- Jan 1 18th Orange Bowl: #6 Georgia Tech beats #9 Baylor, 17-14
- Jan 1 18th Sugar Bowl: #3 Maryland beats #1 Tennessee, 28-13
- Jan 1 38th Rose Bowl: #4 Illinois beats #7 Stanford, 40-7
Shostakovich's 5th String Quartet
Jan 1 Dmitri Shostakovich completes his 5th string quartet - premieres Leningrad 1953
- Jan 1 Norman McLaren's anti-war film "Neighbours" is released (Academy Award Best Documentary Short Subject) [1]
Pal Joey
Jan 2 Revival of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart's musical "Pal Joey", starring Harold Lang and Vivienne Segal, opens at Broadhurst Theater NYC; runs for 540 performances, and wins 3 Tony Awards
- Jan 3 "Dragnet" with Jack Webb premieres on NBC TV
- Jan 5 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill makes an official visit to the US
West Point Suite
Jan 5 Darius Milhaud's orchestral composition "West Point Suite", marking the US Military Academy's sesquicentennial, premieres at Carnegie Hall, NYC
Marines to Recall Williams
Jan 9 Marines give notice that they will recall Ted Williams to active duty
The Greatest Show on Earth
Jan 10 "The Greatest Show on Earth", directed and produced by Cecil B. DeMille, starring James Stewart and Charlton Heston, premieres in New York (Best Picture 1953)
La valse des toréadors
Jan 10 Jean Anouilh's play "La valse des toréadors" (The Waltz of the Toreadors) premieres at the Comédie des Champs-Elysées in Paris
- Jan 11 Bollingen Prize for poetry awarded to Marianne Moore
- Jan 12 2nd NFL Pro Bowl, Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum: National Conference beats American Conference, 30-13; MVP: Dan Towler, LA Rams, FB
- Jan 12 University of Tennessee admits its 1st black student, Gene Mitchell Gray, as a graduate student in chemistry
- Jan 14 "Today Show" premieres with Dave Garroway & Jack Lescoulie on NBC-TV
- Jan 14 Rationing of coffee in Netherlands ends
- Jan 14 Snowstorm in Sierra Nevada kills 26
- Jan 16 New Dutch bible translation finished
Stan Musial's Salary
Jan 16 US Standard Board clears Stan Musial to get an $85,000 salary
- Jan 17 1952 NFL Draft: Bill Wade QB University of Vanderbilt #1 pick by Los Angeles Rams
- Jan 19 NFL purchases struggling football franchise, New York Yanks from owner Ted Collins; moves club to Dallas, Texas
- Jan 19 PGA approves allowing black participants
- Jan 20 British army occupies Ismailiya, Suez Canal Zone
Mikan's 61 Points
Jan 20 The NBA's first superstar George Mikan scores a career high 61 points leading the Minneapolis Lakers to a 91-81 double-overtime victory over the Rochester Royals
Nehru's Congress Party Wins
Jan 21 Jawaharlal Nehru's Congress party wins general election in India
- Jan 21 William Shawn succeeds Harold Ross as editor of "The New Yorker"
- Jan 24 Fire in main building of French Port Martin Antarctic base
- Jan 24 First NFL team in Texas; Dallas Texans, formerly NY Yanks; loses 11 of 12 games
Benaud Debuts
Jan 25 Test debut of great Australian cricket captain (62 Tests) and broadcaster Richie Benaud, v West Indies at the SCG
- Jan 26 At least 20 people have been killed and 100s injured during riots in Cairo against the British
McGregor Defeats Sedgman
Jan 28 Australian Championships Men's Tennis: Ken McGregor wins his first and only Grand Slam event; upsets fellow Australian Frank Sedgman 7-5, 12-10, 2-6, 6-2
- Jan 28 Australian Championships Women's Tennis: In an all-Australian final Thelma Coyne Long beats Helen Angwin 6-2, 6-3 for 1st of her 2 Australian singles titles
- Jan 30 American mathematician D.H. Lehmer and computer programmer R. M. Robinson verify 2^521-1 and 2^607-1 as Mersenne-prime numbers, using U.S. National Bureau of Standards Western Automatic Computer (SWAC) at the Institute for Numerical Analysis at the University of California, Los Angeles
- Jan 30 Korean War truce talks deadlock
- Jan 30 Paul Creston's 4th Symphony premieres by the National Symphony Orchestra
- Jan 31 Detroit Tigers Harry Heilmann & Pittsburgh Pirates Paul Waner elected to Baseball Hall of Fame
- Jan 31 Dutch Lutheran Church reunites after 1½ centuries
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