Historical Events
- Jan 5 1st steamboat the North Star sails up the northern Red River, America
Brahms' 1st Piano Concerto
Jan 22 Johannes Brahms' 1st piano concerto (in D minor) premieres in Hanover
Famous Birthdays
- Jan 1 Michael J. Owens, American glassmaker and inventor (glass bottle-making machine), born in Mason County, West Virginia (d. 1923) [1]
- Jan 5 DeWitt Bristol Brace, inventor (spectrophotometer), born in Wilson, New York (d. 1905)
- Jan 6 Samuel Alexander, English philosopher (Moral Order & Progress), born in Sydney, Australia (d. 1938)
Carrie Chapman Catt (1859-1947)
Jan 9 American women's suffrage leader and founder (League of Women Voters), born in Ripon, Wisconsin
- Jan 9 Frederik Pijper, Dutch vicar and church historian (The Monasteries) (d. 1926)
- Jan 11 [Gerard] Jan Ligthart, Dutch educator (Nog bij mother, Ot & Sien) (d. 1916)
- Jan 13 Karl Bleibtreu, German author (Revolution of Literature), born in Berlin (d. 1928)
- Jan 13 Kostis Palamas, Greek poet (d. 1943)
- Jan 15 Archibald Peake, Premier of South Australia, born in Chelsea, London (d. 1920)
- Jan 19 Alice Eastwood, Canadian-American botanist (Handbook of Trees of California), born in Toronto, Ontario (d. 1953)
- Jan 21 Antoni Wincenty Rutkowski, Polish composer and pianist, born in Warsaw, Russian Poland (d. 1886)
- Jan 24 Alexander Alexandrovich Ilyinsky, Russian composer (The Fountain of Bakhchisaray), born in Tsarskoye Selo, Russia (d. 1920)
Wilhelm II (1859-1941)
Jan 27 German Emperor and King of Prussia (1888-1918), born in Berlin
- Jan 30 Tony Mullane, Irish-American baseball player, born in Cork, Ireland (d. 1944)
Famous Deaths
- Jan 8 Antoine Schayes, Belgian historian and archaeologist, dies at 50
- Jan 18 Alfred Vail, American inventor and early telegraph pioneer, dies at 51
- Jan 20 Bettina von Arnim, German writer and composer of the Romantic era (This Book Belongs to the King), dies at 73
- Jan 21 Henry Hallam, British lawyer and historian, dies at 81
- Jan 27 Carl A. Agardh, Swedish botanist, bishop of Karlstad, dies at 74
- Jan 28 F. J. Robinson, 1st Viscount Goderich, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1827-28), dies at 76
- Jan 28 William H. Prescott, American historian, dies at 62
- Jan 29 Seth Thomas, American manufacturer and pioneer in the mass production of clocks, dies at 73
- Jan 29 William Cranch Bond, American astronomer (codiscovered Hyperion), dies at 69