- Jan 1 Cigarette advertisements banned on TV
- Jan 1 57th Rose Bowl: #12 Stanford beats #2 Ohio State, 27-17
- Jan 1 37th Sugar Bowl: #4 Tennessee beats #11 Air Force, 34-13
- Jan 1 37th Orange Bowl: #3 Nebraska beats #5 LSU, 17-12
- Jan 2 A barrier collapses at Ibrox Park football ground at end of a soccer match in Glasgow Scotland, killing 66
- Jan 3 "President's Daughter" closes at Billy Rose Theater NYC after 72 performances
- Jan 3 AFC Championship Game: Baltimore Colts beat Oakland Raiders 27-17
- Jan 3 NFC Championship Game: Dallas Cowboys beat San Francisco 49ers 17-10
- Jan 4 Dr Melvin H Evans inaugurated as 1st elected governor of Virgin Is
- Jan 4 Ohio agrees to pay $675,000 to relatives of Kent State victims
- Jan 4 Philadelphia's Veteran's Stadium dedicated
- Jan 5 1st one-day international, Australia v England at the MCG
- Jan 5 Globetrotters lose 100-99 to NJ Reds, ending 2,495-game win streak
- Jan 5 Body of US heavyweight Charles "Sonny" Liston (36) found; he had been dead for an estimated 6 days.
- Jan 6 Berkeley chemists announces 1st synthetic growth hormones
- Jan 6 Cecil Partee elected president pro tem of Illinois state senate
Music Concert
Jan 6 Neil Young returns to his homeland of Canada for his first concert there since his pre-stardom days
Neil Young
- Jan 7 -40°F (-40°C) in Hawley Lake, Arizona (state record)
- Jan 8 29 pilot whales beach themselves & die at San Clemente Island, California
- Jan 8 Voyageurs National Park, Minn, established
- Jan 9 "Lovely Ladies, Kind Gentlemen" closes at Majestic NYC after 19 performances
- Jan 10 "Light, Lively & Yiddish" closes at Belasco Theater NYC after 87 performances
- Jan 10 Bollingen Prize for poetry awarded to Richard Wilbur
- Jan 10 Irish Republican Army (IRA) carry out a 'punishment attack', tarring and feathering 4 men accused of criminal activities in Belfast
- Jan 11 Tigers ace reliever John Hiller, 27, sufferes a heart attack, but later makes a remarkable comeback to record 38 saves
- Jan 12 "All in the Family" premieres on CBS featuring 1st toilet flush on TV
- Jan 12 "Soon" opens at Ritz Theater NYC for 3 performances
- Jan 12 Congressional Black Caucus organizes
Event of Interest
Jan 12 US Federal grand jury indicts Rev Philip Berrigan & 5 others, including a nun & 2 priests, on charges of plotting to kidnap Henry Kissinger
Henry Kissinger
- Jan 12 Negotiations over price of petroleum begin in Tehran between 6 OPEC Persian Gulf states and 22 oil companies
- Jan 12 2 bombs explode at UK Employment Secretary Robert Carr's home
- Jan 12 21st NBA All-Star Game: West beats East 108-107 at San Diego
- Jan 13 "Soon" closes at Ritz Theater NYC after 3 performances
- Jan 14 John Snow takes 7-40 for England to beat Australia by 299 runs
- Jan 15 "Ari" opens at Mark Hellinger Theater NYC for 19 performances
- Jan 15 Aswan Dam official opens in Egypt
Music Single
Jan 15 George Harrison releases "My Sweet Lord" single in the UK
George Harrison
- Jan 16 Ard Schenk skates world record 1500m (1:58.7)
- Jan 17 Super Bowl V: Balt Colts-16, Dallas Cowboys-13 in Miami Super Bowl MVP: Chuck Howley, Dallas, LB
- Jan 17 At a party conference in Dublin, Sinn Féin end their 65 year abstentionist policy and agree that any elected representative could take their seat at the Dáil
- Jan 18 Ivan Koloff beats Bruno Sammartino in New York, to become WWF champ
- Jan 18 Northern Ireland Prime Minister James Chichester-Clark meets British Home Secretary Reginald Maudling
- Jan 19 "No, No Nanette" opens at 46th St Theater NYC for 861 performances
- Jan 19 24th NHL All-Star Game: West beat East 2-1 at Boston
Event of Interest
Jan 19 The Beatles' "Helter Skelter" is played at Charles Manson trial
Charles Manson
Meeting of Interest- Jan 21 "Alias Smith & Jones" premieres on ABC TV
Event of Interest
Jan 22 John Lennon and Yoko Ono record "Power to the People"
John Lennon
Yoko Ono
- Jan 23 -80°F (-62°C) in Prospect Creek Camp, Alaska (US record)
- Jan 23 4th ABA All-Star Game: East 126 beats West 122 at Carolina
- Jan 23 UCLA loses to Notre Dame, UCLA then wins next 88 games in a row
- Jan 23 Riots break out in the Shankill Road area of Belfast, North Ireland
- Jan 23 Britain allowed to sell arms to S. Africa, after Commonwealth Conference in Singapore ends in compromise
- Jan 24 NFL Pro Bowl: NFC beats AFC 27-6
- Jan 25 Charles Manson & 3 women followers convicted of Tate-LaBianca murders
- Jan 25 Himachal Pradesh becomes 18th Indian state
Coup d'état
Event of Interest
Jan 25 Philadelphia mint's 1st trial strike of Eisenhower dollar
Dwight D. Eisenhower
- Jan 25 WHMB TV channel 40 in Indianapolis, IN (IND) begins broadcasting
- Jan 25 The 170 delegates of the Ulster Unionist Council (UUC) call for the resignation of Northern Ireland Prime Minister James Chichester-Clark
- Jan 26 Dutch 2nd Chamber accepts law against limitation of war crimes
- Jan 27 Montgomery St Station, last link in Bay Area Rapid Transit in San Francisco, 'holed thru'
- Jan 27 The body of a man who had been shot dead is found in Belfast
- Jan 28 1971 NFL Draft: Jim Plunkett from University of Stanford first pick by New England Patriots
- Jan 29 Test debut of Dennis Keith Lillee, v England at Adelaide
- Jan 30 "Ari" closes at Mark Hellinger Theater NYC after 19 performances
- Jan 30 Dennis Lillee takes 5-84 in his 1st Test bowl, v England
- Jan 30 UCLA starts 88 basketball game win streak
- Jan 31 "My Sweet Lord" by George Harrison hits #1 on UK pop chart
- Jan 31 Apollo 14 launched, 1st landing in lunar highlands
- Jan 31 Special Veterans Committee adds 6 former players and 1 executive to the Baseball Hall of Fame: Dave Bancroft, Jake Beckley, Chick Hafey, Harry Hooper, Joe Kelley, Rube Marquard and George Weiss
- Jan 31 US female Figure Skating championship won by Janet Lynn
- Jan 31 US male Figure Skating championship won by John Misha Petkevich
- Jan 31 Dave Bancroft & George Weiss elected to baseball Hall of Fame