- Jan 1 13th Orange Bowl: #10 Rice beats #7 Tennessee, 8-0
- Jan 1 13th Sugar Bowl: #3 Georgia beats #9 North Carolina, 20-10
- Jan 1 33rd Rose Bowl: #5 Illinois beats #4 UCLA, 45-14
- Jan 1 Benelux agrees to work related issues
- Jan 1 Britain nationalizes its coal industry
- Jan 1 WTTG TV channel 5 in Washington, D.C. (MET) begins broadcasting
Gandhi's March for Peace
Jan 2 Mahatma Gandhi begins march for peace in East Bengal
Technetium Element Announced
Jan 4 Emilio G. Segrè and Carlo Perrier announce technetium, a previously unknown element and the first artificially synthesized chemical element
- Jan 4 Revival of Victor Herbert's operetta "The Red Mill" closes at 46th Street Theater, NYC, after 531 performances
- Jan 6 Pan American Airlines offers a round-the-world-ticket, the first commercial airline to do so
- Jan 6 Ray Lindwall smashes 100 v England in MCG Test
- Jan 7 Australia v England at MCG drawn in 6 days, 1st cricket draw in Australia since 1882
- Jan 8 General George Marshall becomes US Secretary of State
- Jan 8 Toronto Maple Leaf rookie Howie Meeker scores 5 goals in a game
- Jan 9 "Street Scene" opens at Adelphi Theater NYC for 148 performances
Black Dahlia Last Alive
Jan 9 Elizabeth "Betty" Short, the Black Dahlia, is last seen alive.
- Jan 9 Providence Steamrollers guard Dino Martin becomes the first NBA player to ever score 40 points in a game, in a 91-68 win over Cleveland Rebels at Rhode Island Auditorium
Sessions' 2nd Symphony
Jan 9 Roger Sessions' 2nd Symphony premieres in San Francisco with Pierre Monteux conducting the San Francisco Symphony,
- Jan 10 British stop ships Independence & In-Gathering from landing in Israel
- Jan 10 Burton Lane and Yip Harburg's musical "Finian's Rainbow" opens at 46th St Theater, NYC; runs for 725 performances, winning 3 Tony Awards
- Jan 10 Greek steamer "Himara" strikes a wartime mine in Saronic Gulf south of Athens with loss of 392 of 637 aboard
- Jan 15 The brutalized corpse of Elizabeth Short ("The Black Dahlia") found in Leimert Park, Los Angeles, California
- Jan 16 Vincent Aurial elected President of France
- Jan 17 Ammunition factory explodes in Muiden, Netherlands, 16 die
Greenberg to the Pirates
Jan 18 Detroit Tigers sell Hank Greenberg to Pirates (for $25-35,000)
- Jan 18 Small river steamer sinks on Yangtze River, kills 400
- Jan 19 SS Himera runs aground at Athens, kills 392
- Jan 20 Brigadier General Edwin K Wright, USA, becomes deputy director of CIA
- Jan 20 Nova Scotia Supreme Court rules against case of black woman Viola Desmond - ejected from a cinema seat in New Glasgow reserved for whites and arrested in landmark case (pardoned 2010) [1]
- Jan 21 "Sweethearts" opens at Shubert Theater NYC for 288 performances
Honegger's 4th Symphony
Jan 21 Arthur Honegger's 4th Symphony premieres in Basel, Switzerland
- Jan 22 1st commercial TV station west of Mississippi, KTLA (channel 5) in Los Angeles, California begins broadcasting
- Jan 24 NFL adds 5th official, the back judge and allows sudden death in playoffs
- Jan 26 KLM Dakota crashes near Copenhagen, 22 die
- Jan 28 "Bay Psalm" book auctioned for a record $151,000
"All My Sons"
Jan 29 Arthur Miller's play "All My Sons" premieres in NYC
Pails Defeats Bromwich
Jan 29 Australian Championships Men's Tennis: Dinny Pails beats fellow Australian John Bromwich 4-6, 6-4, 3-6, 7-5, 8-6 for his only Grand Slam title
- Jan 29 Australian Championships Women's Tennis: Nancye Wynne Bolton wins 3rd consecutive Australian singles crown; beats Nell Hall Hopman 6-3, 6-2
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