On this day...

69 Roman Lower Rhine army proclaims its commander, Vitellius, emperor
1492 Spain recaptures Granada from the Moors (Granada Day)
1602 Spanish forces in Ireland surrender to the English at Kinsdale
1776 First revolutionary flag displayed
1788 Georgia is 4th state to ratify US constitution
1800 Free black community of Philadelphia petitions Congress to abolish slavery
1814 Lord Byron completes "The Corsair"
1832 First Curling club in US (Orchard Lake Curling Club) opens
1842 First US wire suspension bridge for general traffic opens in Pennsylvania
1863 Battle of Murfreesboro (Stone's River) ends
1879 Northwestern League (minor baseball league) organized, Rockford, IL
1882 Because of antimonopoly laws, Standard Oil is organized as a trust
1890 Alice Sanger becomes first female White House staffer
1893 First US commemoratives and first US stamp to picture a woman issued
1905 Elara, a satellite of Jupiter, discovered by Perrine
1910 First junior high schools in US open in Berkeley, CA
1917 Royal Bank of Canada takes over Quebec Bank
1918 Montreal Wanderers' Westmount hockey arena burns down
1920 10,000 US union & socialist organizers arrested (Palmer Raids)
1921 First religious service radio broadcast in US, Pittsburgh
1921 DeYoung Museum in Golden Gate Park opens
1925 Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region established (now in Tadzhik SSR)
1934 First state liquor stores open, in Pennsylvania
1935 Bruno R. Hauptmann trial begins for kidnap-murder of Lindbergh baby
1936 First electron tube to enable night vision described, St Louis MO
1942 28 nations, at war with Axis, pledge no separate peace
1942 Japanese occupy Manila
1944 First use of helicopters during warfare (British Atlantic patrol)
1945 George Bush (President 1989) & Barbara Pierce wed
1945 Kentucky begins 130 game home baseketball win streak, ends in 1955
1953 NBA Baltimore Bullets begin a 32 game road losing streak
1955 First "Bob Cummings Show" premiers on NBC (later on CBS)
1959 USSR launches Mechta (Luna 1) for first lunar fly-by, first solar orbit
1960 Senator John F. Kennedy announces his candidacy for president
1961 First AFL Championship Game, Houston Oilers beat Los Angeles Chargers 24-16
1962 Nighttime version of "Password" with Allen Ludden premiers on CBS
1966 Green Bay Packers beat Cleveland Browns 23-12 in NFL championship game
1970 US population is 293,200,000
1972 Dallas Cowboys beat San Francisco '49ers 14-3 in NFC championship game
1972 Mariner 9 begins mapping Mars
1974 55 MPH speed limit imposed by Richard Nixon
1974 Worst fire in Argentine history destroys 1.2 million acres
1978 Rhino Records releases their first album "Wildmania"
1979 Sid Vicious' trial for murder of girlfriend Nancy Spingen begins
1983 Ken Anderson of Cincinnati completes record 20 consecutive passes
1984 Miami beats Nebraska in Orange Bowl for college football championship
1985 Nevada-Las Vegas beats Utah 142-140, highest college basketball score
1985 Undefeated BYU becomes college football champions
1986 191.66 million shares traded in NY Stock Exchange (then record)
1987 Penn State upsets Miami in Fiesta Bowl for college football champ
1988 Ashland Oil storage tank spills 3.8 million gallons, Pennsylvania
1988 Mulroney & Reagan sign Canada-US free trade agreement
1989 Notre Dame beats West Virginia for college football championship
1989 UCLA wins a record 7th consecutive bowl game

Birthdays which occurred on January 2nd:

1647 Nathaniel Bacon, leader of Bacon's Rebellion, Virginia (1676)
1713 Mlle Dumesnil, Paris, tragic actress (Racine's Phadre, Hermione)
1727 James Wolfe, commanded British Army (captured Quebec)
1752 Philip Freneau, poet of American Revolution (The American Village)
1831 Justin Winston, historian/librarian (Harvard)
1837 Mily Balakirev, Nizhny-Novgorod, Russia, composer
1857 Frederick Opper, cartoonist (Maud, Alphonse & Gaston)
1860 William C. Mills, museum curator (excavated Ohio Indian mounds)
1861 Helen Herron Taft, First Lady (1908-12)
1901 Robert Marshall, founder (Wilderness Society)
1904 James Melton, Moultrie GA, opera tenor (Ford Festival)
1904 Sally Rand, stripper (fan dance)
1908 Ben Grauer, New York NY, newscaster (Big Story)
1912 Anna Lee, Ightham England, actress (Scruples, Lila-General Hospital)
1912 Barbara Pentland, Winnipeg Canada, composer
1912 Renato Guttuso, Italian painter (The Flight from Etna, Crucifixion)
1913 Gardner Read, Evanston, Illinois, composer
1920 Isaac Asimov, Russia, scientist/writer
1922 Jason Evers, New York NY, actor (Wrangler, Channing)
1922 Renata Tebaldi, lyric soprano
1925 William J. Crowe, Jr., Kentucky, chairman joint chief of staff
1927 Gino Marchetti, NFL defensive end (Dallas Texans, Baltimore Colts)
1928 Dan Rostenkowski (Rep-D-IL), House Ways & Means Committee chair
1928 Vaughn Beals, Cambridge MA, CEO (Harley Davidson motorcycle)
1930 Julius LaRosa, Brooklyn NY, singer (fired by Arthur Godfrey on the air)
1932 Dabney Coleman, Austin Texas, (That Girl, Mary Hartman, Buffalo Bill)
1936 Roger Miller, Ft Worth TX, country singer (King of the Road, Dang Me)
1939 Jim Bakker, televangelist (PTL Club)
1947 Aleksandr Tikhonova, USSR, biathalon relay (Olympic-gold-1968, 72, 76, 80)
1947 Lanny Bassham, US, rifle-3 position (Olympic-gold-1976)
1949 Chick Churchill, keyboardist (Ten Years After-I'm Going Home)
1949 Christopher Durang, Montclair NJ, playwright/actor (Sister Mary)
1952 Wendy Phillips, Brooklyn NY, actress (Stacey-Executive Suite)
1954 Ludmila Borozna USSR, volleyball player (Olympic-gold-1972)
1964 David Cone, baseball pitcher

Deaths which occurred on January 2nd:

1904 James Longstreet, Confederate general, dies at 82
1955 Jose Antonio Remon, president of Panama, assassinated
1963 Jack Carson, actor (Star is Born, Mildred Pierce), dies at 52
1974 Tex Ritter, country singer (5 Star Jubilee), dies at 67
1983 Harriet Parsons, actress/producer, dies at 76 of cancer