Historical Events
- Jan 2 Battle of Boschberg takes place in South Africa as part of the Mapoch War
- Jan 4 Ontario Rugby Football Union (forerunner of CFL) forms
- Jan 6 Ontario Rugby Football Union forms
- Jan 10 Fire at uninsured Newhall Hotel in Milwaukee, Wisconsin kills 71. General Tom Thumb of P. T. Barnum fame, escapes unhurt
- Jan 13 Fire in Circus Ferroni in Berditschoft, Poland, kills 430
- Jan 13 Henrik Ibsen's play "En Folkefiende" (An Enemy of the People) premieres in Oslo
- Jan 16 Pendleton Act creates basis of US Civil Service system
- Jan 16 Quebec Rugby Football Union forms
Electric Lighting Begins
Jan 19 The first electric lighting system employing overhead wires, built by Thomas Edison, begins service at Roselle, New Jersey
Famous Birthdays
- Jan 1 Federigo Tozzi, Italian writer and journalist (La Torre, Tre Croci), born in Siena, Italy (d. 1920)
- Jan 1 Ichirō Hatoyama, Japanese politician, Prime Minister (1954-56), born in Tokyo, Japan (d. 1959)
- Jan 1 Mary Forbes [Ethel Young], British-American stage and screen character actress (Terror by Night; The Picture of Dorian Gray), born in Hornsey England (d. 1974)
Clement Attlee (1883-1967)
Jan 3 British Prime Minister (L-1945-51), born in Putney, London
- Jan 4 Johanna Westerdijk, botanist and Netherlands 1st female professor (Utrecht, 1917-52), born in Nieuwer-Amste, Netherlands (d. 1917)
- Jan 4 Max Eastman, American critic/essayist and editor of The Masses (d. 1969)
- Jan 6 Khalil Gibran, Lebanese-American poet (The Prophet; Broken Wings; Sand and Foam), painter, and philosopher, born in Bsharri, Mount Lebanon, Ottoman Syria (d. 1931)
- Jan 7 Andrew Browne Cunningham, Irish British admiral (First Sea Lord of the Admiralty 1943-46), born in Dublin, Ireland (d. 1963)
- Jan 8 Josue Teofilo Wilkes, Argentine composer, born in Buenos Aires, Argentina (d. 1968)
- Jan 8 Patrick J. Hurley, United States Secretary of War (d. 1963)
- Jan 8 Pavel Filonov, Russian painter (d. 1941)
- Jan 10 Aleksei Tolstoi, Russian poet (Pjotr Peroyj), born in Pugachyov, Russia (d. 1945)
- Jan 10 Florence Reed, American silent film actress (Dancing Girl), born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (d. 1967)
- Jan 10 Francis X. Bushman, American silent film actor (Sabrina; Ben-Hur), born in Baltimore, Maryland (d. 1966)
- Jan 19 Hermann Abendroth, German conductor (Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, 1934-45), born in Frankfurt, Germany (d. 1956)
- Jan 20 Bertram Home Ramsay, English naval officer (Admiral who oversaw Dunkirk evacuations and Normandy landings), born in London, England (d. 1945)
- Jan 21 Amang Rodriguez, Filipino politician (d. 1964)
- Jan 21 Olav Aukrust, Norwegian poet (advocated literary use of Nynorsk), born in Lom, Norway (d. 1929)
- Jan 24 Estelle Winwood [Goodwin], British-American stage and screen character actress (Quality Street; Darby O'Gill and the Little Peoples; The Producers), and oldest member of the Screen Actors Guild, born in Lee, Kent, England (d. 1984)
- Jan 26 Bindo Maserati, Italian auto engineer and businessman (manager Maserati Racing; founder O.S.C.A. Racing), born in Voghera, Italy (d. 1980)
Famous Deaths
- Jan 4 Antoine Eugène Alfred Chanzy, French general (b. 1823)
- Jan 4 Nicolás Ledesma, Spanish organist and composer, dies at 91
- Jan 5 Charles Tompson, first Australian published poet (b. 1806)
- Jan 10 Samuel Mudd, American physician (imprisoned for conspiring with John Wilkes Booth), dies of pneumonia at 49
- Jan 21 Jacopo Tomadini, Italian composer, dies at 62
- Jan 23 Gustave Doré, French artist, engraver, and illustrator (b. 1832)
- Jan 24 Friedrich von Flotow, German composer, dies at 70
