Historical Events
- Jan 4 1st elected Jewish governor, Moses Alexander, takes office in Idaho
- Jan 4 Trans-Caucausus Russian defeat Turkish troops
- Jan 7 World War I: Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm approves strategic bombing of Britain, but forbids bombing London, fearing his relatives in the royal family might be killed
- Jan 9 Exposition (now Civic) Auditorium dedicated in San Francisco
- Jan 11 Jacob Ruppert and Colonel Tillinghast Huston purchase the New York Yankees for $460,000, Ruppert pays his portion in cash
- Jan 12 US House of Representatives rejects proposal to give women right to vote
- Jan 13 Earthquake in Avezzano, Italy kills 29,800
- Jan 13 Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty, presents plan for assault on Dardanelles
- Jan 15 Japan claims economic control of China
Victory in Battle
Jan 17 Battle of Sarikamish ends with a Russian victory over Ottoman forces led by Enver Pasha with loss of over 30,000 men of the Turkish Third Army during Caucasus Campaign
First Air Raid on Britain
Jan 19 World War I: 4 people in Norfolk are killed in the 1st German Zeppelin air raid attack on the United Kingdom
Historic Event
Jan 25 Alexander Graham Bell in NY calls Thomas Watson in San Francisco
- Jan 25 Giordano, Sardou & Moreau's opera "Madame Sans Gêne" premieres in NYC
- Jan 25 Transcontinental telephone service inaugurated (NY to San Francisco)
- Jan 26 Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado, is established
- Jan 27 US Marines occupy Haiti
- Jan 28 1st US ship lost in WW I, William P Frye (carrying wheat to UK)
- Jan 28 The United States Coast Guard is created by merging the US Life Saving Service & the US Revenue Cutter Service
Historic Event
Jan 28 US President Woodrow Wilson refuses to prohibit immigration of illiterates
Famous Birthdays
- Jan 1 Francois Bondy, writer
- Jan 1 Lewis Bingham Keeble, town planner
- Jan 2 John Hope Franklin, historian
- Jan 2 Nick Fatool, American jazz and session drummer, born in Millbury, Massachusetts (d. 2000)
- Jan 3 Sid Hudson, American baseball pitcher (MLB All Star 1941, 42; Washington Senators, Boston Red Sox), born in Coalfield, Tennessee (d. 2008)
- Jan 3 Jack Levine, American social realist painter, born in Boston, Massachusetts (d. 2010),
- Jan 5 Mabel Leigh, British potter (Shorter and Son), born in Coatesville, Indiana (d. 1971)
- Jan 5 Uta Graf, German-American soprano and teacher, born in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, Germany; (d. 1995)
- Jan 5 Arthur H. Robinson, Canadian-born cartographer, born in Montreal, Quebec (d. 2004)
- Jan 6 Alan Watts, British-American philosopher (Book on the Taboo), born in Chislehurst, United Kingdom (d. 1973)
- Jan 6 Don Edwards, American politician and civil rights champion (Rep-D-CA, 1963-94), born in San Jose, California (d. 2015)
- Jan 6 John C. Lilly, U.S. psychoanalyst & writer, born in Saint Paul, Minnesota (d. 2001)
- Jan 7 Herman Musaph, Dutch psychiatrist and sexologist (NVSH)
- Jan 8 Walker Cooper, American baseball catcher (MLB All-Star 1942–44, 46–50; World Series 1942, 44; St. Louis Cardinals), born in Atherton, Missouri (d. 1991)
- Jan 9 Anita Louise, American actress (The Little Princess, Gorilla, My Friend Flicka), born in NYC, New York (d. 1970)
- Jan 9 Fernando Lamas, Argentine American actor and director (Lost World, You look marvelous), born in Buenos Aires, Argentina (d. 1982)
- Jan 10 Dean Dixon, American conductor, born in Harlem, New York (d. 1975)
- Jan 11 Veda Ann Borg, American model and actress (Kid Galahad, Avalanche, Accomplice), born in Boston, Massachusetts (d. 1973)
- Jan 11 Robert Blair Mayne, British soldier, co-founder Special Air Service (d. 1955)
- Jan 12 Ernest Armstrong, British politician (L) & teacher, born in Stanley, County Durham (d. 1996)
- Jan 12 Frank Annunzio, American politician (Rep-D-IL, 1965-93), born in Chicago, Illinois (d. 2001)
- Jan 12 Roy Ralston, British pilot, born in Moss Side, Manchester
