Historical Events
- Jan 1 Ellis Island opens as a US immigration inspection station - it would go on to be the gateway to the US for more than 12 million people
- Jan 5 1st successful auroral photograph made
- Jan 7 Mine explosion kills 100 in Krebs, Oklahoma; blacks trying to help rescue white survivors, driven away with guns
- Jan 11 Hawaiian Historical Society is founded
- Jan 11 William D. McCoy of Indiana appointed US minister to Liberia
Basketball Rules Published
Jan 15 Basketball rules first published in Triangle Magazine, written by James Naismith
Famous Birthdays
- Jan 1 Artur Rodzinski, Polish conductor (Cleveland Orchestra, 1933-43; New York Philharmonic, 1943-47; Chicago Symphony, 1947-48), born in Split, Kingdom of Dalmatia (d. 1958)
Manuel Roxas (1892-1948)
Jan 1 5th President of the Philippines (1946-48), born in Capiz, Philippines
- Jan 1 Miklós Radnai, Hungarian composer (Symphony of the Magyars), music writer, and critic, born in Budapest, Hungary (d. 1935)
- Jan 2 Lura Anson, American silent film actress, born in Nebraska (d. 1968)
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892-1973)
Jan 3 British author (The Hobbit; The Lord of the Rings), born in Bloemfontein, South Africa
- Jan 3 Kathryn Minner (née White), American character actress (Little Old Lady from Pasadena), born in New York City (d. 1969)
- Jan 5 Anne Morrison Chapin, American playwright, actress, (The Wild Westcotts), and screenwriter (The Sailor Takes A Wife), born in Shoals, Indiana (d. 1967)
- Jan 5 Francesca Bertini, Italian actress (Odette, Assunta Spina), born in Florence, Tuscany, Italy (d. 1985)
- Jan 6 Ludwig Berger, German film director and cinematographer (The Thief of Bagdad), born in Mainz (d. 1969)
- Jan 7 Rudolf Moser, Swiss composer, born in Niederuzwyl, Switzerland (d. 1960)
- Jan 8 Werner Wehrli, Swiss composer, pedagogue, and conductor, born in Aarau, Switzerland (d. 1944)
- Jan 9 Eva Bowring, American politician (d. 1985)
- Jan 10 Dumas Malone, American historian (Jefferson & His Time), born in Coldwater, Mississippi (d. 1986)
- Jan 12 Mikhail Gurevich, Russian aircraft designer (d. 1976)
- Jan 13 Paul Smart, American yachtsman (Olympic gold star class 1948), born in Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia (d. 1979)
- Jan 14 Hal Roach, American producer and director (1 Million BC), born in Elmira, New York (d. 1992)
- Jan 14 Martin Niemöller, German theologian who supported, then opposed the Nazi regime, famous for his widely quoted poem "First they came ...", born in Lippstadt, Germany (d. 1984)
- Jan 15 Frank Hutchens, New Zealand-born composer working in Australia, born in Leeston, New Zealand (d. 1965)
- Jan 15 Rex Ingram [Reginald Hitchcock], Irish director (4 Horsemen of Apocalypse), born in Dublin, Ireland (d. 1950)
Oliver Hardy (1892-1957)
Jan 18 American comic actor (Laurel & Hardy), born in Harlem, Georgia
Bessie Coleman (1892-1926)
Jan 26 American aviator and 1st African-American woman and Native American to hold a pilot license, born in Atlanta, Texas [1]
- Jan 26 Zara Cully, American actress (The Jeffersons -"Mother Jefferson"), born in Worcester, Massachusetts (d. 1978)
- Jan 27 Mitya Stillman, Russian-American violist and composer, born in Ukraine, Russian Empire (d. 1936)
- Jan 29 Clifford Gray, American bobsledder (Olympic gold 5-man 1928, 4-man 1932), born in Chicago, Illinois (d. 1969)
- Jan 29 Ernst Lubitsch, German actor, producer and film director (To Be or Not to Be, Love Parade), born in Berlin, Germany (d. 1947)
- Jan 30 Charles Trowbridge Haubiel, American composer, pianist and lecturer (Tre Ritratti Characteristici), born in Delta, Ohio (d. 1978)
- Jan 30 Grigore Gafencu, Romanian Minister of Foreign affairs (1938-39), born in Bucharest, Romania (d. 1957)
- Jan 31 Eddie Cantor, American comedian (Eddie Cantor Comedy Theater), born in New York City (d. 1964)
Famous Weddings
Paul Gauguin
Jan 11 Painter Paul Gauguin marries Teha'amana, a 13-year-old Tahitian girl
Famous Deaths
- Jan 1 Roswell B. Mason, Mayor of Chicago, dies at 86
- Jan 2 Frederick William Barber, South African frontiersman and scientist, dies at 78
- Jan 2 George Biddell Airy, English mathematician and 7th Astronomer Royal, dies at 90
- Jan 7 Ernst Wilhelm von Brücke, German physician and physiologist, dies at 72
- Jan 7 Muḥammad Tawfīq Pasha, Khedive of Egypt (1879-92), dies at 39
- Jan 8 Johannes Heykamp, Dutch Old-Catholic archbishop of Utrecht (The Decalaryion of Utrecht), dies at 67
- Jan 10 Heinrich Dorn, German composer and opera conductor, dies at 91
- Jan 13 Charles Albert White, American composer, dies at 62
- Jan 14 Henry Edward Manning, English Roman Catholic Cardinal (Archbishop of Westminster 1865-92), dies at 83
- Jan 14 Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence, British prince (b. 1864)
- Jan 16 Imakita Kosen, Zen teacher/abbot of Engagkuji monastery, dies
- Jan 17 Alexandre Levy, Brazilian composer and pianist, dies at 27
- Jan 18 Anton Anderledy, Swiss Superior General of the Society of Jesus (b. 1819)
- Jan 21 John Couch Adams, English astronomer (co-discover Neptune), dies at 72
- Jan 22 Joseph Philo Bradley, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (b. 1813)
- Jan 31 Charles Spurgeon, English preacher and evangelist, dies at 57
