Historical Events
Famous Photo
Jan 2 1st photo of the Moon (French photographer Louis Daguerre)

Louis-Jacques Daguerre
- Jan 6 2 day storm off Irish & English coast immortalized as the "Big Wind"
First Photograph of a Person
Jan 9 Daguerreotype photo process announced at French Academy of Science
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- Jan 9 Thomas Henderson measures 1st stellar parallax (Alpha Centauri)
- Jan 10 First tea from leaves of indigenous plants of Assam, India arrives in the United Kingdom [date approximate] [1]
- Jan 11 Earthquake at Martinique destroys half of Port Royal - 700 die
- Jan 12 Anthracite coal 1st used to smelt iron, Mauch Chunk, Penn
- Jan 19 Aden conquered by British East India Company
- Jan 20 Battle of Yungay, Chile defeats a Peruvian and Bolivian alliance
Election of Interest
Jan 24 Charles Darwin elected Fellow of the Royal Society

Charles Darwin
Famous Photo
Jan 25 Henry Fox Talbot exhibits early photographs to the Royal Institution in the UK

William Henry Fox Talbot
Famous Birthdays
- Jan 4 Casimiro de Abreu, Brazil, poet (Meus oito anos), novelist and playwright (Camoes e o jau), born in Casimiro de Abreu, Rio de Janeiro, Empire of Brazil (d. 1860)
- Jan 4 Carl Humann, German engineer (d. 1896)
- Jan 9 John Knowles Paine, American composer (Symphony No. 2 - In Spring), born in Portland, Maine (d. 1906)
- Jan 11 Eugenio Maria de Hostos, Puerto Rico, patriot/scholar
- Jan 14 Emil Bohn, German musician, born in Bielau, Germany (d. 1909)
- Jan 19 Bohumil Pazdirek, composer
Paul Cézanne
Jan 19 Paul Cézanne, French artist and Post-Impressionist painter (The Basket of Apples), born in Aix-en-Provence, France (d. 1906)

Paul Cézanne
- Jan 25 Seldon Connor, American banker, 35th Governor of Maine, and Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Fairfield, Maine, (d. 1917)
Famous Weddings
Wedding of Interest
Jan 29 English naturalist and "On the Origin of Species" author Charles Darwin (42) marries Emma Wedgwood (41)

Charles Darwin