- Jan 1 US & 25 other countries sign a united declaration against the Axis
- Jan 1 28th Rose Bowl: #12 Oregon State beats #2 Duke, 20-16 (played in North Carolina due to Japanese threat)
- Jan 1 8th Sugar Bowl: #6 Fordham beats #7 Missouri, 2-0
- Jan 1 8th Orange Bowl: #14 Georgia beats TCU, 40-26
- Jan 2 World War II: the 28 nations at war with Axis powers pledge to make no separate peace deals
- Jan 2 German troops in Bardia surrender
- Jan 2 Japanese troops occupy Manila, Philippines
- Jan 2 The United States Navy opens a blimp base at Lakehurst, New Jersey
- Jan 3 American-British-Dutch-Australian (ABDA) Command forms
- Jan 4 4th NFL All Star Game, Polo Grounds, NYC: Chicago Bears beat NFL All-Stars, 35-24
- Jan 4 Premier Churchill & General Marshall fly to Florida
- Jan 4 Rogers Hornsby is 14th player selected to the Hall of Fame
- Jan 5 55 German tanks reach North-Africa
- Jan 6 Bob Feller, enlists in Navy & reports for duty to Norfolk Virginia
- Jan 6 Pan American Airlines becomes the first commercial airline to schedule a flight around the world ("Pacific Clipper").
- Jan 7 WW II siege of Bataan starts
- Jan 8 British Air Marshal Richard Peirse replaced as Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Bomber Command
- Jan 9 US Joint Chiefs of Staff created
- Jan 10 Japan invades North Celebes, Dutch East Indies
- Jan 11 -23°F (-31°C), Kingston, Rhode Island (state record)
- Jan 11 Japan conquers Kuala Lumpur, Malaya
- Jan 12 British troops reconquer Sollum
- Jan 12 Dutch troops on Tarakan surrender
- Jan 12 National War Labor Board created
- Jan 13 Allied Conference on war trials
- Jan 13 German U-boats begin harassing shipping on US east coast
Historic Invention
Jan 13 Henry Ford patents a method of constructing plastic auto bodies
Henry Ford
- Jan 13 Interallied war trial conference publishes St James Declaration
- Jan 13 World War II: First use of aircraft ejection seat by a German test pilot in a Heinkel He 280 jet fighter
- Jan 14 Japanese troops land at oil center Balikpapan in Borneo
- Jan 15 Chicago Cubs drop plans to install lights at Wrigley Field because of military's need for materials; takes 35 years before lights finally installed at the venerable ballpark
Event of Interest
Jan 15 US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt sends his famed "Green Light Letter" to MLB Commissioner Judge Landis, encouraging baseball to continue playing during World War II
Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Jan 16 William Knudsen becomes 1st civilian appointed a general in US army
- Jan 18 Nazis arrest Frans Goedhart & Wiardi Beckman
- Jan 19 Japanese forces invade Burma
- Jan 19 Titus Brandsma arrested by German occupiers
- Jan 20 Japanese invade Burma
- Jan 20 Nazi officials hold notorious Wannsee conference in Berlin to organise the "final solution", the extermination of Europe's Jews
- Jan 21 Bronx magistrate rules all pinball machines illegal
- Jan 21 Count Basie records "One O'Clock Jump"
Josip Broz Tito
Event of Interest
Jan 25 Lt General Rommels African corps reaches Msus
Erwin Rommel
- Jan 26 1st US force in Europe during WW II go ashore in Northern Ireland
- Jan 26 Italian supreme command demands dismissal of German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel
- Jan 27 -19°F (-27.4°C), Netherland's coldest day since 1850
- Jan 28 Soviet troops under General Timoshenko's troops move into Ukraine
- Jan 28 German troops occupy Benghazi Libya
- Jan 28 WW II Navy flier Don Mason sends message "Sighted sub sank same"
- Jan 29 1st broadcast of Roy Plomley's "Desert Island Discs" on BBC radio
- Jan 29 German & Italian troops occupy Benghazi, Libya
- Jan 29 Peru and Ecuador sign Protocol of Rio (boundary determination)
- Jan 30 Japanese troops land on Ambon