Historical Events
- Jan 1 29th Rose Bowl: #2 Georgia beats #13 UCLA, 9-0
- Jan 1 9th Orange Bowl: #10 Alabama beats #8 Boston College, 37-21
- Jan 1 9th Sugar Bowl: #7 Tennessee beats #4 Tulsa, 14-7
- Jan 1 Chicago Black Hawks field first trio of brothers to play together in an NHL game; Max, Doug and Reggie Bentley appear for the Hawks in a 6-5 win over the New York Rangers at Chicago Stadium
- Jan 1 German officer Claus von Stauffenberg promoted to lt-colonel
Josh Gibson Hospitalized
Jan 1 Negro Baseball League star Josh Gibson suffers a nervous breakdown; admitted to hospital for rest and treatment; released in time for pre-season training
- Jan 2 University of Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball team begins 129 home game winning streak that only ends in 1955; incorporates NCAA titles in 1948, 1949 and 1951
- Jan 3 1st missing persons telecast (NYC)
- Jan 3 Canadian Army troops arrive in North Africa
- Jan 3 Max and Doug Bentley assist on brother Reg's only NHL goal in Chicago Blackhawks' 3-3 tie with the Rangers in NYC; only time in NHL history trio of family members score and assist on a scoring play
"Joseph & His Brothers"
Jan 4 Thomas Mann completes his tetralogy, "Joseph & His Brothers"
Warsaw Ghetto to be Deported
Jan 9 Nazi SS chief Heinrich Himmler views the Warsaw Ghetto - ordered deportation of 8,000 Jews
Hitler Declares "Total War"
Jan 13 Adolf Hitler declares "Total War" against the Allies
Casablanca Conference
Jan 13 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill arrives in Casablanca, French Morocco for a conference of Allied forces in World War II
- Jan 13 Soviet offensive at Don under general Golikov
- Jan 13 US infantry captures Galloping Horse Ridge, Guadalcanal
- Jan 14 Montreal Canadiens' left wing Alex Smart becomes the first NHL rookie to score a hat trick in his first NHL game, a 5-1 win at home over the Chicago Black Hawks
Casablanca Conference
Jan 14 World War II: Casablanca Conference begins between Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and other Allied representatives
- Jan 14 World War II: Franklin D. Roosevelt travels from Miami to Morocco to meet with Winston Churchill, becoming the first American president to travel overseas by airplane
- Jan 14 World War II: Japan begins Operation Ke, withdrawal of its troops from Guadalcanal
- Jan 15 1,000 workers complete air conditioning system for Pentagon
- Jan 15 1st transport of Jews from Amsterdam to concentration camp Vught
- Jan 15 World War II: The Soviets begin a counter-offensive at Voronezh
- Jan 15 World's largest office building, the Pentagon is completed to house the US military
- Jan 16 -60°F (-51°C), Island Park Dam, Idaho (state record)
- Jan 16 1st US air raid on Ambon
- Jan 16 German 2nd SS-Panzer division evacuates Charkow
- Jan 16 Red Army recaptures Pitomnik airport at Stalingrad
- Jan 17 Tin Can Drive Day in the US, salvage collected for the war effort
Siege of Leningrad
Jan 18 Soviets announce they have broken the long siege of Leningrad by Nazi Germany by opening a narrow land corridor, though the siege would not be fully lifted until a year later
- Jan 18 US rations bread & metal - banning presliced bread reduce bakery demand for metal parts
1st Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
Jan 19 1st Warsaw Ghetto Uprising begins
- Jan 19 Joint Chiefs of Staff decide on invasion in Sicily
- Jan 20 Lead, South Dakota, temperature is 52°F, while 1.5 miles away Deadwood records -16°F
