- Jan 1 1st scheduled airline flight, St Petersburg-Tampa (Tony Jannus pilot)
- Jan 1 Klaas ter Laan becomes The Netherland's 1st socialist mayor (Zaandam)
- Jan 1 Northern & Southern Nigeria united in British colony of Nigeria
- Jan 2 Philips installs research department in Eindhoven
- Jan 3 Kelman/Cushing/Heath' musical "Sari," premieres in NYC
- Jan 5 Ford Motor Co wages jump from $2.40/9-hr day to $5.00/8-hr day
Event of Interest
Jan 5 Industrialist Henry Ford announces his $5 minimum per-day wage, doubled most workers pay
Henry Ford
- Jan 6 Stock brokerage firm of Merrill Lynch founded
- Jan 7 1st steamboat passes through the Panama Canal
- Jan 10 1st edition of Hague's Post under SF van Oss, published
- Jan 10 Oscar Mathisen skates world record 500 m in 43.7 sec in Oslo
- Jan 10 Yuan Shih-k'ai, president of the new Chinese republic, dissolves parliament and prepares a constitution of his own design: he will set himself up as dictator, preparatory to an attempt to make himself emperor
- Jan 13 IWW-leader/songwriter Joe Hill arrested "Girl from Utah" East-Prussia
Agreement of Interest
Jan 14 The Gandhi-Smuts Agreement is reached between Gen. J.C. Smuts and Mahatma Gandhi, regarding voluntary registration, poll tax, recognition of Indian marriages and other matters
Mahatma Gandhi
Event of Interest
Jan 16 Writer Maxim Gorky returns to Russia
Maxim Gorky
Theater Premiere
Jan 17 Gerhart Hauptmann's play "Der Bogen des Odysseus" premieres in Berlin
Gerhart Hauptmann
- Jan 20 The first group of Transvaal Indian women satyagrahis are released from Pietermaritzburg Prison in South Africa after three months imprisonment
- Jan 22 Paul Claudel's play "L'échange" premieres in Paris
- Jan 24 Opera "Madeleine" premieres in NYC
- Jan 25 An Indian mass meeting in Durban unanimously endorse the agreement between General J.C. Smuts and Mahatma Gandhi regarding voluntary registration, poll tax, recognition of Indian marriages and other matters
- Jan 26 600 Dutch textile workers go on strike
- Jan 26 Vatican puts Belgian Nobel winner Maeterlinck's works in their index
- Jan 27 A petition is written and submitted by the black and coloured women of the Orange Free State, an independent Boer sovereign republic in southern Africa, against the carrying of passes by women
- Jan 28 1st Millrose Games (athletics) held (NYC)
- Jan 28 Beverly Hills, California, is incorporated