- Jan 1 1st feature-length foreign movie "African Journey", shown on TV, NYC
- Jan 1 Army defeats Navy 10-7 in football "Arab Bowl," Oran, North Africa
- Jan 1 General Clark replaces Gen Patton as commander of 7th Army
- Jan 1 30th Rose Bowl: Southern California beats #12 Washington, 29-0
- Jan 1 10th Sugar Bowl: Georgia Tech beats Tulsa, 20-18
- Jan 1 10th Orange Bowl: LSU beats Texas A&M, 19-14
- Jan 2 1st use of helicopters during warfare (British Atlantic patrol)
- Jan 3 World War II: Top Ace Major Greg "Pappy" Boyington is shot down in his Corsair by Captain Masajiro Kawato flying a Zero.
Event of Interest
Jan 4 Ralph Bunche appointed 1st African American official in US State Department
Ralph Bunche
- Jan 4 Operation Carpetbagger begins (aerial dropping of supplies and weapons to resistance fighters in Europe)
- Jan 5 The Daily Mail becomes the first transoceanic newspaper.
- Jan 7 US Air Force announces production of 1st US jet fighter, the Bell P-59
- Jan 10 1st mobile electric power plant delivered in Philadelphia
- Jan 10 British troops conquer Maungdaw, Burma
- Jan 11 Crakow-Plaszow Concentration Camp established
- Jan 12 Churchill & de Gaulle begin a 2-day wartime conference in Marrakesh
- Jan 12 Failed resistance raid on distribution office of Borgerstraat, Amsterdam
- Jan 14 Soviet army begins offensive at Oranienbaum/Wolchow
- Jan 15 European Advisory Commission decides to divide Germany
Event of Interest
Jan 15 General Eisenhower arrives in England
Dwight D. Eisenhower
- Jan 15 Vught Concentration Camp puts 74 women in 1 cell, 10 die
- Jan 16 General Eisenhower takes command of Allied Invasion Force in London
- Jan 17 British corvette HMS Violet sinks U-641 in Atlantic Ocean
- Jan 18 1st Chinese naturalized US citizen since repeal of exclusion acts
Music Concert
Jan 18 The Metropolitan Opera House in New York City hosts a jazz concert for the first time. The performers were Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Artie Shaw, Roy Eldridge and Jack Teagarden.
Louis Armstrong
Event of Interest
Jan 23 Arnold Schoenberg's "Ode to Napoleon" premieres in NYC
Arnold Schoenberg
- Jan 23 Det Red Wings score 15 goals against NY Rangers & NHL record 37 points, also most consecutive goals & most lopsided game 15-0
- Jan 24 Allied troops occupy Nettuno Italy
- Jan 27 Leningrad liberated from Germany in 880 days with the loss of 600,000 killed
- Jan 27 Casey Stengel, manager of the Boston Braves since 1938, resigns Lou Perini, Guido Rugo, & Joseph Maney buy control of Boston Braves
- Jan 28 683 British bombers attack Berlin
- Jan 28 Leonard Bernstein's "Jeremiah" premieres in Pittsburgh
- Jan 28 U-271 & U-571 sunk off Ireland
- Jan 29 285 German bombers attack London
- Jan 29 USS Missouri, the last battleship commissioned by the US Navy, is launched
- Jan 29 World War II: The Battle of Cisterna takes place in central Italy.
- Jan 29 World War II: About 38 men, women, and children die in the Koniuchy massacre in Poland
- Jan 30 World War II: United States troops land on Majuro, Marshall Islands
- Jan 30 The Battle of Cisterna begins in central Italy
D-Day