- Jan 1 Joe Gans lands a devastating right to the head of Canadian challenger Kid Herman to retain his world lightweight boxing title with an 8th round knockout in Tonopah, Nevada
Roosevelt's Record Handshakes
Jan 1 US President Theodore Roosevelt shakes a record 8,513 hands in 1 day
"Don Juan in Hell"
Jan 4 George Bernard Shaw's play "Don Juan in Hell" premieres in London
First Montessori School
Jan 6 Maria Montessori opens her 1st Montessori school, in Rome
"The Truth"
Jan 7 Clyde Fitch's play "The Truth" premieres in NYC
- Jan 12 Britain grants responsible government to former colony of Transvaal
- Jan 14 An earthquake in Kingston, Jamaica, kills more than 1,000
- Jan 15 3-element vacuum tube patented by American inventor Lee De Forest
- Jan 15 Gold dental inlays first described by William Taggart, who invented them
- Jan 21 Stanley Cup Hockey, Montreal Arena, Westmount, Quebec: Kenora Thistles (ON) beat Montreal Wanderers, 8-6 for 12-8 aggregate challenge series victory
- Jan 25 Julia Ward Howe is first woman elected to National Institute of Arts & Letters (USA)
- Jan 26 1st US federal corrupt election practices law passed
- Jan 26 In Austria, universal and direct suffrage (limited to males over 24) is introduced, a reform long demanded by the socialists and others
- Jan 26 John Millington Synge's "Playboy of Western World" opens in Dublin; play claimed as immoral and causes riots
- Jan 26 The Short Magazine Lee-Enfield Mk III rifle officially introduced into British Military Service, 2nd oldest military rifle still in official use
First Native American Senator
Jan 29 Republican Charles Curtis of Kansas becomes the 1st Native American US Senator
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