Historical Events
- Jan 1 Michigan is 1st state to abolish capital punishment
"Wuthering Heights"
Jan 4 Manuscripts of Emily Brontë's "Wuthering Heights" and Anne Brontë's "Agnes Grey" sent to publisher T.C. Newby (published December 1847)
Colt Revolver
Jan 4 Samuel Colt sells his first revolver pistol to the United States government
- Jan 9 1st San Francisco newspaper published (California Star)
- Jan 15 1st Swedish magazine in US, Skandinavia, published in NYC
- Jan 16 John C. Frémont is appointed Governor of the new California Territory
- Jan 19 Mexican and indigenous Pueblo warriors kill territorial governor Charles Bent (47), and 5 others in a revolt against new American rulers in Taos, New Mexico Territory
- Jan 24 1,500 New Mexican Indians & Mexicans defeated by US Colonel Price
- Jan 30 Yerba Buena renamed San Francisco
Famous Birthdays
- Jan 4 Hendrik Goeman Borgesius, Dutch politician (d. 1917)
- Jan 20 William R. Pettiford, African American minister and banker, founder of the Alabama Penny Savings Bank, born in Granville county, North Carolina (d. 1914)
- Jan 28 George Wright, American Baseball HOF shortstop (NA pennant 1872-75 Boston Red Stockings; NL pennant 1877-78 Boston Red Caps, 1879 Providence Grays), born in Yonkers, New York (d. 1937)
Famous Deaths
- Jan 6 Tyagaraja [Kakarla Thyagabrahmam], Mulukanadu Brahmin classical Carnatic music vocalist and composer (Pancharatna Kritis), dies at 79
- Jan 11 Caroline von Wolzogen [von Lengefeld], German author, dies at 83
- Jan 19 Charles Bent, American fur trader and Governor of New Mexico Territory for 100 days (1846-47), killed at 47
- Jan 22 Georges-Julien Sieber, French music publisher and composer, dies at 71
- Jan 30 Virginia Clemm Poe, American wife of writer Edgar Allan Poe, dies of tuberculosis at 24 [1]
