- Jan 1 DW Griffith shows "Clansman" at a sneak preview
- Jan 1 Jews of Laibach Austria expelled
- Jan 4 1st elected Jewish governor, Moses Alexander, takes office in Idaho
- Jan 4 Trans-Caucausus Russian defeat Turkish troops
- Jan 7 World War I: Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm approves strategic bombing of Britain, but forbids bombing London, fearing his relatives in the royal family might be killed
- Jan 9 Exposition (now Civic) Auditorium dedicated in San Francisco
- Jan 11 Jacob Ruppert and Colonel Tillinghast Huston purchase the New York Yankees for $460,000, Ruppert pays his portion in cash
- Jan 12 US House of Representatives rejects proposal to give women right to vote
- Jan 13 Earthquake in Avezzano, Italy kills 29,800
- Jan 13 Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty, presents plan for assault on Dardanelles
- Jan 15 Japan claims economic control of China
- Jan 16 Congress authorizes $1 & $50 Panama-Pacific Intl Expo gold coin
- Jan 17 Antoni van Leeuwenhoek's Hospital in Amsterdam opens
Victory in Battle
Jan 17 Battle of Sarikamish ends with a Russian victory over Ottoman forces led by Enver Pasha with loss of over 30,000 men of the Turkish Third Army during Caucasus Campaign
- Jan 17 Jerome Kern and Harry B. Smith's musical "Love o' Mike" opens at the Shubert Theatre (later transferring to the Maxine Elliott and Casino theatres), NYC; runs for 233 performances
- Jan 17 Russia occupies Bukovina & Western Ukraine
- Jan 18 Japan issues the "Twenty-One Demands" to the Republic of China in a bid to increase its power in East Asia
- Jan 18 Train crashes at Colima-Guadalajara Mexico, about 600 die
- Jan 19 Neon Tube sign patented by George Claude
First Air Raid on Britain
Jan 19 World War I: 4 people in Norfolk are killed in the 1st German Zeppelin air raid attack on the United Kingdom
Historic Event
Jan 25 Alexander Graham Bell in NY calls Thomas Watson in San Francisco
- Jan 25 Giordano, Sardou & Moreau's opera "Madame Sans Gêne" premieres in NYC
- Jan 25 Transcontinental telephone service inaugurated (NY to San Francisco)
- Jan 26 Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado, is established
- Jan 27 US Marines occupy Haiti
- Jan 28 1st US ship lost in WW I, William P Frye (carrying wheat to UK)
- Jan 28 The United States Coast Guard is created by merging the US Life Saving Service & the US Revenue Cutter Service
Historic Event
Jan 28 US President Woodrow Wilson refuses to prohibit immigration of illiterates
