January 5, 'Rapper's Delight' hits Billboard Top 40

Today is Monday, Jan. 5, the fifth day of 2026. There are 360 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Jan. 5, 1980, “Rapper’s Delight,” by The Sugarhill Gang, became the first hip-hop song to reach the Billboard Top 40, helping to popularize the emerging musical genre.

Also on this date:

In 1896, an Austrian newspaper reported the discovery by German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen (RENT’-gun) of a new type of radiation that came to be called “X-ray.”

In 1925, Democrat Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming took office as America’s first female governor.

In 1933, construction began on the Golden Gate Bridge; the bridge was completed in May 1937.

In 1953, Samuel Beckett’s two-act tragicomedy “Waiting for Godot,” considered a classic of the Theater of the Absurd, premiered in Paris.

In 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower proposed assistance to countries to help them resist communist aggression in what became known as the Eisenhower Doctrine.

In 1972, President Richard Nixon announced the Space Shuttle program, directing NASA to produce a reusable vehicle that would boost manned space exploration while bringing down its costs. (The first shuttle launched in 1981 and the last in 2011.)

In 2022, Australia denied entry to tennis star Novak Djokovic, who was seeking to play for a 10th Australian Open title later in the month; authorities canceled his visa upon his arrival in Melbourne because he failed to meet the requirements for an exemption to COVID-19 vaccination rules.

In 2024, a door plug on Alaska Airlines jetliner blew out shortly after takeoff from Portland, Oregon, forcing the 171 passengers and six crew to don oxygen masks before the pilots made an emergency landing. No one was seriously hurt, but the sudden depressurization left a gaping hole in the Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft.