- Jan 1 Vincent Auriol, French politician (President of France 1947-53), dies at 82
- Jan 3 Rex Lease, American actor (Fast Bullets, Sunny Skies, Custer's Last Stand), dies at 62
- Jan 4 Marcel Tabuteau, French-American oboist (Philadelphia Orchestra, 1915-54), dies at 78
- Jan 5 George Duckworth, English cricket wicket-keeper (24 Tests, 60 dismissals), dies at 64
Albert Stevens (1887-1996)
Jan 9 an American patient in secret medical trials who survived the highest known radiation dose in a human, dies of heart disease at 79
- Jan 9 Haro Levoni Step'anian, Armenian composer, dies at 68
- Jan 10 Fen Cresswell, New Zealand cricket slow bower (3 Tests, 13 wickets; Wellington, Central Districts), dies from suicide at 50
- Jan 10 Hermann Kasack, German writer (Die Stadt hinter dem Strom), dies at 69
- Jan 11 Alberto Giacometti, Swiss-French painter and sculptor, dies at 64
- Jan 11 Hannes Kolehmainen, Finnish long-distance runner (Olympic gold 1912), dies at 76
- Jan 11 Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indian politician and Prime Minister of India (1964-66), dies under suspicious circumstances at 61
- Jan 14 Bill Carr, American athlete (Olympic gold 400m, 4 x 400m 1932), dies at 56
Sergei Korolev (1907-1966)
Jan 14 Soviet Russian rocket engineer and spacecraft designer (Sputnik; Voskhod), dies during surgery at 59
- Jan 16 Margarete Susman, German-Jewish writer, dies at 91
- Jan 17 Vincent J. Donehue, American stage and screen director (Lonelyhearts), dies of Hodgkin's at 50
- Jan 18 Kathleen Norris, American novelist and newspaper columnist, dies at 85
- Jan 19 Frank Foyston, Canadian Hockey Hall of Fame center (Stanley Cup 1914 Toronto Blueshirts, 1917 Seattle Metropolitans, 1925 Victoria Cougars), dies at 74
- Jan 22 Herbert Marshall, English actor (Trouble in Paradise; The Little Foxes), dies at 75
- Jan 24 Homi J. Bhabha, Indian nuclear physicist, dies at 56
- Jan 29 Josef Winckler, German dentist and writer (Tolle Bomberg), dies at 84
- Jan 29 Pierre Mercure, Canadian composer, dies in an accident at 38
- Jan 31 Elizabeth Patterson, American stage, silent and sound screen character actress (The Boy Friend; Intruder in the Dust; I Love Lucy - "Mrs. Trumbull"), dies of pneumonia at 91
Assassination
Car Crash
Hanging
Killed in Action
Plane Crash
Poisoning