Historical Events
- Jan 1 Eritrea is consolidated into a colony by the Italian government.
- Jan 1 The Rose Parade, then known as the Tournament of Roses, is first held in Pasadena, California
- Jan 2 Alice Sanger becomes 1st female White House staffer
- Jan 2 Record 19.2 feet alligator shot in Louisiana by American businessman Edward Avery McIlhenny
- Jan 3 1st US college-level dairy school opens at University of Wisconsin
- Jan 7 African American inventor William Purvis receives a patent for the fountain pen
- Jan 10 Edward Macdowell's "Lancelot & Elaine" premieres
Bly Beats Verne's Fogg
Jan 25 Journalist Nellie Bly beats the fictitious journey of Jules Verne's Phileas Fogg around the world by 8 days (72 days)
National Afro-American League
Jan 25 National Afro-American League founded in Chicago by Timothy Thomas Fortune, one of earliest civil rights organizations in America
- Jan 25 United Mine Workers of America forms
Famous Birthdays
- Jan 1 Alice Tissot, French actress (Italian Straw Hat), born in Paris, France (d. 1971)
- Jan 1 Anton Melik, Slovenian geographer (d. 1966)
- Jan 1 Florence Lawrence, Canadian silent screen actress (Confidence), born in Hamilton, Ontario (d. 1938)
- Jan 4 Mosa Pijade, Yugoslavian communist politician who worked with Tito, born in Belgrade, Serbia (d. 1957)
- Jan 5 Cora Witherspoon, American actress (Quality Street The Bank Dick), born in New Orleans, Louisiana (d. 1957)
- Jan 7 Henny Porten, German silent screen star (Deception), born in Magdeburg, Germany (d. 1960)
Maurice McLoughlin (1890-1957)
Jan 7 American tennis player (US Nat C'ship 1912-13), born in Carson City, Nevada
- Jan 8 Sandor Rado, Hungarian-American psychoanalyst, born in Kisvárda, Hungary (d. 1972)
- Jan 9 Karel Čapek, Czech writer, playwright and critic (R.U.R.); coined the word "robot", born in Malé Svatoňovice, Hungary (d. 1938)
- Jan 9 Kurt Tucholsky, German journalist and writer (Panther Tiger & Co), born in Berlin, Germany (d. 1935)
- Jan 10 Arthur O'Hara Wood, Australian tennis player (Australasian C'ship 1913), born in Melbourne, Australia (d. 1918)
- Jan 10 Douglas MacLean, American silent film comedian/producer (Going Up), born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (d. 1967)
- Jan 10 Ernest Milton, American actor (Cat Girl, Fiddler's Three), born in San Francisco, California (d. 1974)
- Jan 10 Grigory Landsberg, Soviet physicist, born in Vologda, Russia (d. 1957)
- Jan 11 Max Carey, American Baseball Hall of Fame outfielder (World Series 1925; 10 × NL stolen base leader; Pittsburgh Pirates, Brooklyn Robins) and manager (Brooklyn Dodgers), born in Terre Haute, Indiana (d. 1976)
- Jan 11 Oswald de Andrade, Brazilian author (one of the modernist Group of Five), born in São Paulo, Brazil (d. 1954)
- Jan 12 Mordecai Wyatt Johnson, American pastor and educator, born in Paris, Tennessee (d. 1976)
- Jan 13 Jüri Uluots, Estonian Prime Minister (d. 1945)
- Jan 16 Karl Freund, German cinematographer and film director (Dracula; I Love Lucy; The Mummy), born in Dvůr Králové (Königinhof), Bohemia, Austria-Hungarian Empire (d. 1969)
- Jan 16 Lloyd Bacon, American actor (Charlie Chaplin films), born in San Jose, California (d. 1955)
- Jan 22 Fred M. Vinson, American Democratic politician, US Treasury Secretary (1945-46) and the 13th Chief Justice of US Supreme Court (1946-53), born in Louisa, Kentucky (d. 1953)
- Jan 22 Vinko Zganec, Croatian ethnomusicologist, born in Vratišinec, Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia (d. 1976)
- Jan 26 Charles Scribner III, American book publisher, born in New York City (d. 1952)
- Jan 28 Robert Stroud, American murderer, convict, and ornithologist dubbed "Birdman of Alcatraz", born in Seattle Washington (d. 1963)
- Jan 29 Marguerite Canal, French conductor and composer (1st woman in France to conduct an orchestra), born in Toulouse, France (d. 1978)
- Jan 31 Adolf Bach, German language professor and sociologist (Deutsche Namenkunde) (d. 1972)
Famous Weddings
J. J. Thomson
Jan 2 Physicist J. J. Thomson (33) weds Rose Elisabeth Paget
Famous Deaths
- Jan 7 Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, wife of German Emperor William I, dies at 78
- Jan 7 Hans Matthison-Hansen, Danish composer and organist, dies at 82
- Jan 14 Francesco D'Arcais, Italian composer, dies at 59
- Jan 15 Lucia Zarate, Mexican entertainer (lightest known adult human - 2.1 kg at 17), dies at 26
- Jan 17 Salomon Sulzer, composer, dies at 85
- Jan 18 Amadeus/Amadeo I, duke of Aosta and King of Spain (1870-73), dies at 44
- Jan 20 Franz Paul Lachner, German composer, dies at 86
- Jan 28 Prudence Crandall, American educator and founder of School for "young ladies of colour", dies at 86
- Jan 30 Karl Merz, German-American composer (Brainard's Musical World), dies at 53
