- Jan 1 1st running of San Francisco's famed "Bay to Breakers" footrace (7.63 miles/12.3 km); first winner Robert Vlught 44:10
Republic Of China
Jan 1 Sun Yat-sen forms the Republic of China
- Jan 2 Brookyln Superbas Baseball Club President Charles Ebbets announces purchase of 4.5 acres of land to build a new concrete-and-steel stadium to seat 23,000; Ebbets Field opens in 1913
Australasia Win
Jan 2 International Lawn Tennis Challenge, Christchurch, NZ: Norman Brookes & Alfred Dunlop beat Americans Maurice McLoughlin & Beals Wright 6-4, 5-7, 7-5, 6-4; Australasia unassailable 3-0 lead; win 4-0
Liberty Bell
Jan 3 Southern Pacific Railroad offers to bring the Liberty Bell to the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco for free
Continental Drift Theory Presented
Jan 6 Geophysicist and meteorologist Alfred Wegener presents his controversial theory of continental drift in a lecture at the Geological Association (Geologischen Vereinigung) at the Senckenberg-Museum, Frankfurt
- Jan 6 New Mexico becomes 47th state of the Union
- Jan 8 Chiefs, representatives of people's and church organizations, and other prominent individuals form the African National Congress and declare its aim to bring all Africans together as one people to defend their rights and freedoms
- Jan 9 US Marines send troops to Honduras
- Jan 10 Caillaux government in France resigns
- Jan 10 World's 1st flying boat's maiden flight, (Glenn Curtiss in NY)
- Jan 11 Bread & Roses Strike begins in Lawrence, Massachusetts following a pay cut
- Jan 12 -47°F (-44°C), Washta, Iowa (state record)
- Jan 13 -40°F (-40°C), Oakland, Maryland (state record)
Raymond Poincaré PM
Jan 14 Raymond Poincaré becomes Prime Minister of France for the first time
Scott Reaches the Pole
Jan 17 Captain Robert Scott's expedition arrives at the South Pole, one month after Roald Amundsen
Authors
Dictators
Explorers
Outlaws
Queens
Spies