January 7th

American journalist Jill Carroll was abducted in Iraq and a translator was killed. (Carroll was released unharmed after 82 days.).

Actor Brad Pitt and actress Jennifer Aniston announced they were separating after four years of marriage.

The impeachment trial of President William Clinton began in the Senate.

Newt Gingrich became the first Republican re-elected House speaker in 68 years.

A major blizzard paralyzed the eastern United States, claiming more than 100 lives.

Japanese Emperor Hirohito died at age 87.

Vietnamese forces captured the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, overthrowing Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge government.

Lewis F. Powell Jr. and William H. Rehnquist were sworn in as the 99th and 100th members of the Supreme Court.

The United States recognized Fidel Castro's new government in Cuba.

Singer Marian Anderson made her debut with the Metropolitan Opera in New York, becoming the first black person to perform there as a member.

Georgetown-IBM experiment, the first public demonstration of a machine translation system, is held in New York at the head office of IBM.

President Harry S. Truman announced in his State of the Union address that the United States had developed a hydrogen bomb.

The World War II siege of Bataan began.

Commercial transatlantic telephone service was inaugurated between New York and London.

Fanny Farmer published her first cookbook.

Millard Fillmore, the 13th president of the United States, was born in Summerhill, N.Y.

Hot air balloon crosses the English Channel. French inventor Jean-Pierre Blanchard took about 2½ hours to fly from Dover (UK) to Guînes (France).

Typewriter patented by Englishman Henry Mill (built years later).

Galileo discovers first three satellites of Jupiter, Io, Europa & Ganymede.