- Jan 6 Patent for reducing zinc ore granted to Samuel Wetherill, Penn
- Jan 8 Dion Boucicauly's "Poor of NY" premieres in NYC
- Jan 9 7.9 earthquake shakes Fort Tejon, California
- Jan 15 1st first-class game in Sydney, NSW v Vic at The Domain
- Jan 22 National Association of Baseball Players founded in New York
- Jan 24 University of Calcutta founded as the first full-fledged university in South Asia
- Jan 26 Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville delivers his design for a phonautograph, which created visual images of sound, to the French Academy
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