- Jan 1 10th Orange Bowl: LSU beats Texas A&M, 19-14
- Jan 1 10th Sugar Bowl: Georgia Tech beats Tulsa, 20-18
- Jan 1 1st feature-length foreign movie "African Journey", shown on TV, NYC
- Jan 1 30th Rose Bowl: Southern California beats #12 Washington, 29-0
- Jan 1 Army defeats Navy 10-7 in football "Arab Bowl," Oran, North Africa
- Jan 1 General Clark replaces General Patton as commander of US 7th Army
- Jan 2 1st use of helicopters during warfare (British Atlantic patrol)
Flying Ace Shot Down
Jan 3 World War II: Top US flying ace Major Pappy Boyington shot down in his Corsair by Japanese Captain Masajiro Kawato flying a Zero (survives as POW)
- Jan 4 Operation Carpetbagger begins (aerial dropping of supplies and weapons to resistance fighters in Europe)
Bunche 1st African American Official
Jan 4 Ralph Bunche appointed 1st African American official in US State Department
- Jan 5 The Daily Mail becomes the first transoceanic newspaper.
- Jan 7 US Air Force announces production of 1st US jet fighter, the Bell P-59
- Jan 10 1st mobile electric power plant delivered in Philadelphia
- Jan 10 British troops conquer Maungdaw, Burma
- Jan 11 Crakow-Plaszow Concentration Camp established
Churchill and De Gaulle Meet in Marrakesh
Jan 12 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and French General Charles de Gaulle begin a two-day wartime conference in Marrakesh
Eisenhower Allied Commander
Jan 15 General Eisenhower arrives in England to take up his command as Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force [1]
- Jan 15 Vught Concentration Camp puts 74 women in 1 cell, 10 die
- Jan 16 General Eisenhower takes command of Allied Invasion Force in London
- Jan 17 British corvette HMS Violet sinks U-641 in Atlantic Ocean
- Jan 18 1st Chinese naturalized US citizen since repeal of exclusion acts
Met's First Jazz Concert
Jan 18 The Metropolitan Opera House in New York City hosts a jazz concert for the first time - performers include Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Lionel Hampton, Mildred Bailey, Red Norvo, Roy Eldridge, Jack Teagarden, and Benny Goodman, via remote hook-up. [1]
- Jan 20 RAF drops 2,300 ton of bombs on Berlin
- Jan 21 447 German bombers attack London
- Jan 21 649 British bombers attack Magdeburg
- Jan 22 Allied forces begin landing at Anzio on the Italian mainland
- Jan 23 Detroit Red Wings score 15 goals against New York Rangers with an NHL record 37 points; also record consecutive goals & most lopsided game, 15-0
- Jan 24 Allied troops occupy Nettuno Italy
Braves Lose Manager, Gain Owners
Jan 27 Casey Stengel, manager of the Boston Braves since 1938, resigns Lou Perini, Guido Rugo, & Joseph Maney buy control of Boston Braves
Siege of Leningrad
Jan 27 Siege of Leningrad lifted by the Soviets after 880 days and more than 2 million Russians killed
- Jan 28 683 British bombers attack Berlin
"Jeremiah"
Jan 28 Leonard Bernstein's "Jeremiah" premieres in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- Jan 28 U-271 & U-571 sunk off Ireland
- Jan 29 USS Missouri, the last battleship commissioned by the US Navy, is launched
- Jan 29 World War II: 285 German bombers attack London
- Jan 29 World War II: About 38 men, women, and children die in the Koniuchy massacre in Poland
- Jan 29 World War II: The Battle of Cisterna takes place in central Italy
- Jan 30 The Battle of Cisterna begins in central Italy
- Jan 30 World War II: United States troops land on Majuro, Marshall Islands
- Jan 31 U-592 sunk off Ireland
- Jan 31 US forces invade Kwajalein Atoll
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