January 28, 1981 (Wednesday)
- President Reagan signed Executive Order 12287, immediately ending all United States federal price and allocation controls on gasoline and fuel oil. Price controls had been in effect since 1971. Although the short-term effect was a rise in gas prices, American oil companies increased their production and created an oil glut by summer.
- Paquisha War: Ecuador and Peru fought a war after Ecuadorian forces had established an outpost 40 miles (64 km) into territory that had been lost to Peru in 1942. Despite initial reports by Peru of hundreds of deaths on both sides, Ecuador acknowledged that two of its soldiers were killed, and Peru had one killed and three wounded.
- Born: Elijah Wood, American actor (The Lord of the Rings), in Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Read more about this topic: January 1981
Famous quotes containing the word january:
“and you undid the reins
and I undid the buttons,
the bones, the confusions,
The New England postcards,
the January ten o’clock night,
and we rose up like wheat....”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)