- Jan 1 Jakob Wassermann, German writer and novelist (My Life as German and Jew), dies of a heart attack at 60
- Jan 6 Herbert Chapman, Legendary Manager of Arsenal and Huddersfield Town (b. 1878)
- Jan 8 Alexandre Stavisky, French swindler, dies
- Jan 8 Andrei Bely [Boris Nikolaevich Bugaev], Russian writer (Petersburg), dies at 53
Marinus van der Lubbe (1909-1934)
Jan 10 Dutch communist, beheaded by the Nazis for setting fire to the German Reichstag at 24
- Jan 12 Pawel Kochanski, Polish violinist, composer, arranger, and pedagogue (Juilliard School, 1924-34), dies of cancer at 46
- Jan 12 Surya Sen "Master Da", Indian activist for independence (Chittagong armoury raid), hanged at 39
- Jan 13 Jean-Baptiste Marchand, French soldier and explorer (Sudan), dies at 70
- Jan 13 Paul Ulrich Villard, French chemist and physicist who discovered gamma rays, dies at 73
- Jan 15 Hermann Bahr, Austrian writer (Concert), dies at 70
- Jan 15 Patrick O'Malley, US policeman, killed by John Dillinger
- Jan 16 Annie Patterson, Irish organist, composer, and musicologist, dies at 65
- Jan 19 Armand Parent, Belgian composer, dies at 70
- Jan 29 Fritz Haber, German physicist and chemist (1918 Nobel Prize for Chemistry 1918 for process to synthesize ammonia), dies at 65
- Jan 30 Frank Nelson Doubleday, American publisher (founder of Doubleday & Co), dies at 72
Assassination
Car Crash
Hanging
Killed in Action
Plane Crash
Poisoning