1881January 1–24 – Siege of Geok Tepe: Russian troops under General Mikhail Skobelev defeat the Turkomans. January 13 – War of the Pacific – Battle of San Juan and Chorrillos: The Chilean army defeats Peruvian forces. January 15 – War of the Pacific – Battle of Miraflores: The Chileans take Lima, capital of Peru, after defeating its second line of defense in Miraflores.
1959January 1959 January 1 – Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. January 2 – Soviet lunar probe Luna 1 is the first human-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reaches the vicinity of Earth's Moon, where it was intended to crash-land, but instead becomes the first spacecraft to go into heliocentric orbit. January 3 Alaska is admitted as the 49th U.S. state. The southernmost island of the Maldives archipelago, Addu Atoll, declares its independence from the Kingdom of the Maldives, initiating the United Suvadive Republic.
1861Statistically, this year is considered the end of the whale oil industry and (in replacement) the beginning of the petroleum oil industry. January 1 Benito Juárez captures Mexico City. The first steam-powered carousel is recorded, in Bolton, England. January 2 – Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia dies, and is succeeded by Wilhelm I. January 3 – American Civil War: Delaware votes not to secede from the Union. January 9 – American Civil War: Mississippi becomes the second state to secede from the Union.
1863January 1 – Abraham Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation during the third year of the American Civil War, making the abolition of slavery in the Confederate states an official war goal. It proclaims the freedom of 3.1 million of the nation's four million slaves and immediately frees 50,000 of them, with the rest freed as Union armies advance. January 2 – Master Lucius Tar Paint Company (Teerfarbenfabrik Meister Lucius), predecessor of Hoechst, as a worldwide chemical manufacturing brand, founded in a suburb of Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
1867January 1 – The Covington–Cincinnati Suspension Bridge opens between Cincinnati, Ohio, and Covington, Kentucky, in the United States, becoming the longest single-span bridge in the world. It was renamed after its designer, John A. Roebling, in 1983. January 8 – African-American men are granted the right to vote in the District of Columbia. January 11 – Benito Juárez becomes Mexican president again. January 15 – London Skating Disaster where 40 people died when the ice broke.
18481848 is historically famous for the wave of revolutions, a series of widespread struggles for more liberal governments, which broke out from Brazil to Hungary; although most failed in their immediate aims, they significantly altered the political and philosophical landscape and had major ramifications throughout the rest of the century. Ereignisblatt aus den revolutionären Märztagen 18.-19. März 1848 mit einer Barrikadenszene aus der Breiten Strasse, Berlin 01.
19691969 (MCMLXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1969th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 969th year of the 2nd millennium, the 69th year of the 20th century, and the 10th and last year of the 1960s decade. January 1969 January 4 – The Government of Spain hands over Ifni to Morocco. January 5 Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 701 crashes into a house on its approach to London's Gatwick Airport, killing 50 of the 62 people on board and two of the home's occupants.
19571957 (MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1957th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 957th year of the 2nd millennium, the 57th year of the 20th century, and the 8th year of the 1950s decade. January 1 – The Saarland joins West Germany. January 3 – Hamilton Watch Company introduces the first electric watch. January 5 – South African player Russell Endean becomes the first batsman to be dismissed for having handled the ball, in Test cricket.
1956January 1956 January 1 – The Anglo-Egyptian Condominium ends in Sudan. January 8 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. evangelical Christian missionaries, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully, Jim Elliot and Pete Fleming, are killed for trespassing by the Huaorani people of Ecuador, shortly after making contact with them. January 16 – Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser vows to reconquer Palestine. January 25–26 – Finnish troops reoccupy Porkkala, after Soviet troops vacate its military base. Civilians can return February 4.
1859January 21 – José Mariano Salas (1797–1867) becomes Conservative interim President of Mexico. January 24 (O. S.) – Under the rule of Alexandru Ioan Cuza, the provinces of Wallachia and Moldavia are united under the jurisdiction of the Ottoman Empire. It would be a principal step in forming the modern state of Romania. January 28 – The city of Olympia is incorporated in the Washington Territory of the United States of America. February 2 – Miguel Miramón (1832–1867) becomes Conservative interim President of Mexico.