- Jan 21 Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham, Royal Navy, promoted to Admiral of the Fleet
- Jan 21 Soviet forces reconquer Gumrak airport near Stalingrad
- Jan 21 Soviet forces reconquer Worosjilowsk
- Jan 22 66.34 cm (26.12") precipitation over 24 hour period in Hoegees Camp, California (state record)
- Jan 22 Allied Joint Chiefs of Staff determine invasion of Sicily for July 10th
- Jan 22 Temperature rises 49°F (9°C) in 2 minutes in Spearfish, South Dakota
- Jan 23 British 8th army marches into Tripoli
- Jan 23 Detroit Red Wings scores NHL record 8 goals in 1 period
Ellington's Carnegie Debut
Jan 23 Duke Ellington plays at Carnegie Hall in New York City for the first time
- Jan 23 Japanese Mount Austen on Guadalcanal captured
- Jan 24 Adolf Hitler orders German troops at Stalingrad to fight to the death
- Jan 24 Jewish patients, nurses and doctors incinerated at Auschwitz-Birkenau
- Jan 27 1st US air attack on Germany (Wilhelmshafen)
- Jan 28 Chic Blackhawks beats NY Rangers 10-1, Max Bentley scores 4 goals
- Jan 29 New Zealand cruiser Kiwi collides with Japanese submarine I-1 at Guadalcanal
- Jan 29 Sidney Kingsley's play "Patriots" premieres in NYC
- Jan 29 U.S. cruiser "Chicago" is heavily damaged by Japanese bombers on the first day of the Battle of Rennell Island
- Jan 30 Illegal opposition newspaper Loyal begins publishing
- Jan 30 WWII: 6 British Mosquito planes bomb Berlin, Germany in daylight
Paulus Promoted
Jan 30 WWII: Adolf Hitler promotes Friedrich Paulus, commander of the 6th Army, to Field Marshal in the hope that he will not surrender
- Jan 30 WWII: Battle of Rennell Island, in the Solomon Islands - Japanese aerial torpedoes sink USS Chicago, a US Navy cruiser
- Jan 30 WWII: German assault on French in Tunisia
- Jan 30 WWII: German under officers shot down in Haarlem Netherlands
- Jan 31 Chile breaks off relations with Germany & Japan
Paulus Surrenders
Jan 31 German Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus surrenders to Soviet troops at Stalingrad
Famous Birthdays
- Jan 1 Jerilyn Britz, American golfer (US Women's Open 1979), born in Minneapolis, Minnesota
- Jan 1 Jimmy Hart, American pro wrestling manager (WWF, WCW; Hulk Hogan, Bret Hart, Ted DiBiase and Jim Neidhart), born in Jackson, Mississippi
- Jan 1 Raghunath Anant Mashelkar, Indian scientist
- Jan 1 Tony Knowles, American politician and 7th Governor of Alaska (1994-2002), born in Tulsa, Oklahoma
- Jan 2 Barış Manço, Turkish rock guitarist, singer-songwriter (Kurtalan Ekspres - "Arkadaşım Eşek (My Friend the Donkey"), and television producer (From 7 to 77), born in Üsküdar, Istanbul, Turkey (d. 1999)
- Jan 3 HK Gruber, Austrian double bassist, conductor, and composer (Frankenstein!!), born in Vienna, Austria
- Jan 3 Petras Bingelis, Lithuania conductor, founder and artistic director (Kaunas State Choir, 1969-2020), born in Mardasava, Lithuania (d. 2020)
- Jan 3 Van Dyke Parks, American songwriter, producer, arranger (Song Cycle; Orange Crate Art), born in Hattiesburg, Mississippi
Doris Kearns Goodwin (81 years old)
Jan 4 American historian and writer (Team of Rivals, No Ordinary Time), born in Brooklyn, New York
- Jan 4 Tom Wilkinson, American CFL football quarterback, 1967-81 (5 x Grey Cup; 3 x All-Star - Edmonton Eskimos, and 2 other teams), born in Ottumwa, Iowa
- Jan 6 Barry Altschul, American hard bop and free jazz drummer (Paul Bley, Chick Corea, Anthony Braxton), born in New York City
