Historical Events
- Jan 19 Johann von Goethe's "Faust, Part 1" premieres
Famous Birthdays
- Jan 3 John G R Acquoy, theologist/church historian
- Jan 3 Konrad Duden, German linguist (Der grosse Duden)
- Jan 5 Sir Roger Tichborne, missing U.K. heir who was the subject of the longest criminal trial in British history (d. c.1854)
- Jan 6 Kanagaki Robun [Bunzo Nozaki], Japanese humorist/gesaku-author, born in Edo, Japan (d. 1894)
- Jan 9 Adolf von Schlagintweit, German explorer (Tarimbekken)
- Jan 9 Thomas William Robertson, England, playwright (Caste)
- Jan 18 Louis van Haecke, Flemish chaplain/author (Blood to Bridge)
- Jan 21 Oscar II Frederik, King of Sweden (1872-1907)/Norway (-1905)/poet
- Jan 24 William Mason, composer
- Jan 30 Alfred Cummings, American Brigadier-General (Confederate Army), born in Augusta, Georgia (d. 1910)
Famous Deaths
- Jan 3 Robert Archibald Smith, composer, dies at 48
- Jan 12 Friedrich von Schlegel, German cultural philosopher/poet, dies at 56
- Jan 12 Michael Gottard Fischer, composer, dies at 55
- Jan 25 William Shield, composer, dies at 80
- Jan 28 William Burke, murderer/body snatcher, executed in Edinburgh
- Jan 28 Thomas Tredgold, Railway Engineer and Carpenter, dies at 40
- Jan 29 Paul François Jean Nicolas Barras, French politician (b. 1755)