Historical Events
- Jan 1 1st homestead under the Homestead Act claimed, near Beatrice, Nebraska
- Jan 1 Battle of Galveston, Texas-Confederates recapture the city
Lincoln Issues Emancipation Proclamation
Jan 1 Emancipation Proclamation issued by Abraham Lincoln to free slaves in US confederate states
- Jan 2 Battle of Murfreesboro (Stone's River) ends
- Jan 4 Four wheeled roller skates patented by James Plimpton in New York
- Jan 4 The New Apostolic Church is established in Germany
- Jan 8 American Civil War: Second Battle of Springfield
- Jan 9 -Jan 11th] Battle of Arkansas Post, AR (Ft Hindman)
- Jan 10 1st underground railway opens in London
- Jan 10 General McClernand's Union troops surround Fort Hindman, Arkansas
- Jan 10 January uprising begins in Poland
- Jan 11 Naval engagement near Galveston between CSS Alabama and USS Hatteras
- Jan 11 Union forces capture Arkansas Post, or Ft Hindman, Arkansas
- Jan 12 Confederate President Davis delivers his "State of Confederacy" address
- Jan 13 Chenille yarn making machine patented by William Canter in NYC
- Jan 14 Battle between gunboats at Bayou Teche, Louisiana
- Jan 15 1st US newspaper printed on wood-pulp paper, Boston Morning Journal
- Jan 16 -Aug 23rd) Cruise of CSS Florida
- Jan 17 Civil War skirmish near Newtown, Virginia
- Jan 19 General Mieroslawski appointed dictator of Poland
- Jan 21 City of Dublin leases part of Cattle Market for 100,000 years
- Jan 22 January Uprising begins in Poland, prompted a rebellion against conscription into the Russian army
- Jan 22 The January Uprising, an insurrection in Russia's Kingdom of Poland aimed at restoration of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth begins; carries on for 1-1/2 years, but fails
- Jan 22 Union General Burnside's "Mud March"
- Jan 25 General Joseph Hooker replaces Burnside as head of Army of Potomac
- Jan 26 American Civil War: Massachusetts Governor receives permission from Secretary of War to raise a militia organization for men of African descent (54th Massachusetts Regiment)
- Jan 29 Bear River Massacre: American soldiers slaughter hundreds of Native Americans at the confluence of the Bear River and Beaver Creek in present day Idaho
- Jan 31 1st black Civil War regiment, South Carolina Volunteers, mustered into US army
Famous Birthdays
- Jan 1 Aleko Konstantinov, Bulgarian writer (To Chicago & Back), born in Svishtov, Ottoman Empire (d. 1897)
- Jan 1 Pierre de Coubertin, French educator and historian (founder International Olympic Committee; President IOC 1896–1925), born in Paris, France (d. 1937)
- Jan 2 Lucia Zarate, Mexican entertainer (lightest known adult human - 2.1 kg at 17), born in Veracruz, Mexico (d. 1890)
- Jan 12 Swami Vivekananda, Indian Hindu spiritual leader and a key figure in the introduction of Yoga to the Western world, born in Kolkata, India (d. 1902)
- Jan 14 Pieter Oosterlee, Dutch educator, born in Valkenburg, Netherlands (d. 1930)
- Jan 15 Adolph Goldschmidt, German historian, born in Hamburg, Germany (d. 1944)
- Jan 15 Wilhelm Marx, German politician, Chancellor of Germany (1923-25, 1926-28), born in Cologne, Germany (d. 1946)
David Lloyd George (1863-1945)
Jan 17 British Prime Minister (Liberal: 1916-22), born in Chorlton-on-Medlock, Lancashire, England
- Jan 17 Henry Charles Tonking, British organist and composer, born in Camborne, Cornwall, England (d. 1926)
- Jan 17 Konstantin Stanislavski, Russian director and actor (Stanislavski Method for acting), born in Moscow, Russia (d. 1938)
- Jan 19 Werner Sombart, German historical economist (Modern Capitalism), born in Ermsleben, Prussia (d. 1941)
- Jan 28 Ernst William Christmas, Australian painter (d. 1918)
- Jan 31 Henri Berr, French philosopher (Revue de synthèse), born in Lunéville, France (d. 1954)
Famous Deaths
- Jan 2 Roger Weightman Hanson, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), dies in Battle of Murfreesboro at 35
- Jan 9 Ferdinand Huber, Swiss composer, dies at 71
- Jan 10 Lyman Beecher, US Presbyterian clergyman, temperance movement leader (b. 1775)
- Jan 15 David Rumph Jones, American Major General (Confederate Army), dies at 37
- Jan 17 Horace Vernet, French painter of battles and Orientalist subjects, dies at 73
