- Jan 7 Juste Olivier, Swiss poet (b. 1807)
- Jan 9 Samuel Gridley Howe, United States physician, abolitionist, and an advocate of education for the blind, dies at 74
- Jan 10 Charles EH de Coussemaker, Belgian musicologist/historian, dies at 70
Gordon Granger
Jan 10 Gordon Granger, American Major General during the Civil War (Union Army), dies at 54
- Jan 15 Eliza Johnson, U.S. First Lady (b. 1810)