2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Johannes Kepler. It was also declared as the International Year of Natural Fibres by the United Nations General Assembly, as well as the International Year of Reconciliation and the Year of the Gorilla (UNEP and UNESCO).
January 1
Japan, Mexico, Turkey and Uganda assume their seats on the United Nations Security Council.
Asunción, the capital of Paraguay, becomes the American Capital of Culture and Vilnius and Linz become the European Capitals of Culture.
Slovakia adopts the euro as its national currency, replacing the Slovak koruna.
A Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer shoots and kills Oscar Grant, an unarmed black man, at Fruitvale station. The event becomes one of the inciting incidents for the global Black Lives Matter movement.
January 3 – The first ("Genesis") block of the blockchain of the cryptocurrency and decentralized payment system Bitcoin is established by the creator of the system, known as Satoshi Nakamoto.
January 15 – US Airways Flight 1549 ditches in the Hudson River in an accident that becomes known as the "Miracle on the Hudson", as all 155 people on board are rescued.
January 18 – Gaza War: Hamas announces they will accept the Israel Defense Forces offer of a ceasefire, ending the conflict.
January 20 – Barack Obama is sworn in as the 44th President of the United States, becoming the first African-American to hold the office.
January 21 – Israel withdraws from the Gaza Strip, officially ending its three-week war with Hamas. However, intermittent air strikes by both sides continue in the following weeks.
January 21 – Zhu Haiyang decapitates Yang Xin at Virginia Tech in the first campus murder since the Virginia Tech shooting.
January 26
The first trial at the International Criminal Court opens. Former Union of Congolese Patriots leader Thomas Lubanga Dyilo is accused of training child soldiers to kill, pillage and rape.
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January 1950 January 1 – The International Police Association (IPA) – the largest police organization in the world – is formed. January 5 – Sverdlovsk plane crash: Aeroflot Lisunov Li-2 crashes in a snowstorm. All 19 aboard are killed, including almost the entire national ice hockey team (VVS Moscow) of the Soviet Air Force – 11 players, as well as a team doctor and a masseur. January 6 – The UK recognizes the People's Republic of China; the Republic of China severs diplomatic relations with Britain in response.
The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the true Internet). January 24 – Twenty-five members of the Red Brigades are sentenced to life imprisonment for the 1978 murder of Italian politician Aldo Moro. January 25 High-ranking Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie is arrested in Bolivia.
1998 was designated as the International Year of the Ocean. January 6 – The Lunar Prospector spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently shadowed craters near the Moon's poles. January 11 – Over 100 people are killed in the Sidi-Hamed massacre in Algeria. January 12 – Nineteen European nations agree to forbid human cloning. January 17 – The Drudge Report breaks the story about U.S.