- Jan 6 Osvaldo Soriano, Argentine journalist and writer, born in Mar del Plata, Argentina (d. 1997)
- Jan 6 Terry Venables, British soccer midfielder (2 caps; Chelsea, Tottenham, QPR, Crystal Palace) and manager (Crystal Palace, QPR, Barcelona, Tottenham, England, Australia, Leeds United), born in Dagenham, England (d. 2023)
- Jan 7 Jim Lefebvre, American baseball manager (Seattle Mariners), born in Hawthorne, California
- Jan 7 Leona Williams, American country music singer (Ladies Get the Blues), born in Vienna, Missouri
- Jan 7 Richard Armstrong, British conductor, born in Leicester, England
- Jan 7 Sadako Sasaki, Japanese child hibakusha (victim of the Hiroshima atomic bomb), born in Hiroshima, Japan (d. 1955)
- Jan 8 Lee Jackson, English bass guitarist and singer-songwriter (Nice), born in Newcastle upon Tyne, England
- Jan 8 Marcus Hutson, American R&B singer (The Whispers - "And the Beat Goes On"; "Rock Steady"), born in St. Louis, Missouri (d. 2000)
- Jan 9 Ariel Bybee, American mezzo-soprano (Morman Tabernacle Choir; Metropolitan Opera, 1977-95), born in Reno, Nevada (d. 2018)
- Jan 9 Dick Yount, American rock bassist and singer (Harpers Bizarre - "Feelin' Groovy"), born in the USA (d. 2019)
- Jan 9 Elmer MacFadyen, Canadian politician, born in Charlottetown, Canada (d. 2007)
- Jan 9 Freddie Starr, English comedian and singer (The Freddie Starr Showcase), born in Huyton, United Kingdom (d. 2019)
- Jan 9 Kenneth "Wally" Kelly, American R&B singer (Manhattans - "Kiss And Say Goodbye"), born in New Jersey (d. 2015)
- Jan 9 Rob Hoeke, Dutch pianist and singer (Drinking on My Bed), born in Haarlem, Netherlands (d. 1999)
- Jan 9 Robert Drewe, Australian author, born in Melbourne, Australia
- Jan 9 Scott Walker [Noel Scott Engel], American-born British singer-songwriter and composer (The Walker Brothers), born in Hamilton, Ohio (d. 2019)
Jim Croce (1943-1973)
Jan 10 American singer-songwriter ("Time in a Bottle"; "Bad, Bad LeRoy Brown"), born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Jan 11 Henry Cecil, Aberdeen, Scotland, English horse racing trainer
- Jan 11 William Albert Penn, American composer (Living in the Next Great Ice Age; Garland Songs), educator, and record producer, born in Long Branch, New Jersey (d. 2021)
- Jan 13 Richard Moll, American actor (Night Court - "Bull"; House - "Big Ben"; Dungeonmaster), born in Pasadena, California (d. 2023)
- Jan 13 William Duckworth, American composer (Time Curve Preludes), teacher (Bucknell, 1973-2011), and internet pioneer (PitchWeb), born in Morganton, North Carolina (d. 2012)
- Jan 14 Holland Taylor, American actress (Bossom Buddies, Camilla-Naked Truth), born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Jan 14 Jose Luis Rodriguez, Venezuelan singer (Dueño de Nada), born in Caracas, Venezuela
- Jan 14 Mariss Jansons, Latvian conductor (Bavarian RSO: 2003-19; Royal Concertgebouw 2004-15), born in Riga, Latvia (d. 2019)
- Jan 14 Ronald Hunter, American actor (Lazarus Syndrome), born in Boston, Massachusetts
- Jan 14 Shannon Lucid, Chinese astronaut (STS 51G, 34, 43, 58, 76/79), born in Shanghai, China
- Jan 15 Mike Marshall, American baseball pitcher (MLB All-Star 1974, 75; NL Cy Young Award 1974; Montreal Expos, LA Dodgers, Atlanta Braves), born in Adrian, Michigan (d. 2021)
- Jan 16 Brian Ferneyhough, British composer, born in Coventry, England
- Jan 16 Gavin Bryars, English composer, born in Goole, England
- Jan 16 Ronnie Milsap [Millsaps], American country singer ("It Was Almost Like a Song"; "Any Day Now"), born in Robbinsville, North Carolina
