- Jan 1 27th Rose Bowl: #2 Stanford beats #7 Nebraska, 21-13
- Jan 1 7th Orange Bowl: #9 Mississippi State beats #13 Georgetown, 14-7
- Jan 1 7th Sugar Bowl: #4 Boston College beats #6 Tennessee, 19-13
- Jan 1 Netherlands begins taxing wages
Zhukov Russian Chief of General Staff
Jan 1 Russian general Georgy Zhukov appointed chief of general staff
- Jan 2 World War II: German bombing severely damages the Llandaff Cathedral in Cardiff, Wales
- Jan 2 World War II: The U.S. government announces its Liberty ship program to build freighters in support of the war effort.
- Jan 3 American National Collegiate Football Rules Committee announces a new rule permitting free substitution of players
- Jan 3 Canada & US acquire air bases in Newfoundland (99 yr lease)
- Jan 3 Italian counter offensive in Albania
Symphonic Dances
Jan 3 Sergei Rachmaninoff's final composition "Symphonic Dances" premieres in Philadelphia, with Eugene Ormandy conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra
Roosevelt's Four Freedoms Speech
Jan 6 US President Franklin Roosevelt makes his "Four Freedoms" speech (freedom of speech and worship; freedom from want and fear) during his US State of Union address [1] [2]
New Fourth Army Incident
Jan 7 New Fourth Army Incident: Chinese Kuomintang forces under orders from Chiang Kai-Shek fire on surrounded Communist New Fourth Army at Maolin, Anhui Province, killing or capturing 7,000 troops
- Jan 9 6,000 Jews murdered in a pogrom in Bucharest, Romania
- Jan 9 Maiden flight by Canada's British-built Avro Lancaster military plane
- Jan 10 Joseph Kesselring's "Arsenic & Old Lace" premieres in NYC
- Jan 10 Seyss-Inquart begins registration of Jews
- Jan 10 World War II: The Greek army captures Kleisoura.
- Jan 11 Princess Irene Brigade established in Congleton
Attack on Pearl Harbor
Jan 16 US vice admiral Bellinger warns of an assault on Pearl Harbor
- Jan 16 War Department forms first Army Air Corps squadron for black cadets
- Jan 17 Chiang Kai-Shek disbands the Communist New Fourth Army after the New Fourth Army incident at Maolin, Anhui Province between the nationalist and communist armies leaves many dead
- Jan 18 World War II: A counter-offensive is launched by the British against the Italians in East Africa
- Jan 19 British offensive in Eritrea
- Jan 19 British troops occupies Kassalaf, Sudan
Bartók's 6th String Quartet,
Jan 20 Béla Bartók's 6th string quartet, premieres in NYC
- Jan 20 Chinese Communist leaders reorganize the New Fourth Army in defiance of Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek's order for it to be disbanded
- Jan 21 1st anti-Jewish measures in Bulgaria
- Jan 21 1st commercial extraction of magnesium from seawater, Freeport, Texas
- Jan 21 Australian and British troops attack Tobruk, Libya
- Jan 21 British communist newspaper "Daily Worker" banned
- Jan 22 1st mass killing of Jews in Romania
- Jan 22 British and Australian troops capture Tobruk from Italians
- Jan 23 Groundbreaking for NACA (now NASA) Lewis Research Center
- Jan 23 WOR-AM in Newark NJ moves to NYC
- Jan 24 British troops march into Abyssinia
- Jan 27 Peruvian ambassador Ricardo Rivera-Schreiber warns American Ambassador of Japanese assault on Pearl Harbor
- Jan 28 French-Thai War: Final air battle of the conflict. Japanese-mediated armistice goes into effect later in the day.
- Jan 29 Alexandros Koryzis becomes Prime Minister of Greece
- Jan 30 Australian troops conquer Derna, Libya
- Jan 31 Anti-German demonstration in Haarlem, Netherlands
- Jan 31 British army Layforce commando units set sail
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