- Jan 2 Anton van Duinkerken [Willem Jan Marie Anton Asselbergs], Dutch poet and academic, born in Bergen op Zoom, Netherlands (d. 1968)
- Jan 2 Kane Tanaka, Japanese centenarian (world's 2nd oldest recorded person), born in Wajiro Village, Japan (d. 2022)
- Jan 3 Charles Foulkes, Canadian general who accepted German WWIII surrender in Netherlands, born in Stockton-on-Tees, England, (d. 1969)
- Jan 4 Joris Diels, Flemish actor and director (It's a Cruel World, Haagsche Comedy), born in Antwerpen, Belgium (d. 1992)
- Jan 5 Harold Gatty, Australian aviator, navigator with Wiley Post, born in Campbell Town, Australia (d. 1957)
- Jan 5 Leighton Lucas, English composer & conductor, born in London, United Kingdom (d. 1982)
- Jan 6 Boris Blacher, German composer (Orchester-Ornament), born in Yingkou, China (d. 1975)
- Jan 6 Francis L. Sullivan, British actor (Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, Missing Rembrandt), born in London, England (d. 1956)
- Jan 6 Maurice Abravanel, American classical music conductor, born in Thessaloniki, Greece (d. 1993)
- Jan 6 Stanley Smith, American actor and singer (King of Jazz; Soup to Nuts; Good News), born in Kansas City, Missouri (d. 1974)
- Jan 7 Alan Napier, British actor (The Sword in the Stone, Batman), born in Birmingham, England (d. 1988)
- Jan 7 Albrecht Haushofer, German geographer and writer, born in Munich, Germany (d. 1903)
- Jan 7 Shalva Azmayparashvili, Georgian composer and conductor, born in Tbilisi (d. 1957)
- Jan 7 Vladimir Alexandrovich Vlasov, Russian composer and conductor, born in Moscow (d. 1986)
- Jan 8 Gene Roth [Eugene Stutenroth], American actor (She Demons, Tormented, The Spider), born in Redfield, South Dakota (d. 1976)
- Jan 9 Hem Vejakorn, Thai illustrator, born in Bangkok, Thailand (d. 1969)
- Jan 10 Barbara Hepworth, British abstract sculptor & actress (Rescued by Rover), born in Wakefield, West Riding of Yorkshire (d. 1975)
- Jan 10 Jean Morel, French-born American conductor, born in Abbeville, France (d. 1975)
- Jan 10 Violet Wilkey, American actress, born in St. Louis, Missouri (d. 1976)
- Jan 10 Voldemar Väli, Estonian wrestler, born in Kuressaare, Estonia (d. 1997)
Alan Paton (1903-1988)
Jan 11 South African author (Cry, the Beloved Country, Too Late the Phalarope) and anti-apartheid activist, born in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa
- Jan 12 Igor Kurchatov, Soviet-Russian nuclear physicist who directed the Soviet atomic bomb project, born in Sim, Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia (d. 1960)
- Jan 15 Paul A. Dever, 58th Governor of Massachusetts, born in Boston, Massachusetts (d. 1958)
- Jan 16 Peter Brocco, American actor blacklisted in the 1950's (Spartacus: One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest), born in Reading, Pennsylvania (d. 1992)
- Jan 17 Jyoti Prasad Agarwala, Assamese poet, playwright, filmmaker (d. 1953)
- Jan 17 Warren Hull, American actor (Strike it Rich, Who in the World), born in Gasport, New York (d. 1974)
- Jan 18 (Wilford) "Min" Leibrook, American jazz tuba player and bassist (Paul Whiteman Orchestra), born in Hamilton, Ohio (d. 1943)
- Jan 18 Berthold Goldschmidt, German-British opera composer (Beatrice Cenci), born in Hamburg, Germany (d. 1996)
- Jan 19 Alfred Beit, British politician and art philanthropist, born in London, England (d. 1994)
- Jan 20 Leon Ames, American actor (Mister Ed, Father of the Bride), born in Portland, Indiana (d. 1993)
- Jan 20 Sybil Marion Rosenfeld, English theatre historian, born in London, England (d. 1996)
- Jan 22 Fritz Houtermans, Polish physicist (d. 1966)
- Jan 22 Robin Milford, English composer, born in Oxford, England (d. 1959)
- Jan 23 Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, Colombian politician, born in Cucunubá, Colombia (d. 1948)
- Jan 24 Robert Gwathmey, American social realist artist (Arts & Letters), born in Manchester, Virginia (d. 1988)
- Jan 27 John Eccles, Australian neurologist (1963 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for work on the synapse), born in Melbourne, Australia (d. 1997)
- Jan 27 Otto P. Weyland, American military figure (d. 1979)
- Jan 28 Kathleen Lonsdale, Irish-born British pacifist and crystallographer (one of 1st two women elected to Royal Society), born in Newbridge, Ireland (d. 1971)
- Jan 29 Cornelis Hendrik Edelman, Dutch geologist, born in Rotterdam, Netherlands (d. 1964)
- Jan 30 G. Evelyn Hutchinson, British zoologist (Treatise on Limnology), born in Cambridge, United Kingdom (d. 1991)
- Jan 31 Gardner Cowles Jr., American publisher (Look Magazine)t, born in Algona, Iowa (d. 1985)
About January 1903
How Old? 120 years old
Generation: Greatest Generation
Leap Year: No