- Jan 9 Clipper "Guiding Star" disappears in Atlantic, 480 dead
- Jan 23 1st bridge over the Mississippi River in what is now Minneapolis, Minnesota, opens; today made by the Father Louis Hennepin Bridge
- Jan 28 The first locomotive runs from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean on the Panama Railway
- Jan 31 Government of Lord Aberdeen in the United Kingdom falls, following heavy scrutiny of the Crimean War
- Jan 31 Treaty of Neah Bay: Makah Reservation established in US Territory of Washington for Makah nation, preserving tribal rights but ceding over 300,000 acres to the US government [1]
- Jan 31 Western railroads blocked by snow
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