Events in History
- Jan 1 Porfirio Diaz conquers Mexico City
- Jan 2 South Carolina seizes inactive Ft Johnson in Charleston Harbor
- Jan 2 Colonel Charles Stone is put in charge of organizing DC militia
- Jan 3 Delaware legislature rejects proposal to join Confederacy
- Jan 3 US Fort Pulaski and Fort Jackson, Savannah, seized by Georgia
- Jan 4 US Ft Morgan, Mobile, seized by Alabama
- Jan 5 250 Federal troops are sent from New York to Ft Sumter
- Jan 5 Alabama troops seize Forts Morgan & Gaines at Mobile Bay
- Jan 6 Florida troops seize Federal arsenal at Apalachicola
- Jan 6 NYC mayor proposes NY become a free city, trading with North and South
- Jan 7 Florida troops takeover Fort Marion at St Augustine (US Civil War)
- Jan 8 US Civil War: Union forces abandon Fort Barrancas in favor of Fort Pikens on Santa Rosa Island, near Pensacola, Florida
Battle of Fort Sumter
Jan 9 A Union merchant ship, the Star of the West, is fired upon as it tries to deliver supplies to Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina
- Jan 9 Mississippi secedes from the Union (US Civil War)
- Jan 10 Fort Jackson & Fort Philip are taken over by LA state troops (US Civil War)
- Jan 10 US forts & property seized by Mississippi
- Jan 10 Florida secedes from the Union (US Civil War)
- Jan 11 Mexico City captured by Juarez (Lib) in War of Reform
- Jan 11 Alabama secedes from the Union (US Civil War)
- Jan 12 Florida state troops demand surrender of Fort Pickens (US Civil War)
- Jan 15 US Civil War: Union forces at Fort Pikens on Santa Rosa Island near Pensacola, Florida refuse Florida Militia demand to surrender
Historic Invention
Jan 15 Steam elevator patented by Elisha Otis
Historic Event
Jan 21 Jefferson Davis of Mississippi and 4 other southern senators resign (U.S Civil War)
- Jan 24 Federal troops from Fort Monroe are sent to Fort Pikens on Santa Rosa Island near Pensacola, Florida
- Jan 25 Arsenal Augustaseized by Confederacy in Georgia (US Civil War)
- Jan 26 Louisiana secedes from the Union (US Civil War)
- Jan 29 US state of Kansas admitted to the Union as the 34th state
- Jan 31 Friedrich Hebbel's "Siegfrieds Tod" premieres in Weimar
- Jan 31 State of Louisiana takes over US Mint at New Orleans (U.S Civil War)
Birthdays in History
- Jan 2 Helen Herron Taft, American First lady (1909-13) as wife of President William Howard Taft, planted Washington's cherry trees, born in Cincinnati, Ohio (d. 1943)
- Jan 6 George Exton Lloyd, Anglican bishop and theologian, born in London, United Kingdom (d. 1940)
- Jan 12 James Mark Baldwin, American philosopher & psychologist, born in Columbia, South Carolina (d. 1934)
- Jan 13 Max Nonne, German neurologist (d. 1959)
- Jan 14 Wilhelm von Polenz, German writer (Der Pfarrer von Breitendorf), born in Cunewalde, Germany (d. 1903)
- Jan 18 Hans Goldschmidt, German chemist (alumino-thermic process), born in Berlin, Prussia (d. 1923)