- 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 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 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 Lionel Messi wins the FIFA Ballon d'Or for the second consecutive year
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
Film and TV Awards
Jan 15 69th Golden Globes: "The Descendants," George Clooney & Meryl Streep win
George Clooney
Meryl Streep
- 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 Game: New England Patriots beat Baltimore Ravens 23-20
- Jan 22 NFC Championship Game: 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
- Jan 29 NFL Pro Bowl: AFC beats NFC 59-41
Tennis Open
Jan 29 100th Men's Australian Open: Novak Đoković beats Rafael Nadal (5-7, 6-4, 6-2, 6-7, 7-5)
Novak Đoković
Rafael Nadal
- Jan 29 Australian Open Women's Tennis: Victoria Azarenka beats Maria Sharapova 6-3, 6-0
- Jan 29 59th NHL All-Star Game: Team Chara beats Team Alfredsson 12-9 at Ottawa, Ontario
- Jan 29 28th Sundance Film Festival: "The House I Live In", directed by Eugene Jarecki, wins Grand Jury Prize Dramatic
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