Historical Events
- Jan 1 Michigan is 1st state to abolish capital punishment
- Jan 1 Neth's Haarlem's Current newspaper starts publishing
Event of Interest
Jan 4 Samuel Colt sells his first revolver pistol to the United States government
Samuel Colt
Historic Publication
Jan 4 Manuscripts of Emily Brontë's "Wuthering Heights" and Anne Brontë's "Agnes Grey" sent to publisher T.C. Newby (published December 1847)
Emily Brontë
- Jan 9 1st San Francisco newspaper published (California Star)
- Jan 15 1st Swedish magazine in US, Skandinavia, published in NYC
- Jan 16 John C. Frémont is appointed Governor of the new California Territory
- Jan 24 1,500 New Mexican Indians & Mexicans defeated by US Colonel Price
- Jan 30 Yerba Buena renamed San Francisco
Famous Birthdays
Famous Deaths
- Jan 6 Tyagaraja, Composer of Indian classical Carnatic music, dies at 79
- Jan 11 Caroline von Wolzogen [von Lengefeld], German author, dies at 83
- Jan 14 Gov Bent, 5 others in US occupation, killed by revolt in New Mexico
- Jan 22 Georges-Julien Sieber, French music publisher and composer, dies at 71
- Jan 30 Virginia Clemm Poe, American wife of writer Edgar Allan Poe, dies of tuberculosis at 24
