| 1719 | Philip V of Spain declares war on France. | |
| 1776 | Thomas Paine publishes Common Sense, a scathing attack on King George III’s reign over the colonies and a call for complete independence. | |
| 1792 | The Ottomans sign a treaty with the Russians ending a five year war. | |
| 1793 | Jean Pierre Blanchard makes the first balloon flight in North America. | |
| 1861 | Southern shellfire stops the Union supply ship Star of the West from entering Charleston Harbor on her way to Fort Sumter. | |
| 1861 | Mississippi secedes from the Union. | |
| 1908 | Count Zeppelin announces plans for his airship to carry 100 passengers. | |
| 1909 | A Polar exploration team lead by Ernest Shackleton reaches 88 degrees, 23 minutes south longitude, 162 degrees east latitude. They are 97 nautical miles short of the South Pole, but the weather is too severe to continue. | |
| 1912 | Colonel Theodore Roosevelt announces that he will run for president if asked. | |
| 1915 | Pancho Villa signs a treaty with the United States, halting border conflicts. | |
| 1924 | Ford Motor Co. stock is valued at nearly $1 billion. | |
| 1943 | Soviet planes drop leaflets on the surrounded Germans in Stalingrad requesting their surrender with humane terms. The Germans refuse. | |
| 1945 | U.S. troops land on Luzon, in the Philippines, 107 miles from Manila. | |
| 1947 | French General Leclerc breaks off all talks with Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh. | |
| 1952 | Jackie Robinson becomes the highest paid player in Brooklyn Dodger history. | |
| 1964 | U.S. forces kill six Panamanian students protesting in the canal zone. | |
| 1974 | Cambodian Government troops open a drive to avert insurgent attack on Phnom Penh. | |
| 1992 | The Assembly of the Serb People in Bosnia and Herzegovina proclaims the creation of a new state within Yugoslavia, the Rupublika Srpska. | |
| 1996 | A raid by Chechen separatists in the city of Kizlyar turns into a hostage crisis involving thousands of civilians. | |
| 2005 | Mahmoud Abbas wins election to replace Yasser Arafat as President of the Palestinian National Authority. | |
| 2005 | The Comprehensive Peace Agreement to end the Second Sudanese Civil War is signed by the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement. | |
| 2007 | Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, unveils the first iPhone. | |
| Born on January 9 | ||
| 1554 | Gregory XV, Roman Catholic Pope. | |
| 1890 | Karel Capek, Czech writer and playwright, best remembered for his play R.U.R., which contained the first use of the word “robot.” | |
| 1913 | Richard Nixon, 37th President of the U.S. and first President to resign from office. | |
| 1941 | Joan Baez, American folk singer and activist. | |
| 1944 | Jimmy Page, musician, songwriter, producer; member of The Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin and other bands. | |
| 1963 | Michael Everson, American and Irish linguist; a leading expert in the computer encoding of scripts. | |
| 1967 | Dave Matthews, singer, songwriter, guitarist, actor; leader of Dave Matthews Band and Dave Matthews & Friends. | |
| 1982 | Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge (Catherine Elizabeth “Kate” Middleton); wife of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge. Upon William’s assumption of the British throne, the Duchess would become queen consort. | |