- Jan 1 Massive Chinese/North Korean assault on UN-lines
- Jan 1 37th Rose Bowl: #9 Michigan beats #5 California, 14-6
- Jan 1 17th Sugar Bowl: #7 Kentucky beats #1 Oklahoma, 13-7
- Jan 1 17th Orange Bowl: #10 Clemson beats #15 Miami (FL), 15-14
- Jan 2 Philip Barry's "Second Threshold," premieres in NYC
- Jan 3 9 Jewish Kremlin physicians "exposed" as British/US agents
- Jan 3 Fred Wilt wins AAU Sullivan Memorial Trophy (US athlete of 1950)
- Jan 4 Korean War: Chinese forces recapture Seoul
- Jan 6 "Pardon Our French" closes at Broadway Theater NYC after 100 performances
- Jan 6 Indianapolis beats Rochester 75-73 in NBA-record 6 overtimes
- Jan 6 Ganghwa massacre: Hundreds of South Korean communist sympathisers are slaughtered
- Jan 8 Thought extinct since 1615, a Cahow (the Bermuda petrel) is rediscovered in Bermuda
- Jan 9 "Life After Tomorrow", 1st film to receive an "X" rating, premieres
- Jan 9 Washington Capitals NBA club folds
- Jan 10 1st jet passenger trip made
- Jan 10 UN headquarters opens in Manhattan NY
Boxing Title Fight
Jan 12 Ezzard Charles TKOs Lee Oma in 10 for heavyweight boxing title
Ezzard Charles
- Jan 13 German general Christian Hansen freed early from Dutch prison
- Jan 14 NFL Pro Bowl: 1st since 1942, Americans beat Nationals 28-27
- Jan 15 "Cloud of Death" rolls down Mount Lamington, New Guinea kills 3-5,000
- Jan 15 Supreme Court rule "clear & present danger" of incitement to riot is not protected speech & can be a cause for arrest
- Jan 15 Ilse Koch, also known as "The Bitch of Buchenwald", is sentenced to life imprisonment by a West German court
- Jan 16 Viet Minh offensive against Hanoi
- Jan 16 World's largest gas pipeline opens (Brownsville Texas, to 134th St, New York City)
- Jan 17 China refuses ceases-fire in Korea
- Jan 18 1st use of lie detector in Netherlands
- Jan 18 Hermann Flake sentenced to death due to "hate campaign against GDR"
- Jan 18 NFL rules tackles, guards & centers ineligible for forward pass
- Jan 18 NFL takes control of failing Baltimore Colts
- Jan 18 1951 NFL Draft: Kyle Rote from SMU first pick by New York Giants
- Jan 18 Mount Lamington in Papua New Guinea erupts, killing 2,942 people
- Jan 22 Bollingen Prize for poetry awarded to Johncrowe Ransom
- Jan 22 Fidel Castro is ejected from a Winter League baseball game after hitting a batter
- Jan 23 3rd Emmy Awards: Alan Young Show, Alan Young and Gertrude Berg win
- Jan 24 Dutch government Drees-van Schaik resigns
- Jan 26 Mel Ott & Jimmie Foxx elected to Baseball Hall of Fame
- Jan 27 "Peter Pan" closes at Imperial Theater NYC after 320 performances
- Jan 27 US begins 126 nuclear tests at Nevada Test Site
- Jan 28 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- Jan 28 "La Vie Commence Demain" the 1st X-rated movie, depicting artificial insemination, opens in London
- Jan 29 "Where's Charley?" opens at Broadway Theater NYC for 56 performances
- Jan 29 Baseball signs 6 year All-Star pact for TV-radio rights for $6 million
- Jan 30 Belgium refuses to allow communists to make speeches on radio
- Jan 31 39th Women's Australian Championships: Nancye Wynne Bolton beats Thelma Coyne Long (6-1, 7-5)
- Jan 31 39th Men's Australian Championships: Dick Savitt beats Ken McGregor (6-3, 2-6, 6-3, 6-1)