Historical Events
- Jan 6 Patent for reducing zinc ore granted to Samuel Wetherill, Penn
- Jan 8 Dion Boucicauly's "Poor of NY" premieres in NYC
- Jan 9 7.9 earthquake shakes Fort Tejon, California
- Jan 15 1st first-class game in Sydney, NSW v Vic at The Domain
- Jan 22 National Association of Baseball Players founded in New York
- Jan 24 University of Calcutta founded as the first full-fledged university in South Asia
- Jan 26 Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville delivers his design for a phonautograph, which created visual images of sound, to the French Academy
Famous Birthdays
Tim Keefe
Jan 1 Tim Keefe, American Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher (Triple Crown 1888; MLB record 0.86 ERA, single season 1880; NY Giants), born in Cambridge, Massachusetts (d. 1933)
- Jan 2 Frederick Opper, cartoonist (Maud, Alphonse & Gaston)
- Jan 2 Martha Carey Thomas, American educator, suffragist, linguist and second President of Bryn Mawr College, born in Baltimore, Maryland (d. 1935)
- Jan 6 Hugh Mahon, Irish-born Australian politician, born in Killurin, Republic of Ireland (d. 1931)
- Jan 6 William E. Russell, 37th Governor of Massachusetts, born in Cambridge, Massachusetts (d. 1896)
- Jan 9 Henry B Fuller, American writer (Under the Skylights)
- Jan 11 Fred Archer, English jockey (record 13 x GB Champion flat racing jockey 1874–86; 21 x British Classic Race wins; 5 x French Classic Race wins), born in Cheltenham, England (d. 1886)
- Jan 14 Alice Pike Barney, American painter, born in Cincinnati, Ohio (d. 1931)
- Jan 17 Eugene Augustin Lauste, developer (1st sound-on-film recording)
- Jan 17 Wilhelm Kienzl, Austrian composer (Evangelimann)
- Jan 18 Otto von Below, German commandant (WWI - Battle of Caporetto), born in Danzig, Prussia (d. 1944)
- Jan 23 Andrija Mohorovicic, Croatian meteorologist & seismologist (Moho discontinuity), born in Opatija, Croatia (d. 1936)
- Jan 26 Trinley Gyatso, 12th Dalai Lama, born in Tibet (d. 1875)
- Jan 31 George Jackson Churchward, Great Western Railway Chief mechanical engineer. (d. 1933)
Famous Weddings
Jules Verne
Jan 10 Novelist Jules Verne (28) weds Honorine de Viane Morel
