January
- January 1 – Alfredo Binda, Italian cyclist (b. 1902)
- January 2 – Una Merkel, American actress (b. 1903)
- January 4
- Christopher Isherwood, English writer (b. 1904)
- Phil Lynott, lead singer and bassist of Thin Lizzy (b. 1949)
- January 7 – Juan Rulfo, Mexican writer (b. 1917)
- January 8 – Pierre Fournier, French cellist (b. 1906)
- January 10 – Jaroslav Seifert, Czech writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1901)
- January 14 – Donna Reed, American actress (b. 1921)
- January 23 – Willard Van Dyke, American filmmaker and photographer (b. 1906)
- January 24
- L. Ron Hubbard, American writer and founder of Scientology (b. 1911)
- Gordon MacRae, American actor, singer (b. 1921)
- January 27 – Lilli Palmer, German actress (b. 1914)
- January 28, in the Challenger disaster:
- Gregory Jarvis, American astronaut (b. 1944)
- Christa McAuliffe, American astronaut and teacher (b. 1948)
- Ronald McNair, American astronaut (b. 1950)
- Ellison Onizuka, American astronaut (b. 1946)
- Judith Resnik, American astronaut (b. 1949)
- Dick Scobee, American astronaut (b. 1939)
- Michael J. Smith, American astronaut (b. 1945)
- January 29 – Leif Erickson, American actor (b. 1911)
Famous quotes containing the word january:
“I have never been disappointed when I asked in a humble and sincere way for God’s help. I pray often. I think I pray more often since January 12th.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)
“and you undid the reins
and I undid the buttons,
the bones, the confusions,
The New England postcards,
the January ten o’clock night,
and we rose up like wheat....”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)