- Jan 1 Charles Turner, Australian cricket fast bowler (17 Tests; 101 wickets @ 16.53; fastest to 50 Test wickets), dies at 81
- Jan 1 Edwin Lutyens, English architect (Viceroy's House, New Delhi), dies at 74
- Jan 3 Jurgis BaltruĊĦaitis, Lithuanian poet (b. 1873)
- Jan 4 Henri "Hans" Flu, Indonesian/Dutch family doctor/antifascist, murder
- Jan 4 Kaj Munk [Harald Leininger], anti-fascist writer (Kaj Munk), dies
- Jan 5 Adolph Goldschmidt, German/Swiss art historian, dies at 80
- Jan 6 Ida Tarbell, American muckraker (The History of the Standard Oil Company), dies at 86
- Jan 7 J. Verleun, Dutch resistance fighter, executed
- Jan 7 Napoleon Lapathiotis, Greek poet, dies at 56
- Jan 7 Lou Henry Hoover, US First Lady (1929-33) and wife of the 31st President, Herbert Hoover, dies at 69
- Jan 7 George Mullin, American baseball pitcher (Detroit Tigers; no-hitter 1912), dies at 63
- Jan 8 William Kissam Vanderbilt II, member of the Vanderbilt family (b. 1878)
- Jan 11 Galeazzo count of Cortellazzo Ciano, Italian politician, dies
- Jan 12 Lance C. Wade, American pilot (b. 1915)
- Jan 12 Juliette Atkinson, American tennis player (US Nat C'ship 1895, 97-98), dies at 70
- Jan 14 Mohammed Emin Yurdakul, Turkish poet, dies at about 74
- Jan 19 Harold Fraser-Simson, composer, dies at 71
- Jan 20 James McKeen Cattell, American psychologist, dies at 83
- Jan 21 Gustaaf DFL Schamelhout, Flemish physician/writer, dies at 74
- Jan 21 Heinrich zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, German major and pilot, shot down
Edvard Munch
Jan 23 Edvard Munch, Norwegian painter (The Scream), dies at 80, bequeathing all of his work to the city of Oslo
