- Jan 5 California Exchange opens
- Jan 18 British blockade Piraeus, Greece, to enforce mercantile claims
Historic Expedition
Jan 20 HMS Investigator headed by Robert McClure leaves England, 1st expedition to make a Northwest passage (though some over ice)
Compromise of 1850
Jan 29 Senator Henry Clay drafts the Compromise of 1850 to defuse tensions between slave states and free states over territories won during the Mexican–American War
