- Jan 2 98th Rose Bowl: #6 Oregon beats #9 Wisconsin, 45-38
- Jan 2 41st Fiesta Bowl: #3 Oklahoma State beats #4 Stanford, 41-38 (OT)
- Jan 2 Englishman Adrian Lewis retains his PDC World Darts Championship with a 7-3 win over Andy Hamilton at the Alexandra Palace, London
- Jan 3 78th Sugar Bowl: #13 Michigan beats #11 Virginia Tech, 23-20
- Jan 4 78th Orange Bowl: #23 West Virginia beats #14 Clemson, 70-33
- Jan 6 A suicide bomber blows himself up at a police station in Damascus, Syria, killing 26 people and wounding 63
- Jan 7 Hot air balloon crashes in Carterton, New Zealand, killing 11
- Jan 7 Hopman Cup Tennis, Perth: Tomáš Berdych beats Frenchman Richard Gasquet 7-6, 6-4 for an unassailable 2-0 lead; 2nd title for Czech Republic
- Jan 8 "The 3:16 Game" AFC Wild Card Playof, underdogs Denver Broncos defeat Pittsburgh Steelers 29–23 with Tim Tebow connecting with Demaryius Thomas on an 80-yard touchdown pass on first scrimmage play of overtime
Football Awards
Jan 9 FIFA Ballon d'Or: Barcelona forward Lionel Messi wins award for a record 3rd consecutive year; Japanese midfielder Homare Sawa wins women's award
Lionel Messi
Film and TV Awards
Jan 11 38th People's Choice Awards: Johnny Depp & Emma Stone win (Movie Star) and Nathan Fillion & Nina Dobrev win (TV Drama)
Emma Stone
Johnny Depp
- Jan 12 17th Critics' Choice Movie Awards: The Artist wins Best Film
- Jan 13 Italian cruiseliner Costa Concordia runs aground at Isola de Giglio, Italy, causing 32 deaths
- Jan 14 Suicide bomber kills 53 and injures 130 in Basra, Iraq
- Jan 14 Ma Ying-jeou wins re-election as President of the Republic of China with 51% of the vote
Golden Globes
Jan 15 69th Golden Globes: "The Descendants," George Clooney & Meryl Streep win
George Clooney
Meryl Streep
NBA Record
Jan 17 LeBron James becomes youngest player in NBA history to record 20,000 career points during the Miami Heat's 92-75 victory over Golden State; James, 28 years, 17 days, passes Kobe Bryant, 29 years, 122 days
LeBron James
- Jan 18 Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) blackout becomes the largest protest in the history of the internet
- Jan 19 FBI shuts down Megaupload.com for alleged copyright infringement, hacker group Anonymous responds by attacking government and entertainment industry websites
- Jan 22 AFC Championship, Gillette Stadium, Foxborough: New England Patriots beat Baltimore Ravens, 23-20
- Jan 22 NFC Championship, Candlestick Park, SF: New York Giants beat San Francisco 49ers, 20-17 (OT)
- Jan 23 European Union agrees to embargo Iranian oil in protest against Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program
- Jan 28 Death toll from coordinated bombing attacks in Kano, Nigeria, reaches 185
Australian Open Women's Tennis
Jan 28 Australian Open Women's Tennis: Victoria Azarenka becomes first Belarusian player to win Grand Slam singles title; beats Maria Sharapova of Russia 6-3, 6-0
Maria Sharapova
- Jan 29 NFL Pro Bowl, Aloha Stadium, Honolulu, HI: AFC beats NFC, 59-41; MVP: Brandon Marshall, Miami Dolphins, WR
Australian Men's Tennis Open
Jan 29 100th Australian Open Men's Tennis: Novak Đoković beats Rafael Nadal 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, 6-7, 7-5; longest Grand Slam singles final in duration in the Open Era, 5 hours 53 minutes
Novak Đoković
Rafael Nadal
Event of Interest
Jan 29 American snowboarder Shaun White achieves the first ever SuperPipe perfect score (100) in Winter X Games history
Shaun White
Album Release
Jan 31 Leonard Cohen releases his album "Old Ideas", becomes No.1 in 10 countries
Leonard Cohen