1958 – Sputnik 1 reenters atmosphere and burns up
1960 – European Free Trade Association forms in Stockholm
1963 – Soviet Luna (4) reaches Earth orbit but fails to reach Moon
1967 – Donald Campbell is killed while driving a Bluebird K7, a jet-powered boat, on Coniston Water; Campbell was trying to beat his own speed record
1991 – Iraq agrees to send Aziz to Geneva to meet Baker on Jan 9th
2014 – 14 people are killed after a three-story building construction site collapses in Goa, India
1894 – Manuel de Abreu, Brazilian physician (d. 1962)
1932 – Carlos Saura, Spanish director
1941 – John Bennett Perry, singer/actor (Falcon Crest), born in Williamstown, Massachusetts
1971 – Junichi Kakizaki, Japanese artist, sculptor
1977 – Dan Shanahan, Irish hurler
1995 – María Isabel, Spanish singer
1920 – Benito Pérez Galdós, Spanish novelist (b. 1843)
1924 – Alfred Grünfeld, Austrian pianist, composer (b. 1852)
1946 – Barney Oldfield, daredevil, dies at 67
1990 – Alberto Lleras Camargo, president of Colombia (1945-46, 58-62), dies
1995 – Dorothy Granger, US actress (Hog Wild, Dentist), dies at about 80
2008 – Joyce Carlson, American artist (b. 1923)