- Jan 12 Martin Agronsky, American journalist (1952 Peabody, 1961 DuPont-Columbia), born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (d. 1999)
- Jan 12 Paul Jarrico, American writer, born in Los Angeles, California (d. 1997)
- Jan 12 Joseph-Aurèle Plourde, Catholic archbishop of Ottawa, born in Saint-François-de-Madawaska, Canada (d. 2013)
- Jan 13 Edward Frederick Weston Goodman, property developer
- Jan 14 Andre Frossard, Catholic columnist, born in Saint-Maurice-Colombier, France (d. 1995)
- Jan 14 Mark Goodson, American radio and TV game show producer, with Bill Todman ("I've Got A Secret"; "The Price Is Right"; "Password"), born in Sacramento, California (d. 1992)
- Jan 18 Vassilis Tsitsanis, Greek singer, rebetiko and laïkó songwriter, and bouzouki player, born in Trikala, Greece (d. 1984)
- Jan 19 Alvy West, American orchestra leader (Andy Williams Show), born in Brooklyn, New York
- Jan 20 C. W. Ceram, German/ journalist & author (March of Archaeology), born in Berlin, Germany (d. 1972)
- Jan 20 Ghulam Ishaq Khan, President of Pakistan, born in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan (d. 2006)
- Jan 21 Alan Hewitt, American actor (Det Brennan-My Favorite Martian), born in NYC, New York (d. 1986)
- Jan 22 Tom Burtt, cricketer (slow left-armer took 33 wickets for NZ)
- Jan 23 Herma Bauma, Austrian javelin thrower (Olympic gold 1948), born in Vienna, Austria (d. 2003)
- Jan 23 Potter Stewart, United States Supreme Court justice (1958-81), born in Jackson, Michigan (d. 1985)
- Jan 23 William Arthur Lewis, Saint Lucian economist (1979 Nobel Prize in Economics for economic development research), born in Castries, Saint Lucia (d. 1991) [1]
- Jan 24 Robert Motherwell, American painter (Elegies to the Spanish Republic), born in Aberdeen, Washington (d. 1991)
- Jan 24 Vitezslava Kapralova, Czech composer, born in Brno, Czechia (d. 1940)
- Jan 25 Michael Duane, British progressive educationalist & author, born in Galway, Ireland (d. 1997)
- Jan 25 Ewan MacColl, Scottish folk singer-songwriter (The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face), born in Broughton, United Kingdom (d. 1989)
- Jan 26 William Hopper, American actor (Perry Mason, The Bad Seed, Rebel Without a Cause), born in NYC, New York (d. 1970)
- Jan 27 Jack Brymer, clarinetist
- Jan 29 Frederic Ramsey Jr, folklorist/author
- Jan 29 Halfdan Rasmussen, Danish poet/WWII resistance fighter (Skoven)
- Jan 29 John Serry, Sr., American musician and arranger (d. 2003)
- Jan 30 Dorothy Dell [Goff], American child actress (Little Miss Marker, Wharf Angel), born in Hattiesburg, Mississippi (d. 1934)
- Jan 30 John Profumo, British cabinet minister (Profumo scandal), born in London, England (d. 2006)
- Jan 30 Joachim Peiper, German SS officer, born in Berlin, Germany (d. 1976)
- Jan 31 Bobby Hackett, American jazz cornetist, trumpeter (Glenn Miller; Benny Goodman; Jackie Gleason), and orchestra leader (Air Time '57), born in Providence, Rhode Island (d. 1976)
- Jan 31 Garry Moore [Thomas Garrison Morfit], Balt, host (I've Got a Secret)
Thomas Merton
Jan 31 Thomas Merton, French-American Catholic writer and Trappist monk (7 Story Mountain), born in Prades, Pyrénées-Orientales, France
Famous Deaths
- Jan 2 Karl Goldmark, Austria-Hungarian composer (Queen of Saba), dies at 84
- Jan 3 James Elroy Flecker, English poet and dramatist (Hassan), dies at 30
- Jan 6 Reginald Wood, cricketer (one Test England v Australia 1886), dies
- Jan 13 Mary Slessor, Scottish missionary (b. 1848)
- Jan 14 Richard Meux Benson, founder of Anglican religious order (b. 1824)
- Jan 15 Guillaume Couture, Canadian choir conductor, composer, and teacher, dies at 63
- Jan 15 Fannie Farmer, American culinary pioneer who revolutionised modern cooking through the introduction of precise measurements (Boston Cooking-School Cook Book), dies of complications of a stroke at 57
- Jan 28 Nikolay Umov, Russian physicist and mathematician known for discovering the Umov-Poynting vector and Umov effect, dies at 68
