1697January 8 – Thomas Aikenhead is hanged outside Edinburgh, becoming the last person in Great Britain to be executed for blasphemy. January 11 – French writer Charles Perrault releases the book Histoires ou contes du temps passé (literally "Tales of Past Times", known in England as "Mother Goose tales") in Paris, a collection of popular fairy tales, including Cinderella, Puss in Boots, Red Riding Hood, The Sleeping Beauty and Bluebeard.
1696January 21 – The Recoinage Act, passed by the Parliament of England to pull counterfeit silver coins out of circulation, becomes law. January 27 – In England, the ship HMS Royal Sovereign (formerly HMS Sovereign of the Seas, 1638) catches fire and burns at Chatham, after 57 years of service. January 31 – In the Netherlands, undertakers revolt after funeral reforms in Amsterdam. January – Colley Cibber's play Love's Last Shift is first performed in London.
1794January 1 – The Stibo Group is founded by Niels Lund as a printing company in Aarhus (Denmark). January 13 – The U.S. Congress enacts a law providing for, effective May 1, 1795, a United States flag of 15 stars and 15 stripes, in recognition of the recent admission of Vermont and Kentucky as the 14th and 15th states. A subsequent act restores the number of stripes to 13, but provides for additional stars upon the admission of each additional state.
1687January 3 – With the end of latest of the Savoyard–Waldensian wars in the Duchy of Savoy between the Savoyard government and Protestant Italians known as the Waldensians, Victor Amadeus III, Duke of Savoy, carries out the release of 3,847 surviving prisoners and their families, who had forcibly been converted to Catholicism, and permits the group to emigrate to Switzerland. January 8 – Richard Talbot, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell, is appointed as the last Lord Deputy of Ireland by the English crown, and begins efforts to include more Roman Catholic Irishmen in the administration.
1813January 18–January 23 – War of 1812: The Battle of Frenchtown is fought in modern-day Monroe, Michigan between the United States and a British and Native American alliance. January 24 – The Philharmonic Society (later the Royal Philharmonic Society) is founded in London. January 28 – Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice is published anonymously in London. January 31 – The Assembly of the Year XIII is inaugurated in Buenos Aires.
1694January 16 – Francesco Morosini, the Doge of Venice since 1688, dies after ruling the Republic for more than five years and a few months after an unsuccessful attempt to capture the island of Negropont from the Ottoman Empire during the Morean War. January 18 – Sir James Montgomery of Scotland, who had been arrested on January 11 for conspiracy to restore King James to the throne, escapes and flees to France. January 21 (January 11 O.S.) – The Kiev Academy, now the national university of Ukraine, receives official recognition by Tsar Ivan V of Russia.
1822January 1 – The Greek Constitution of 1822 is adopted by the First National Assembly at Epidaurus. January 3 – The famous French explorer, Aimé Bonpland, is made prisoner in Paraguay accused of being a spy. January 7 – The first group of freed slaves from the United States arrive on the west coast of Africa, founding Monrovia on April 25. January 9 – The Portuguese prince Pedro I of Brazil decides to stay in Brazil against the orders of the Portuguese King João VI, beginning the Brazilian independence process.
1843January Serial publication of Charles Dickens's novel Martin Chuzzlewit begins in London; in the July chapters, he lands his hero in the United States. Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Tell-Tale Heart" is published in a Boston magazine. The Quaker magazine The Friend is first published in London. January 3 – The Illustrated Treatise on the Maritime Kingdoms (海國圖志, Hǎiguó Túzhì) compiled by Wei Yuan and others, the first significant Chinese work on the West, is published in China.
1833January 3 – Reassertion of British sovereignty over the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic. February 6 – His Royal Highness Prince Otto Friedrich Ludwig of Bavaria assumes the title His Majesty Othon the First, by the Grace of God, King of Greece, Prince of Bavaria. February 16 – The United States Supreme Court hands down its landmark decision of Barron v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore. March 4 – Andrew Jackson is sworn in for his second term as President of the United States.
1708In the Swedish calendar it was a leap year starting on Wednesday, one day ahead of the Julian and ten days behind the Gregorian calendar. January 1 – Charles XII of Sweden invades Russia, by crossing the frozen Vistula River with 40,000 men. January 12 – Shahu I becomes the fifth Chhatrapati of the Maratha Empire in the Indian subcontinent. February 26 – HMS Falmouth, a 50-gun fourth-rate ship of the line built at Woolwich Dockyard for the Royal Navy, is launched.
