Cyrus Vance(Secretary of State under Jimmy Carter)β
Maurice Gibb(with his brothers built the Bee Gees into a disco sensation with hits like Stayinβ Aliveβ and βMore Than a Womanββ)β
Born
John Singer Sargent(artist)β
Frank Gerber(manufacturer)β
Jack London(author)β
Joe Lewis(comedian)β
Tex Ritter(singer)β
Jose Arcadio Limon(dancer)β
James Leonard Farmer Jr.(civil rights activist)β
Katherine MacGregor(actress)β
Tim Horton(hockey player)β
Joe Frazier(boxer)β
Rush Limbaugh(American radio personality and writer)β
Kirstie Alley(actress)β
Christiane Amanpour(broadcast journalist)β
Dominique Wilkins(basketball player)β
Events
First public museum in America, Charleston Museum, organized in Charleston, South Carolina
β
Mission Santa Clara de Asis in California establishedβ
Forward pass legalized in footballβ
A couple from China became the youngest parents in history. The dad was 9 years old and the mom was 8β
Ford Motor Co. raised minimum daily wage from $2.30 to $5.00β
Hattie Caraway was the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate. She was appointed in 1931 to fill the Arkansas seat left vacant by the death of her husband, and then elected in 1932 and re-elected in 1938β
U.S. State Department denied passports to American Communist Party membersβ
Batman made its television debutβ
Boeing 747 landed at Heathrow Airport in London after its first trans-atlantic proving flight from NYβ
All in the Family made its television debutβ
Swimmer Melvin Stewart set world record in 200-meter butterflyβ
Fictional Hal 9000 computer in film 2001: A Space Odyssey became operationalβ
Launch of Deep Impact spacecraft to study comet Tempel 1β
A 7.0-magnitude earthquake shook Haiti approximately 16 miles from the capital city of Port-au-Princeβ
Weather
Coldsnap that froze Columbia River on January 9th spawned Great Plains blizzard, 200 lives lostβ
Schoolchildren’s Blizzard in Great Plains killed 235 peopleβ
Record high of 57 degrees F in Helena, Montanaβ
-35 degrees F in Chester, Massachusettsβ
Snowstorm of the century in southern Texas. San Antonio recorded more snow in 24 hours (nine inches) than was received during any entire winter in the previous 100 years. Total snowfall for the storm was 13.5 inches.β