- Jan 3 Nick Virgilio, American Haiku poet, dies at 60
- Jan 3 Sergei Lvovich Sobolev, Russian mathematician (b. 1909)
Hirohito (1901-1989)
Jan 7 124th Emperor of Japan (1926-89), dies at 87 after a 62-year reign
- Jan 10 Colin Winchester, Australian Assistant Police Commissioner, murdered (b. 1933)
- Jan 10 Herbert Morrison, American radio reporter (b. 1905)
- Jan 17 Sterling A Brown, American poet/critic (Southern Road), dies at 87
- Jan 18 Bruce Chatwin, British travel writer and novelist (In Patagonia, On a Black Hill), dies of AIDS at 49
Salvador Dali (1904-1989)
Jan 23 Spanish surrealist artist (Crucifixion), dies of heart failure at 84
Ted Bundy (1946-1989)
Jan 24 American serial killer of up to 100 women during the 1970s, executed by electric chair in Florida at 42
