- Jan 1 Andrew Summers Rowan, American military officer who gave "a message to Garcia", dies at 5
- Jan 3 Bid McPhee, American Baseball HOF second baseman (AA HR leader 1886 Cincinnati Reds; last 2nd baseman to play without a glove), dies at 83
- Jan 3 Sir Walter James, Premier of Western Australia, dies at 79 (b. 1863)
- Jan 4 Marina Raskova, Russian navigator, dies in airplane crash at 30
George Washington Carver (1864-1943)
Jan 5 African-American agricultural scientist (studied the peanut), dies at 81
- Jan 7 George Washington Crile, American surgeon (conducted the first direct blood transfusion and studied the effects of surgical shock), dies at 78
Nikola Tesla (1856-1943)
Jan 7 Serbian-American physicist, electrical engineer and inventor who developed alternating current and the Tesla Coil, dies at 86
- Jan 8 Albert Goldthorpe, English rugby league five eighth (RL pioneer; Hunslet 713 games), dies at 71
- Jan 8 Richard Hillary, Australian Spitfire pilot and author (The Last Enemy), dies in a crash during a night training at 23
- Jan 9 Robin G. Collingwood, English philosopher. historian ("The Principles of Art"; "The Idea of History") and archaeologist (Roman Britain), dies at 53
- Jan 11 Agustín Pedro Justo, President of Argentina (1932-38) during the Infamous Decade, dies at 66
- Jan 11 Carlo Tresca, NY's Italian newspaper editor/anti-fascist, murdered
- Jan 12 Frank Alvord Perret, American volcanologist renowned for his research at Vesuvius, Etna, Stromboli and Kilauea dies at 75
- Jan 12 Jan Campert, Dutch resistance fighter and poet (18 Dead), dies at 40
- Jan 13 Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Swiss artist and dancer, dies of accidental carbon monoxide poisoning at 53
- Jan 14 Adolf Sandberger, German composer and musicologist, dies at 78
- Jan 16 Franz Courtens, Belgian landscape painter (Sunny Lane), dies at 88
- Jan 20 Giacomo Benvenuti, Italian composer, dies at 57
- Jan 21 Otakar Sini, composer, dies at 61
- Jan 23 Alexander Woollcott, American drama critic (The New Yorker), dies of a heart attack on radio, at 56
- Jan 24 John Burns, British minister of Local Government (1905-14), dies
- Jan 25 Spencer Charters, American actor (3 Faces West, Big Town Girl, St Louis Kid), dies at 67
- Jan 26 Harry H. Laughlin, American educator and eugenicist, dies at 62
- Jan 26 Nikolai Vavilov, Soviet botanist and geneticist (identified the centers of origin of cultivated plants), dies at 55
- Jan 30 Attila Petschauer, Hungarian fencer (Olympic gold 1928, 32), dies at 38
Assassination
Car Crash
Hanging
Killed in Action
Plane Crash
Poisoning