- Jan 1 17th Rose Bowl: Alabama beats Washington State, 24-0
- Jan 3 Montreal Maroons centre Nels Stewart scores fastest 2 goals in NHL history with a pair 4 seconds apart in a 5-3 win over Boston Bruins at Montreal Arena
- Jan 5 First woman to purchase a baseball team, Lucille Thomas buys Topeka Senators franchise in the Western League
Edison's Last Patent
Jan 6 Thomas Edison submits his last patent application for an electroplating component - just two days before his death
- Jan 7 Guy Menzies flies the first solo non-stop trans-Tasman flight (from Australia to New Zealand) in 11 hours and 45 minutes, crash-landing on New Zealand's west coast.
Bradman's One Day Test Record
Jan 16 Australian cricket batting prodigy Don Bradman scores 223 v West Indies in 3rd Test in Brisbane; most runs scored by a player in a Test match in Australia in one day
- Jan 22 French government of Steeg falls
- Jan 22 Jazz trumpeter Clyde McCoy records "Sugar Blues" for Columbia Records; sells over 14 million copies internationally
- Jan 22 Sir Isaac Isaacs is sworn in as the first Australian-born Governor-General of Australia
- Jan 22 VARA begins experimental TV broadcast in Diamantbeurs Amsterdam
Cimarron
Jan 26 "Cimarron" directed by Wesley Ruggles and starring Richard Dix and Irene Dunne premieres in New York. 1st western to win Best Outstanding Production/Picture (1931)
- Jan 26 Hungary-Austria sign peace treaty
- Jan 26 Lynn Riggs' "Green Grow the Lilacs" premieres in NYC
"City Lights"
Jan 30 "City Lights", American silent romantic comedy film directed by Charlie Chaplin, starring himself and Virginia Cherrill, premieres at Los Angeles Theater
- Jan 31 Philip Barry's play "Tomorrow & Tomorrow" premieres in NYC
Authors
Dictators
Explorers
Outlaws
Queens
Spies