- Jan 4 Joe Hunter, English cricket wicket-keeper (5 Tests, 11 dismissals; Yorkshire CCC), dies at 35
- Jan 4 Antoine Labelle, Quebec catholic priest (b. 1833)
- Jan 5 Guillaume L Baud, Dutch minister of Colonies (1848-49), dies at 89
- Jan 5 Emma Abbott, American soprano, dies at 40
- Jan 7 (Carl Gottfried) Wilhelm Taubert, German pianist, conductor, and composer, dies at 79
- Jan 8 Fredrik Pacius, composer, dies at 81
- Jan 10 Laza Lazarević, Serbian writer (Prvi put s ocem na jutrenje) and psychiatrist, dies at 39
- Jan 11 Georges-Eugene, Baron Haussmann, French administrator and architect, dies at 81
- Jan 16 Clement Léo Delibes, French romantic composer (Coppélia, Sylvia, Le roi l'a dit, Lakmé), dies at 54
- Jan 17 Johannes Verhulst, Dutch composer and conductor, dies at 74
George Bancroft
Jan 17 George Bancroft, American historian and father of U.S. History, dies at 90
- Jan 20 David Kalākaua, King of the Hawaiian Islands (1874-91), dies at 54
- Jan 21 Calixa Lavallee, Canadian composer (O Canada), dies at 48
- Jan 23 Prince Baudouin of Belgium, Count of Flanders, dies at 21
- Jan 26 Nikolaus Otto, German auto pioneer (internal combustion engine), dies. (b. 1833)
- Jan 31 Ernest Meissonier, French painter/etcher/sculptor, dies at 75