- Jan 17 (Ezekiel Christopher) "Chris" Montez, American rock guitarist and singer ("Let's Dance"; "Call Me"), born in Los Angeles, California
- Jan 17 Daniel Charles Brandenstein, American astronaut (STS 8, 51-G, 32, 49), born in Watertown, Wisconsin
- Jan 17 Geoffrey Deuel, American actor, born in Lockport, New York
René Préval (1943-2017)
Jan 17 President of Haiti (1996-2001, 2006-2011), born in Port-au-Prince
- Jan 18 Al Foster, American jazz drummer (Miles Davis, 1973-89; Sonny Rollins, McCoy Tyner), born in Richmond, Virginia
- Jan 18 Kay Granger, American politician, born in Greenville, Texas
Janis Joplin (1943-1970)
Jan 19 American rock and blues singer-songwriter ("Piece of My Heart"; "Me and Bobby McGee"; "Mercedes Benz"), born in Port Arthur, Texas
- Jan 19 Margriet Francisca, Dutch Princess
- Jan 19 Petchara Chaowarat, Thai film actress
- Jan 20 Farhad [Mehrad], Iranian pop, rock and folk singer-songwriter ("Jomeh"), born in Tehran, Iran (d. 2002)
- Jan 20 Louis Cardiet, French soccer defender (6 caps; Paris SG), born in Quimperlé, France (d. 2020)
- Jan 22 Jim Saxton, American politician (Rep-R-NJ, 1984-2009), born in Nicholson, Pennsylvania
- Jan 22 Marília Pêra, Brazilian actress (Better Days Ahead, Pixote), born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (d. 2015)
- Jan 23 Bill Gibb, Scottish fashion designer, born in New Pitsligo, Scotland (d. 1988)
- Jan 23 Gary Burton, American jazz vibraphonist, composer, and educator, born in Anderson, Indiana
- Jan 23 Gil Gerard, American actor (Buck Rogers in 25th Century), born in Little Rock, Arkansas
- Jan 24 Julie Bennett, American actress (Hey There It's Yogi Bear), born in Beverly Hills, California
Sharon Tate (1943-1969)
Jan 24 American actress (Valley of the Dolls), born in Dallas, Texas
- Jan 24 Subhash Ghai, Indian film director, born in Nagpur, India
- Jan 25 Leny Andrade, Brazilian samba, bossa nova and jazz singer, born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (d. 2023)
- Jan 25 Tobe Hooper, American film director, born in Austin, Texas (d. 2017)
- Jan 26 César Gutiérrez, Venezuelan baseball shortstop (hit 7-for-7 in single game without making an out 1970, Detroit Tigers), born in Coro, Venezuela (d. 2005)
- Jan 26 Hans Rebele, German soccer striker (2 caps; 1860 Munich, FC Wacker Innsbruck), born in Munich, Germany (d. 2023)
- Jan 26 Jean Knight [Caliste], American soul, funk, and R&B singer ("Mr. Big Stuff"), and nurse, born in New Orleans, Louisiana (d. 2023) [1]
- Jan 26 Kathryn Leigh Scott, American TV actress (Dark Shadows), born in Robbinsdale, Minnesota
- Jan 26 Peter Kenton Winkler, American pianist, symphonic and theatrical composer, born in Los Angeles, California
- Jan 26 Sherian Grace Cadoria, US army brigadier general (first African-American to attain the rank), born in Marksville, Louisiana
- Jan 26 Thom Bell, American session musician, arranger and Grammy Award-winning "Philadelphia soul" producer (Delfonics; Stylistics; The Spinners), born in Kingston, Jamaican (d. 2022)
- Jan 27 A H Harper, CEO (Baltic Exchange)
- Jan 28 Brian Keenan, American rock drummer (The Chamber Brothers), born in New York City (d. 1985)
- Jan 28 Dick Taylor, English rock guitarist (The Pretty Things - "S.F. Sorrow"; The Mekons), born in Dartford, England
- Jan 28 John Beck, American actor (Dallas, Flamingo Road, Santa Barbara), born in Chicago, Illinois
