January 6

• Mark David Chapman pleads not guilty by insanity to the John Lennon murder charge.

• A study links cholesterol to heart disease.

• ABC premieres Aaron Spelling's "Dynasty" to get a share of the audience watching the highly-rated Dallas.

• The FCC allows stations to air as many commericials as they please and lifts requirements that time be allocated for news and public service announcements.

• President Carter announces that an agreement has been made with Iran to release the hostages.

• Ronald Reagan is inaugurated President of the United States.
• Iran releases the hostages from the US embassy in Teheran after 444 days of captivity.

• Bernhard Goetz, a New York resident, is assaulted by three teens.

• Gro Harlem Brundtland becomes the first female Prime Minister of Norway.

• Kool and the Gang's "Celebration" begins a 2-week reign as the number 1 song.

• Wojciech Jaruzelski becomes Premier of Poland.

• The Sinclair Microvision 2700, a hand-held television, is unveiled.

• Dolly Parton's "9 to 5" begins a 2-week reign as the number 1 song.

• The engagement of Prince Charles to Lady Diana Spencer is announced.

• Despite an attempted military coup, Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo becomes Premier of Spain.

• 3 Pakistani hijackers take control of a Pakistani airliner with 130 passengers aboard. They are demanding the release of political prisoners. The plane is flown to Afghanistan, where 33 of the hostages a released and 1 is killed.

• A Superior Court rules that teaching evolution in the classroom does not violate religious rights.

• John Hinckley, Jr. delivers notes to the dorm room of actress Jodie Foster indicating that something is about to happen and that he will "rescue [her] very soon."

• The hijacked Pakistani airliner is flown to Syria, where hijackers threaten to blow it up.

• After Pakistan releases 54 political prisoners, the 3 Pakistani hijackers release their hostages and surrender.

• REO Speedwagon's "Keep On Loving You" begins a 1-week reign as the number 1 song.

• Blondie's "Rapture" begins a 2-week reign as the number 1 song.

• General Roberto Eduardo Viola becomes President of Argentina.

• The first Mexican-American mayor of a major US city, Henry Gabriel Cisneros, was elected mayor of San Antonio, Texas.

• Mark Eyskens becomes Premier of Belgium

• World War 2 Army General Omar Nelson Bradley dies at the age of 88.

• It is announced that for the first time, the US center of population is west of the Mississippi River. The Census Bureau identifies it as DeSoto, Missouri.

• Hall and Oates' "Kiss On My List" begins a 3-week reign as the number 1 song.
• American Boxer Joe Louis goes down for the count at the age of 66.

• The space shuttle Columbia begins its maiden flight

• The Pulitzer Prize is awarded to Janet Cooke of the Washington Post. However, it is later learned that the story she wins the prize for, about a child addicted to heroin, was made up.

• The space shuttle Columbia returns to Earth, becoming the first spacecraft to land on wheels.

• The United States announced its intentions to sell the Saudi Arabian government 1 billion dollars worth of military equipment, including AWACS surveillence planes.

• Sheena Easton's "Morning Train (Nine to Five)" begins a 2-week reign as the number 1 song.

• François Mitterand is elected President of France.

• Reggae singer Bob Marley dies at the age of 36.

• President Benjamin Sheares of Singapore dies at the age of 73.

• Pope John Paul II is shot by Mehmet Ali Agca.

• Kim Carnes' "Bette Davis Eyes" begins a 9-week reign as the number 1 song.

• Playwright and author William Saroyan dies at the age of 72.

• President Jaime Roldós Aguilera of Ecuador is killed in a plane crash.

• John Hinkley, Jr. attempts suicide.

• The Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta reports unexplained outbreaks of a form of pneumonia that normally affects only cancer patients. The only known link is that all of the victims are young homosexual men.
• Maya Yang Lin wins a national contest to design a Vietnam War Memorial for Washington, DC.

• Israel stages an air attack on Iraq, destroying a new nuclear reactor that Israel believed would be used to build nuclear weapons.

• The Supreme Court ruled that women can sue for equal pay even if the work they did was not identical to their male counterparts.

• An earthquake in Iran kills 3,000 people.

• A Major Leage Baseball strike begins.

• Hu Yaobang becomes Chairman of China's Communist Party.

• Stars On 45's "Medley: Intro Venus/Sugar Sugar/No Reply/I'll Be Back/Drive My Car/Do You Want to Know a Secret/We Can Work it Out/I Should Have Known Better/Nowhere Man/You're Going to Lose That Girl/Stars On 45" begins a 1-week reign as the number 1 song.

• President Abolhassan Bani-Sadr of Iran is dismissed by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
• Mark David Chapman changes his plea to guilty and is sentenced to prison for mudering John Lennon.

• The US Supreme Court rules that the draft can constitutionally exclude women.

• Canadian student and runner Terry Fox dies of cancer at the age of 22.
• Giovanni Spadolini becomes Premier of Italy.

• Riots break out in Great Britain and spread to 30 cities. The rioters are mostly youths, and the cause of the riot is not certain.

• Architect Marcel Breuer dies at the age of 79.

• The Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta reports that it is studying outbreaks of Kaposi's sarcoma, a rare form of skin cancer. The only known link is that all of the victims are young homosexual men.

• Claus von Bulow is indicted on charges that he tried to murder his wife, Sunny, by injecting her with an overdose of insulin. She had been in a coma since the alleged incident occurred the previous December.
• The Solar Challenger flies across the English Channel, the first solar-powered plan to do so.
• President Reagan nominates Sandra Day O'Connor to the US Supreme Court. She will become the first woman to serve on this court.

