2.30pm (AEDT) – Men’s Cricket – One Day International Australian v the West Indies, Game 1 – Melbourne

ABS Data Release – Producer Price Indexes, December; Lending Indicators, December 2023

World Aquatics Championships begin (on until February 18) – Doha 

World Read Aloud Day 

World Wetlands Day 

Crêpe Day

Anniversary of:

• New Amsterdam (later known as New York) becoming incorporated as a city (1653)

• the Australian Premiers’ Conference deciding to locate Australia’s capital (Canberra) to the coldest place they could find between Sydney and Melbourne (1899). Ok, we might have added the ‘cold’ bit…

• the Pentagon confirmed that the US was tracking what was assumed to be a ‘Chinese spy balloon’ that was floating over the US (2023)