Historical Events
Empress of India
Jan 1 Queen Victoria proclaimed Empress of India
Battle of Wolf Mountain
Jan 8 Crazy Horse and his Sioux warriors fight their last battle with the United States Cavalry at Wolf Mountain (Montana Territory).
Electoral Commission
Jan 25 Congress establishes the Electoral Commission to determine the disputed presidential election between Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel J. Tilden
- Jan 30 Storm flood ravages Dutch coastal provinces
Famous Birthdays
- Jan 2 Slava Raskaj, Croatian painter (d. 1906)
- Jan 3 Josephine Hull (née Sherwood), American stage and screen Academy Award-winning actress (Harvey; Arsenic and Old Lace), and stage director, born in Newtonville, Massachusetts (d. 1957)
- Jan 4 Gibson Gowland, British film actor (Greed, Blind Husbands, The Phantom of the Opera), born in Spennymoor, Durham, England (d. 1951)
- Jan 7 Johan Buziau, Dutch cabaret performer, and clown (1 great dog), born in The Hague, Netherlands (d. 1958)
- Jan 10 Frederick Gardner Cottrell, American inventor (electrostatic precipitator), born in Oakland, California (d. 1948)
- Jan 12 Frank J. Corr, American lawyer and politician (acting Mayor of Chicago for 6 weeks in 1933), born in Brooklyn, New York (d. 1934)
- Jan 15 Lewis Terman, American psychologist (developed Stanford-Binet IQ test), born in Johnson County, Indiana (d. 1956)
- Jan 17 Hans Jelmoli, Swiss pianist and composer, born in Zurich, Switzerland (d. 1936)
- Jan 17 May Gibbs, Australian children's author (d. 1969)
- Jan 18 Samuel Zemurray 'Sam the Banana Man', American businessman (United Fruit Company, born in Kishinev, Bessarabia (d. 1961)
- Jan 19 Fráňa Šrámek, Czech poet, novelist, playwright, and anarchist, born in Sobotka, Cisleithania, Austria-Hungary (now Czech Republic) (d. 1952)
- Jan 20 Ruth St. Denis, American ballerina (Dances of the 5 Senses), born in Newark, New Jersey (d. 1968)
- Jan 22 Hjalmar Schacht, German economist and banker (President of German Reichsbank, co-founded German Democratic Party), born in Tingleff, Prussia, German Empire (d. 1970)
- Jan 26 Kees van Dongen, Dutch-French painter (Fauves style), born in Rotterdam Netherlands (d. 1968)
- Jan 29 Georges Catroux, French general (d. 1969)
- Jan 31 Max Ettlinger, German philosopher, born in Frankfurt, Germany (d. 1929)
Famous Deaths
Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794-1877)
Jan 4 American shipping and railroad magnate (New York Central Railroad), dies at 82
