January 8, 1981 (Thursday)
- Trans-en-Provence Case: In what has been described as "perhaps the most completely and carefully documented sighting of all time", retired contractor Renato Nicolai witnessed what he believed to be French military aircraft on a test flight. After police forwarded the report to GEPAN, an investigative unit of the France's space agency CNES, found traces of metal throughout the area where the UFO had been observed.
- Born: Xie Xingfang, Chinese badminton player, women's singles title 2005, 2006; in Guangzhou
- Died: Matthew Beard, 56, African-American actor who portrayed "Stymie" in the Little Rascals
Read more about this topic: January 1981
Famous quotes containing the word january:
“Here lies interred in the eternity of the past, from whence there is no resurrection for the days—whatever there may be for the dust—the thirty-third year of an ill-spent life, which, after a lingering disease of many months sank into a lethargy, and expired, January 22d, 1821, A.D. leaving a successor inconsolable for the very loss which occasioned its existence.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)