2000
First crew arrive at the International Space Station.
United States
1988
6,000 US Defence Department computers connected to the ARPANET were temporarily disabled by a virus planted by a college undergraduate.
1984
American murderer Velma Barfield was the first woman to be executed in the USA since 1962, and the first ever to be executed by lethal injection
United States
1983
US President Ronald Reagan designated the third Monday in January a federal holiday in honour of Martin Luther King.
1982
Channel 4 TV station launched – first programme 'Countdown'
Great Britain
1959
Charles Van Doren, a contestant on the American TV game show Twenty-One admitted to an investigative subcommittee that he had been given the questions and answers in advance. This caused a major scandal
1957
Elvis Presley set an all-time record by having 8 hits in the UK Top 30 pop charts simultaneously
1936
British Broadcasting Corporation initiates the BBC Television Service, world's first public TV transmission
1917
The Balfour Declaration
1909
Death of William Powell Frith, British artist, famous for his preciselyrendered crowded scenes of contemporary English life
1808
Birth of Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly, French writer .
1709
Birth of Anne, German-born British Princess Royal and Princess of Orange