- 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 4 Korean War: Chinese forces recapture Seoul
- Jan 6 "Pardon Our French" closes at Broadway Theater NYC after 100 performances
- Jan 6 Indianapolis Olympians beat Rochester Royals, 75-73 in NBA-record 6 overtimes; also the longest game in NBA history
- 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
NHL Record
Jan 10 Maurice Richard scores his 16th career hat trick in the Montreal Canadiens' 3-0 win over NY Rangers to bring his career total to 274 goals; passes Howie Morenz as NHL's #2 all-time leading goal scorer
Maurice Richard
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
NFL Pro Bowl
Jan 14 1st NFL Pro Bowl, Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum: American Conference beats National Conference, 28-27; MVP: Otto Graham, Cleveland Browns, QB
Otto Graham
- 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 Australian Championships Women's Tennis: Nancye Wynne Bolton beats Thelma Coyne Long 6-1, 7-5 for her 6th and last Australian singles crown
- Jan 31 Australian Championships: American Dick Savitt wins his only Australian title; beats Ken McGregor of Australia 6-3, 2-6, 6-3, 6-1