- Jan 1 1st football game between black colleges-Atlanta U 10, Tuskegee 0
- Jan 8 Michael Eagan wins 1st US national amateur handball championship
Event of Interest
Jan 10 Henrik Ibsen's "John Gabriel Borkman" premieres in Helsingfors
Henrik Ibsen
Event of Interest
Jan 10 Vincent d'Indy's "Istar" premieres in Amsterdam & Brussels
Vincent d'Indy
- Jan 10 Ukrainian bacteriologist Wademar Haffkine performs the first human trial for a vaccine for the plague on himself during the Bombay epidemic
- Jan 11 M H Cannon becomes 1st woman state senator in US (Utah)
- Jan 14 6,960 m (22,834 ft) Cerro Aconcagua (Argentina) 1st climbed by European expedition led by British mountaineer Edward FitzGerald
Event of Interest
Jan 16 John Dewey's essay "My Pedagogic Creed" appears in School Journal
John Dewey
- Jan 23 Elva Zona Heaster is found dead in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. Resulting murder trial of her husband perhaps only case in US history where the alleged testimony of a ghost helped secure a conviction.
- Jan 26 Battle at Bida Gold Coast: British troops beat Nupe's army
- Jan 27 British troops occupy Bida Gold Coast (Ghana)