of Italy, 1968-70; 73-1974), dies at 74
- Jan 23 [Piet] "Peter" Sweval, American rock bassist (Looking Glass - "Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)" ; Starz - "Cherry Baby"), dies of AIDS at 42
- Jan 24 Madge Bellamy, American actress, dies of heart failure at 90
- Jan 25 Alexander Lockwood, American actor (Duel), dies at 87
Ava Gardner (1922-1990)
Jan 25 American actress (Barefoot Contessa, On the Beach), dies of pneumonia at 67
- Jan 26 Bob Gerard, British racing driver (b. 1914)
- Jan 26 Boy Trip, Dutch minister, dies at 68
- Jan 26 Lewis Mumford, American cultural historian, city planner and writer, dies at 94
- Jan 26 Miloslav Ištvan, Czech composer, dies at 61
- Jan 27 Helen Jerome Eddy, American actress (Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm), dies at 92
- Jan 28 Sandra "Puma" Jones, American reggae singer (Black Uhuru, 1979-86), dies of breast cancer at 36
- Jan 31 Rashad Khalifa, Egyptian-born imam (b. 1935)
