1840January 3 – One of the predecessor papers of the Herald Sun of Melbourne, Australia, The Port Phillip Herald, is founded. January 10 – Uniform Penny Post is introduced in the United Kingdom. January 13 – The steamship Lexington burns and sinks in icy waters, four miles off the coast of Long Island; 139 die, only four survive. January 19 – Captain Charles Wilkes' United States Exploring Expedition sights what becomes known as Wilkes Land in the southeast quadrant of Antarctica, claiming it for the United States, and providing evidence that Antarctica is a complete continent.
1978January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd government). January 6 – The Holy Crown of Hungary (also known as Stephen of Hungary Crown) is returned to Hungary from the United States, where it was held since World War II. January 10 – Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Cardenal, a critic of the Nicaraguan government, is assassinated; riots erupt against Somoza's government.
1854January 4 – The McDonald Islands are discovered by Captain William McDonald aboard the Samarang. January 6 – The fictional detective Sherlock Holmes is perhaps born. January 9 – The Teutonia Männerchor in Pittsburgh, U.S.A. is founded to promote German culture. January 20 – The North Carolina General Assembly in the United States charters the Atlantic and North Carolina Railroad, to run from Goldsboro through New Bern, to the newly created seaport of Morehead City, near Beaufort.
1933January 1933 January 11 – Sir Charles Kingsford Smith makes the first commercial flight between Australia and New Zealand. January 17 – The United States Congress votes in favour of Philippines independence, against the wishes of U.S. President Herbert Hoover. January 28 – "Pakistan Declaration": Choudhry Rahmat Ali publishes (in Cambridge, UK) a pamphlet entitled Now or Never; Are We to Live or Perish Forever?, in which he calls for the creation of a Muslim state in northwest India that he calls "Pakstan"; this influences the Pakistan Movement.
1841January 20 – Charles Elliot of the United Kingdom, and Qishan of the Qing dynasty, agree to the Convention of Chuenpi. January 26 – Britain occupies Hong Kong. Later in the year, the first census of the island records a population of about 7,500. January 27 – The active volcano Mount Erebus in Antarctica is discovered, and named by James Clark Ross. January 28 – Ross discovers the "Victoria Barrier", later known as the Ross Ice Shelf. On the same voyage, he discovers the Ross Sea, Victoria Land and Mount Terror.
1842January Michael Alexander takes office, as the first appointee to the Anglican-German Bishopric in Jerusalem. American medical student William E. Clarke of Berkshire Medical College becomes the first person to administer an inhaled anesthetic, to facilitate a surgical procedure (dental extraction). January 6–13 – First Anglo-Afghan War – Massacre of Elphinstone's army (Battle of Gandamak): British East India Company troops are destroyed by Afghan forces on the road from Kabul to Jalalabad, Afghanistan, by Akbar Khan, son of Dost Mohammad Khan.
20202020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global social and economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression in the 1930s. Geospatial World also called 2020 "the worst year in terms of climate change" in part due to major climate disasters worldwide, including major bushfires in Australia and the western United States, as well as extreme tropical cyclone activity affecting large parts of North America.
1971The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses (February 25, July 22 and August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 10, and August 6). The world population increased by 2.1% this year, the highest increase in history. January 1971 January 2 – 66 people are killed and over 200 injured during a crush in Glasgow, Scotland. January 5 – The first ever One Day International cricket match is played between Australia and England at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
1973January 1973 January 1 – The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. January 15 – Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, U.S. President Richard Nixon announces the suspension of offensive action in North Vietnam. January 17 – Ferdinand Marcos becomes President for Life of the Philippines. January 20 – Richard Nixon is sworn in for a second term as President of the United States.
1886January 1 – Upper Burma is formally annexed to British Burma, following its conquest in the Third Anglo-Burmese War of November 1885. January 5–9 – Robert Louis Stevenson's novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is published in New York and London. January 16 – A resolution is passed in the German Parliament to condemn the Prussian deportations, the politically motivated mass expulsion of ethnic Poles and Jews from Prussia, initiated by Otto von Bismarck.