- Jan 28 Paul Henderson, Canadian ice hockey left wing (Summit Series vs Soviet Union 1972; Detroit RWs, Toronto Maple Leafs; IIHF HOF), born in Kincardine, Ontario
- Jan 28 Susan Howard, American actress (Donna-Dallas, Petrocelli), born in Marshall, Texas
- Jan 29 Charles Fitzgerald-Lombard, Irish-born Abbot of Downside Abbey, born in Dublin, Ireland
- Jan 29 Tim Souster, British composer, born in Bletchley, England (d. 1994)
- Jan 29 Tony Blackburn, English radio DJ (Radio Caroline, BBC - 1st to broadcast), born in Guildford, England
- Jan 30 Davey Johnson, American baseball second baseman (4 × MLB All-Star; World Series 1966, 70 Baltimore Orioles) and manager (World Series 1986 NY Mets), born in Orlando, Florida
- Jan 30 Marta Minujín, Argentine artist (Parthenon of Banned Books), born in Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Jan 30 Sandy Deane [Yaguda], American rock singer (Jay and the Americans - "This Magic Moment"), born in Brooklyn, New York
Famous Deaths
- Jan 1 Andrew Summers Rowan, American military officer who gave "a message to Garcia", dies at 5
- Jan 3 Bid McPhee, American Baseball HOF second baseman (AA HR leader 1886 Cincinnati Reds; last 2nd baseman to play without a glove), dies at 83
- Jan 3 Sir Walter James, Premier of Western Australia, dies at 79 (b. 1863)
- Jan 4 Marina Raskova, Russian navigator, dies in airplane crash at 30
George Washington Carver (1864-1943)
Jan 5 African-American agricultural scientist (studied the peanut), dies at 81
- Jan 7 George Washington Crile, American surgeon (conducted the first direct blood transfusion and studied the effects of surgical shock), dies at 78
Nikola Tesla (1856-1943)
Jan 7 Serbian-American physicist, electrical engineer and inventor who developed alternating current and the Tesla Coil, dies at 86
- Jan 8 Albert Goldthorpe, English rugby league five eighth (RL pioneer; Hunslet 713 games), dies at 71
- Jan 8 Richard Hillary, Australian Spitfire pilot and author (The Last Enemy), dies in a crash during a night training at 23
- Jan 9 Robin G. Collingwood, English philosopher. historian ("The Principles of Art"; "The Idea of History") and archaeologist (Roman Britain), dies at 53
- Jan 11 Agustín Pedro Justo, President of Argentina (1932-38) during the Infamous Decade, dies at 66
- Jan 11 Carlo Tresca, NY's Italian newspaper editor/anti-fascist, murdered
- Jan 12 Frank Alvord Perret, American volcanologist renowned for his research at Vesuvius, Etna, Stromboli and Kilauea dies at 75
- Jan 12 Jan Campert, Dutch resistance fighter and poet (18 Dead), dies at 40
- Jan 13 Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Swiss artist and dancer, dies of accidental carbon monoxide poisoning at 53
- Jan 14 Adolf Sandberger, German composer and musicologist, dies at 78
- Jan 16 Franz Courtens, Belgian landscape painter (Sunny Lane), dies at 88
- Jan 20 Giacomo Benvenuti, Italian composer, dies at 57
- Jan 21 Otakar Sini, composer, dies at 61
- Jan 23 Alexander Woollcott, American drama critic (The New Yorker), dies of a heart attack on radio, at 56
- Jan 24 John Burns, British minister of Local Government (1905-14), dies
- Jan 25 Spencer Charters, American actor (3 Faces West, Big Town Girl, St Louis Kid), dies at 67
- Jan 26 Harry H. Laughlin, American educator and eugenicist, dies at 62
- Jan 26 Nikolai Vavilov, Soviet botanist and geneticist (identified the centers of origin of cultivated plants), dies at 55
- Jan 30 Attila Petschauer, Hungarian fencer (Olympic gold 1928, 32), dies at 38
