Historical Events
- Jan 14 Gideon Hawley becomes 1st state school superintendent in US (NY)
- Jan 21 First reference to pineapple cultivation in Hawaii in diary entry by Francisco de Paula Marin
- Jan 21 Spaniard Don Francisco de Paula y Marin plants coffee in Hawaii - 1st record of coffee growing in Hawaii
- Jan 22 Americans capture Frenchtown, Michigan Territory
"Pride and Prejudice"
Jan 28 Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" is published by Thomas Egerton in the United Kingdom
Famous Birthdays
- Jan 4 Alexander Freiherr von Bach, Austrian attorney and politician (Premier of Austria 1852-59), born in Loosdorf, Austria (d. 1893)
Isaac Pitman (1813-1897)
Jan 4 English teacher and inventor of Pitman shorthand (Stenographic Soundhand), born in Trowbridge, England
- Jan 4 Louis Lucien Bonaparte, English-French philogist and nephew of Napoleon, born in Grimley, England (d. 1891)
- Jan 5 Thomas Neville Waul, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), born in Sumter County, South Carolina (d. 1903)
- Jan 7 Ann Rutledge, said to be Abraham Lincoln's true love, born in Henderson, Kentucky (d. 1835)
Agostino Depretis (1813-1887)
Jan 13 Italian statesman, Prime Minister of Italy (1876-78, 1778-79, 1881-87), born in Bressana Bottarone, Kingdom of Italy
- Jan 15 James Marion Sims, American physician and surgical pioneer (vesicovaginal operation), born in Lancaster County, South Carolina (d. 1883)
- Jan 18 Joseph Glidden, American inventor of 1st commercial usable barbed wire, born in Charlestown, New Hampshire (d. 1906)
- Jan 19 Henry Bessemer, English inventor (Bessemer converter - revolutionised steel making), born in Charlton, England (d. 1898)
- Jan 20 Jacon Gartner Lauman, American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Taneytown, Maryland (d. 1867)
- Jan 23 Franz Commer, German composer and musicologist, born in Cologne, Département de la Roer, First French Empire (d. 1887)
- Jan 26 Juan Pablo Duarte, Dominican founding father (d. 1876)
- Jan 31 Samuel Sarphati, Amsterdam, physician, pharmacist and social activist in Amsterdam, born in Amsterdam (d. 1866)
Famous Deaths
- Jan 3 Bennelong, Australian aboriginal interlocutor between his tribe and the British settlers (b. c. 1764)
- Jan 6 Louis Baraguey d'Hilliers, French general, dies at 48
- Jan 20 Christoph Martin Wieland, German poet and writer (Oberon), dies at 79
- Jan 23 George Clymer, American merchant and Founding Father (signed US Declaration of Independence and US Constitution), dies at 73
- Jan 28 Ján Josef Rösler, Czech composer, dies at 41