• An experimental drug, acyclovir, is developed to suppress the herpes simplex virus.

• 23-year-old Wayne Williams is indicted for 2 of 28 murders of black children in the Atlanta area over the previous 2 years.
• An Israeli air attack on Beiruit, targetting the PLO headquarters, kills 300 people.
• Two skywalks collapse into the lobby of the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri during a tea dance, killing 113 people and injuring 190.

• Jack Henry Abbott, a convicted bank robber who had been freed into a work-release program after pressure from author Norman Mailer (who respected Abbott's literary style), murders a young man in Manhattan.

• Mohammed Ali Rajai becomes President of Iran.

• Air Supply's "The One That You Love" begins a 1-week reign as the number 1 song.

• An earthquake in Iran kills 1,500 people.

• 700,000,000 TV viewers worldwide watch the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana.

• Rick Springfield's "Jessie's Girl" begins a 2-week reign as the number 1 song.
• Playwright Paddy Chayefsky dies at the age of 58. He doesn't have to take it anymore.

• 13,000 members of PATCO, the air traffic controller's union, went on strike.
• Israel and Egypt establish a multinational peacekeeping force in the Siani peninsula.

• Actor Melvyn Douglas dies at the age of 80.
• Mohammed Javad Bahonar becomes Premier of Iran.

• President Reagan orders the striking air traffic controllers back to work. Those who refuse are fired.

• The United States begins production of the neutron bomb.

• Diana Ross and Lionel Richie's "Endless Love" begins a 9-week reign as the number 1 song.

• The FAA begins hiring new air traffic controllers o replace striking workers.

• An exchange of fire between US and Libyan jets on the Gulf of Sidra results in the downing of 2 Libyan planes.

• Voyager 2 visits Saturn.

• Author and commentator Lowell Thomas dies at the age of 89.

• A military coup overthrows the government of the Central African Republic. General André Kolingba rises to power.
• Architect and author Albert Speer dies at the age 76. He had served as Hitler's Minister of Armaments and War Production and later wrote books about his experiences.
• General Gregorio Alvarez becomes President of Uruguay.

• The Department of Agriculture proposes a reduction in the school lunch program that includes a provision that condiments such as ketchup and relish be classified as vegetables.
• General Celso Torrelio Villa becomes President of Bolivia.

• "The People's Court" makes its TV premiere.

• American civil rights leader Roy Wilkins dies at the age of 80.

• President Reagan withdrawls the plan to trim school lunches.

• Kaare Willoch becomes Prime Minister of Norway.

• The fossilized jawbone of a previously undiscovered mammal is found in Arizona. The fossil dates to 180,000,000 years ago, showing that mammals lived in North America 45,000,000 years earlier than had previously been thought.

• British Honduras becomes the independent nation of Belize, with George Price as Prime Minister.
• Sandra Day O'Connor is confirmed as the first female US Supreme Court justice.

• The world's fastest trains, capable of speeds up to 225 mph and cruising at 160 mph, begin carrying passengers between Paris and Lyons in France.
• Actor Robert Montgomery dies at the age of 77.

• Hojatolislam Ali Khamenei becomes President of Iran.

• President Anwar el-Sadat of Egypt is assassinated by Islamic extremists.

• While opening for the Rolling Stones at a Los Angeles concert, His Royal Badness (Prince) was booed off the stage by a predominantly-white audience that threw garbage at him.

• Muhammed Hosni Mubarak becomes President of Egypt

• Israeli statesman Moshe Dayan dies at the age of 66.

• Christopher Cross's "Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)" begins a 3-week reign as the number 1 song.

• Poland's Prime Minister, Wojciech Jaruzelski becomes the head of Poland's Communist Party. The move is intended to create a tougher stance against the Solidarity union and to prevent a threatened use of force by the Soviet Union to maintain control.

• A bungled armored-car holdup in Nanuet, NY takes place resulting in three dead and two injured. Four arrests were made in what became known as the Brinks robbery.

• Andreas Papandreou becomes Premier of Greece.

• PATCO, the air traffic controller's union, is dissolved by the Labor Relations Authority.

• Antigua and Barbuda gains independence from Britain.

• Hall and Oates' "Private Eyes" begins a 2-week reign as the number 1 song.
• Philosopher and historian Will Durant dies at the age of 96.

• U San Yu becomes President of Burma.

• Antigua and Barbuda joins the United Nations.

• The first trans-Pacific balloon flight is completed after a 6,000 mile, 3-1/2 day flight.

• Fragments of baked clay discovered in Kenya indicate that fire was used by humans, 1,400,000 years ago, a million years earlier than previously thought.

• John Hinckley, Jr., attempts suicide again.

• Actor William Holden dies at the age of 63.

• Olivia Newton-John's "Physical" begins a 10-week reign as the number 1 song.

• Roberto Suazo Córdova is elected President of Honduras.

• Canada's House of Commans passes the British North America Act, which would transfer control of Canada's constitution from Britain to Canada.

• President Reagan signed an executive order authorizing the CIA to conduct domestic covert intelligence.

• The US Supreme Court rules that student organizations may hold religious services in campus buildings.
• Canada's Senate passes the British North America Act, which is then sent to London for a vote by Britain's Parliament.

• General Leopoldo Galtieri becomes President of Argentina.

• Martial law is declared in Poland, the Solidarity union is suspended, and Solidarity leader Lech Walesa is among those arrested.

• Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru becomes Secretary-General of the United Nations.

• Romuald Spasowski, Poland's ambassador to the United States, defects to the US.

• A coup takes place in Ghana, and Jerry Rawlings becomes the new president.