# 31 January 1929 – The Soviet Union exiles Leon Trotsky.
# 30 January 1989 – Closure of the American embassy in Kabul, Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.
- # 29 January 1989 – Hungary establishes diplomatic relations with South Korea, making it the first Eastern Bloc nation to do so.
# 28 January 1813 – Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice is first published in the United Kingdom.
# 28 January 1932 – Japanese forces attack Shanghai.
# 27 January 2011 – Arab Spring: The Yemeni Revolution begins as over 16,000 protestors demonstrate in Sana'a.
# 26 January 1956 – Soviet Union cedes Porkkala back to Finland.
# 26 January 1841 – James Bremer takes formal possession of Hong Kong Island at what is now Possession Point, establishing British Hong Kong.
# 25 Janvier 1981 : condamnation à mort de Jiang Qing, la veuve de Mao Zedong.
# 24 January 1848 – California Gold Rush: James W. Marshall finds gold at Sutter's Mill near Sacramento.
# 23 January 1998 – Netscape announced Mozilla, with the intention to release Communicator code as open source.
# 22 January 1905 – Bloody Sunday in Saint Petersburg, beginning of the 1905 revolution.
# 21 January 1911 – The first Monte Carlo Rally takes place.
# 20 January 1841 – Hong Kong Island is occupied by the British.
# 19 Janvier 1966 : Indira Gandhi devient Première ministre de l'Inde.
# 18 January 1915 – Japan issues the "Twenty-One Demands" to the Republic of China in a bid to increase its power in East Asia.
# 17 January 1998 – Lewinsky scandal: Matt Drudge breaks the story of the Bill Clinton–Monica Lewinsky affair on his Drudge Report website.
# 16 Janvier 1945 : en France : nationalisation de Renault.
# 15 January 2001 – Wikipedia, a free wiki content encyclopedia, goes online.
# 14 January 1814 – Treaty of Kiel: Frederick VI of Denmark cedes Norway to Sweden in return for Pomerania.
# 13 Janvier 1898 : publication de l'article J'accuse…! par Émile Zola dans le quotidien L'Aurore, lors de l'affaire Dreyfus.
# 12 Janurary 1050 - Acheson line declaration.
# 11 Janiver 1962 : Inauguration du paquebot France.
# 11 January 1922 – First use of insulin to treat diabetes in a human patient.
# 11 Janvier 2010 Éric Rohmer, réalisateur français (° 21 mars 1920) est mort.
# 10 January 1863 – The Metropolitan Railway, the world's oldest underground railway, opens between Paddington and Farringdon, marking the beginning of the London Underground.
# 09 January 1431 – Judges' investigations for the trial of Joan of Arc begin in Rouen.
# 09 January 1839 – The French Academy of Sciences announces the Daguerreotype photography process.
# 08 January 1992 - The first demonstration was held, for the visit of then Prime Minister of Japan Kiichi Miyazawa.
# 07 January 1959 – The United States recognizes the new Cuban government of Fidel Castro.
# 06 January 1838 – Alfred Vail demonstrates a telegraph system using dots and dashes (this is the forerunner of Morse code).
# 05 January 1920 : Tristan Tzara arrive à Paris.
# 04 January 1947 - The first edition of Der Spiegel was published in Hanover on Saturday.
# 04 January 1951 – Korean War: Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul.
# 03 January 1868 – Meiji Restoration in Japan: The Tokugawa shogunate is abolished; agents of Satsuma and Chōshū seize power.
# 03 January 1977 – Apple Computer is incorporated.
# 02 January 1959 – Luna 1, the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon and to orbit the Sun, is launched by the Soviet Union.
# 01 January 1860 – First Polish stamp is issued.