Historical Events
- Jan 13 Vancouver Island granted to Hudson's Bay Company
Historic Event
Jan 23 Elizabeth Blackwell becomes 1st woman in the US to earn a medical degree graduating from New York's Geneva Medical College
Famous Birthdays
- Jan 9 John Hartley, English tennis player (Wimbledon 1879-80), born in Tong, Shropshire (d. 1935)
- Jan 11 Oskar Lassar, German dermatologist (bath house)
- Jan 12 Jean Béraud, French painter (d. 1935)
- Jan 18 Edmund Barton, 1st Prime Minister of Australia (1901-03), born in Glebe, colony of New South Wales (d. 1920)
- Jan 22 August Strindberg, Swedish dramatist/novelist (Apologia)
Famous Deaths
- Jan 6 Hartley Coleridge, English poet, dies at 52
- Jan 9 Jan Kops, Dutch agriculturist/vicar, dies at 83
- Jan 16 Wilhelm M L de Wette, German theologist, dies at 69
- Jan 25 Elias Parish Alvars, British harpist and composer ("Voyage d'un Harpiste en Orient"), dies of pneumonia at 40
- Jan 26 Thomas Lovell Beddoes, English poet (Death's Jest-Book), committed suicide at 45