- Jan 2 Mendele Moykher Sforim, Jewish writer (d. 1917)
- Jan 2 Queen Emma of Hawaii, Consort of King Kamehameha IV (d. 1885)
- Jan 3 Sakamoto Ryōma, Japanese samurai and anti shogunate revolutionary, born in Kōchi, Shikoku, Japan (d. 1867)
- Jan 8 Fanny Jackson Coppin, African-American educator & missionary, born in Washington, D.C. (d. 1913)
- Jan 8 Lawrence Alma Tadema, Dutch-British painter, husband of Laura Epps, born in Dronryp, the Netherlands (d. 1912)
- Jan 10 Charles Ingalls, father of American author Laura Ingalls Wilder, born in Cuba, New York (d. 1902)
- Jan 14 Henri Fantin-Latour, French painter, born in Grenoble, France (d. 1904)
- Jan 14 Hugh Judson Kilpatrick, American Major General (Union Army), born in Wantage Township, New Jersey (d. 1881)
- Jan 16 King Francis II of the Two Sicilies (d. 1894)
- Jan 17 Jose White Lafitte, Cuban-French violinist and composer, born in Matanzas, Cuba (d. 1918)
- Jan 27 Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, Austrian writer (word masochism derived from his name), born in Lemberg, the capital of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, Austrian Empire (d. 1895)
- Jan 29 Benjamin Franklin Potts, American lawyer, politician, and Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Fox Township, Ohio (d. 1887)
- Jan 29 James Meech Warner, American Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Middlebury, Vermont (d. 1897)
- Jan 31 Henryk Szulc, Polish composer, born in Poland (d. 1903)