- Jan 1 29th Rose Bowl: #2 Georgia beats #13 UCLA, 9-0
- Jan 1 9th Orange Bowl: #10 Alabama beats #8 Boston College, 37-21
- Jan 1 9th Sugar Bowl: #7 Tennessee beats #4 Tulsa, 14-7
- Jan 1 Chicago Black Hawks field first trio of brothers to play together in an NHL game; Max, Doug and Reggie Bentley appear for the Hawks in a 6-5 win over the New York Rangers at Chicago Stadium
- Jan 1 German officer Claus von Stauffenberg promoted to lt-colonel
Josh Gibson Hospitalized
Jan 1 Negro Baseball League star Josh Gibson suffers a nervous breakdown; admitted to hospital for rest and treatment; released in time for pre-season training
- Jan 2 University of Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball team begins 129 home game winning streak that only ends in 1955; incorporates NCAA titles in 1948, 1949 and 1951
- Jan 3 1st missing persons telecast (NYC)
- Jan 3 Canadian Army troops arrive in North Africa
- Jan 3 Max and Doug Bentley assist on brother Reg's only NHL goal in Chicago Blackhawks' 3-3 tie with the Rangers in NYC; only time in NHL history trio of family members score and assist on a scoring play
"Joseph & His Brothers"
Jan 4 Thomas Mann completes his tetralogy, "Joseph & His Brothers"
Warsaw Ghetto to be Deported
Jan 9 Nazi SS chief Heinrich Himmler views the Warsaw Ghetto - ordered deportation of 8,000 Jews
Hitler Declares "Total War"
Jan 13 Adolf Hitler declares "Total War" against the Allies
Casablanca Conference
Jan 13 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill arrives in Casablanca, French Morocco for a conference of Allied forces in World War II
- Jan 13 Soviet offensive at Don under general Golikov
- Jan 13 US infantry captures Galloping Horse Ridge, Guadalcanal
- Jan 14 Montreal Canadiens' left wing Alex Smart becomes the first NHL rookie to score a hat trick in his first NHL game, a 5-1 win at home over the Chicago Black Hawks
Casablanca Conference
Jan 14 World War II: Casablanca Conference begins between Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and other Allied representatives
- Jan 14 World War II: Franklin D. Roosevelt travels from Miami to Morocco to meet with Winston Churchill, becoming the first American president to travel overseas by airplane
- Jan 14 World War II: Japan begins Operation Ke, withdrawal of its troops from Guadalcanal
- Jan 15 1,000 workers complete air conditioning system for Pentagon
- Jan 15 1st transport of Jews from Amsterdam to concentration camp Vught
- Jan 15 World War II: The Soviets begin a counter-offensive at Voronezh
- Jan 15 World's largest office building, the Pentagon is completed to house the US military
- Jan 16 -60°F (-51°C), Island Park Dam, Idaho (state record)
- Jan 16 1st US air raid on Ambon
- Jan 16 German 2nd SS-Panzer division evacuates Charkow
- Jan 16 Red Army recaptures Pitomnik airport at Stalingrad
- Jan 17 Tin Can Drive Day in the US, salvage collected for the war effort
Siege of Leningrad
Jan 18 Soviets announce they have broken the long siege of Leningrad by Nazi Germany by opening a narrow land corridor, though the siege would not be fully lifted until a year later
- Jan 18 US rations bread & metal - banning presliced bread reduce bakery demand for metal parts
1st Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
Jan 19 1st Warsaw Ghetto Uprising begins
- Jan 19 Joint Chiefs of Staff decide on invasion in Sicily
- Jan 20 Lead, South Dakota, temperature is 52°F, while 1.5 miles away Deadwood records -16°F
- Jan 21 Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham, Royal Navy, promoted to Admiral of the Fleet
- Jan 21 Soviet forces reconquer Gumrak airport near Stalingrad
- Jan 21 Soviet forces reconquer Worosjilowsk
- Jan 22 66.34 cm (26.12") precipitation over 24 hour period in Hoegees Camp, California (state record)
- Jan 22 Allied Joint Chiefs of Staff determine invasion of Sicily for July 10th
- Jan 22 Temperature rises 49°F (9°C) in 2 minutes in Spearfish, South Dakota
- Jan 23 British 8th army marches into Tripoli
- Jan 23 Detroit Red Wings scores NHL record 8 goals in 1 period
Ellington's Carnegie Debut
Jan 23 Duke Ellington plays at Carnegie Hall in New York City for the first time
- Jan 23 Japanese Mount Austen on Guadalcanal captured
- Jan 24 Adolf Hitler orders German troops at Stalingrad to fight to the death
- Jan 24 Jewish patients, nurses and doctors incinerated at Auschwitz-Birkenau
- Jan 27 1st US air attack on Germany (Wilhelmshafen)
- Jan 28 Chic Blackhawks beats NY Rangers 10-1, Max Bentley scores 4 goals
- Jan 29 New Zealand cruiser Kiwi collides with Japanese submarine I-1 at Guadalcanal
- Jan 29 Sidney Kingsley's play "Patriots" premieres in NYC
- Jan 29 U.S. cruiser "Chicago" is heavily damaged by Japanese bombers on the first day of the Battle of Rennell Island
- Jan 30 Members of the Dutch Protestant resistance against the German occupation begin publishing underground newspaper "Trouw" (Loyal) in the Netherlands
- Jan 30 WWII: 6 British Mosquito planes bomb Berlin, Germany in daylight
Paulus Promoted
Jan 30 WWII: Adolf Hitler promotes Friedrich Paulus, commander of the 6th Army, to Field Marshal in the hope that he will not surrender
- Jan 30 WWII: Battle of Rennell Island, in the Solomon Islands - Japanese aerial torpedoes sink USS Chicago, a US Navy cruiser
- Jan 30 WWII: German assault on French in Tunisia
- Jan 30 WWII: German under officers shot down in Haarlem Netherlands
- Jan 31 Chile breaks off relations with Germany & Japan
Paulus Surrenders
Jan 31 German Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus surrenders to Soviet troops at Stalingrad
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