The English Benedictine Reform in the late tenth century was the most important religious and intellectual movement in the later Anglo-Saxon period. The reformers sought to replace married secular clergy in monasteries with celibate contemplative monks who followed the Rule of Saint Benedict. The court of Æthelstan (924–39), the first king of the whole of England, began a cosmopolitan trend; future reformers such as Æthelwold of Winchester, Oswald of Worcester, and Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury, learned from Continental exponents of Benedictine monasticism. The reformers had close relations with the crown, furthering its interests and depending on its support, especially under King Edgar (959–75). Influential artistic workshops established by Æthelwold reached a high standard of craftsmanship in manuscript illustration, sculpture and gold and silver, and his monasteries produced scholarship and competent prose and poetry in the elaborate hermeneutic style of Latin. His Winchester school helped create the standard vernacular West Saxon literary language, and his pupil Ælfric was its most eminent writer. ( Full article...)

INS Vikrant

• ... that INS Vikrant (pictured) was India's first aircraft carrier?
• ... that governor Saw Shwe Khet of Prome sent a white elephant to King Thihathu of Ava but was still demoted by the new king?
• ... that HBO's new daily news series Vice News Tonight was intended by Vice News to have "no ads, no anchors and no censors?"
• ... that although Susan Reeve Lyon could not own property while a married woman, she was able to run her own apothecary shop as a widow?
• ... that the self-critical H. Balfour Gardiner may have destroyed his symphonies, but preserved his compline anthem Te lucis ante terminum for choir and organ?
• ... that Jessamyn Rodriguez founded a social enterprise teaching bread-making and job skills to low-income minority women and immigrants?
• ... that in order to disguise the V-2 missile launch site in Blizna, the Nazis created an artificial village with plywood cottages and barns, and plaster people and animals?
• ... that the Welsh singer-songwriter Charlotte Church criticised director Diane Martel's music video for the song " Lolita", calling it "an objectionable little number"?

Reina nightclub

• An attack on a nightclub (pictured) in Istanbul, Turkey, during New Year's celebrations, kills at least 39 people and injures more than 60 others.
• American actress, screenwriter, and author Carrie Fisher dies at the age of 60, and her mother, actress and singer Debbie Reynolds, dies one day later at the age of 84.
• English singer, songwriter, and record producer George Michael dies at the age of 53.
• A Tupolev Tu-154 crashes near Sochi, Russia, killing all 92 people on board, including 64 members of the Alexandrov Ensemble.
• The United Nations Security Council adopts a resolution condemning Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

January 2: Feast Day of Gregory of Nazianzus (Roman Catholic Church)

Llandaff Cathedral

• 1777 – American Revolutionary War: American forces under the command of George Washington repulsed a British attack at the Battle of the Assunpink Creek near Trenton, New Jersey.
• 1941 – Second World War: Llandaff Cathedral (pictured) in Cardiff, Wales, was severely damaged by German bombing during the Cardiff Blitz.
• 1963 – Vietnam War: The Viet Cong won its first major victory in the Battle of Ap Bac.
• 1976 – The Gale of January 1976 began, which resulted in coastal flooding around the southern North Sea coasts, leading to at least 82 deaths and US$1.3 billion in damage.
• 1991 – Sharon Pratt Dixon was sworn in as mayor of Washington, D.C., thus becoming the first African American woman to lead a major American city.

John Douglas

The English architect John Douglas designed 40 new churches. His architectural styles were eclectic, but as he worked during the period of the Gothic Revival much of his output incorporates elements of the English Gothic style. He was also influenced by architectural styles from the mainland of Europe, and frequently included elements of French, German, and Netherlandish architecture. Douglas was born in the Cheshire village of Sandiway and was articled to the Lancaster architect E. G. Paley, later becoming his chief assistant. He established an office in Chester in either 1855 or 1860, from where he practised throughout his career. As his office was in Chester, most of his works were in Cheshire and North Wales, although some were further afield, in Lancashire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, and Scotland. From an early stage in his career, Douglas attracted commissions from wealthy and powerful patrons. Most of Douglas' new churches have been recognised as listed buildings. ( Full list...)