January in the USA: Weather, Holidays & Events

January is cold to freezing in much of the USA. Expect very cold temperatures in New England, the Midwest, the Great Plains, and the Mid-Atlantic states.

Meanwhile, temperatures in the Southwest and Southeast are milder. For a warm, sunny holiday in January, head to Hawaii, Arizona, or Florida.

January Average Temperatures in the USA

Below are the average January temperatures in some of the most popular U.S. destinations.

January Major Holidays, Events and Observances

• January 1 – New Year’s Day (Federal Holiday)
• Third Monday of January – Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (Federal Holiday)

January Calendar: U.S. Anniversaries and Events

January 1

• New Year’s Day (Federal Holiday)
• Last day of Kwanzaa
• Birth of Paul Revere (1735)
• Birth of Betsy Ross (1752)
• General George Washington raises the first U.S. flag, known as the Grand Union Flag, at Prospect Hill in Somerville, Massachusetts. (1776)
• Birth of photographer Alfred Stieglitz (1864)
• Ellis Island, New York, begins accepting and processing immigrants into the United States. (1892)
• Birth of J. Edgar Hoover, first director of the FBI (1895)
• The first Rose Bowl is held in Pasadena, California (1902). The match-up between the University of Michigan and Stanford University was the first college football bowl game. The Rose Bowl is also famous for the Rose Bowl Parade, which precedes the football game. Collectively, it’s known as the Tournament of Roses.
• Birth of baseball player Hank Greenberg (1911)
• Birth of boxer Rocky Graziano (1919)
• Birth of J.D. Salinger (1919)
•  Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay becomes a United States federal prison (1934), and would remain a prison island until 1963. The island was recognized as a National Historic Landmark in 1986.
• Death of country music legend Hank Williams (1953)

January 2

• Georgia becomes the fourth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution (1788)
• Birth of Isaac Asimov (1920)

January 4

• Death of Cornelius Vanderbilt (1877)
• Birth of Doris Kearns Goodwin (1943), historian and author of biographies on Lincoln, the Roosevelts, and others
• Birth of REM frontman Michael Stipe (1960)
• Death of T.S. Eliot (1965)
• Death of Italian-American actor Iron Eyes Cody (1999)—né Espera de Corti—best known as the face of the infamous “Keep America Beautiful” ads of the 1970s

January 5

• Birth of explorer Zebulon Pike (1779), whose name is linked with Pike’s Peak in central Colorado
• Birth of Alvin Ailey (1931), founder of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
• Construction begins on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco (1933)
• Death of Calvin Coolidge (1933)
• Death of George Washington Carver (1943)
• Birth of Diane Keaton (1946)
• Birth of Bradley Cooper (1975)

January 6

• Birth of Carl Sandburg (1878)
• Washington National Cathedral is chartered by Congress (1893)
• New Mexico becomes the 47th U.S. state (1912)
• Death of Theodore Roosevelt (1919)
• Death of Dizzy Gillespie (1993)

January 7

• Birth of Millard Fillmore (1800), 13th U.S. President
• Birth of Albert Bierstadt (1830), painter of the American West
• Birth of Zora Neale Hurston (1891)
• Death of Nikola Tesla (1943), Serbian-American engineer and inventor
• Birth of Jann Wenner (1946), co-founder of Rolling Stone magazine
• Birth of journalist and TV personality Katie Couric (1957)
• Birth of Nicolas Cage (1964)

January 8

• Death of painter George Bellows (1925), known for his depictions of urban scenes of American life
• Birth of Elvis Presley (1935)

January 9

• Birth of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875), founder of the Whitney Museum of American Art
• Birth of Richard Nixon (1913)
• Birth of Joan Baez (1941)

January 10

• Death of William Frederick Cody, aka Buffalo Bill (1917)
• Death of Sinclair Lewis (1951)

January 11

• Grand Canyon National Monument created (1908)
• Founding day of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (1927), governing body of The Oscars, in Los Angeles
• Amelia Earhart becomes the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to California (1935)

January 12

• Birth of John Singer Sargent (1856)
• Birth of Jack London (1876)
• Birth of boxer Joe Frazier (1944)
• Birth of Walter Mosley (1952)
• Birth of Howard Stern (1954)
• Birth of Jeff Bezos (1964)

January 13

• National Geographic Society is founded in Washington, DC (1888)
• Birth of Julia Louis-Dreyfus (1961)

January 14

• Ratification Day. U.S. Congress ratify the Treaty of Paris in the Maryland State House, formally ending the Revolutionary War with Great Britain and thereby establishing the United States as an independent nation (1784)
• Death of Humphrey Bogart (1957)
• Birth of LL Cool J (1968)
• Birth of Dave Grohl (1969)
• Death of Ray Kroc (1984)

January 15

• The Coca-Cola Company incorporated in Atlanta, Georgia (1889)
• Construction ends on the Buffalo Bill Dam in Wyoming (1910), once the highest dam in the world
• Birth of Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929). His birthday is observed as a federal holiday on the third Monday of January.
• The first Super Bowl is played in Los Angeles (1967)

January 16

• The musical “Hello, Dolly!” opens on Broadway, beginning a run of 2,844 performances (1964)

January 17

• Birth of Al Capone (1899)
• The U.S. acquires the Virgin Islands from Denmark for $25 million (1917)
• Prohibition begins (1920). Legal alcohol sales will be probibited through 1933, giving rise to the speakeasy.
• Birth of actress Betty White (1922)
• Birth of Eartha Kitt (1927)
• Birth of James Earl Jones (1931)
• Birth of Cassius Clay (1942), later known famously as Muhammad Ali
• Birth of Michelle Obama (1964)

January 18

• Birth of Cary Grant (1904)

January 19

• Birth of Edgar Allan Poe (1809)
• Birth of Dolly Parton (1946)

January 20

• Inauguration Day. The day every four years, on odd-numbered years, when the U.S. President is sworn in. The day is a holiday in Washington, DC, and its suburbs.

January 21

• Birth of Revolutionary War soldier and founding father of Vermont Ethan Allen (1738)
• The first American novel is printed in Boston (1789). It is titled The Power of Sympathy was written by William Hill Brown.
• Birth of Jeff Koons (1955)
• Birth of Geena Davis (1956)

January 22

• The Boeing 747 makes its maiden voyage on a flight from New York City to London (1970)
• Death of Lyndon B. Johnson (1973)

January 23

• Birth of John Hancock (1737), famous signatory of the Declaration of Independence
• Georgetown College, now known as Georgetown University, is founded as the first Catholic university in the United States, in a part of Maryland that later became Washington, DC (1789)
• The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, inducts its first members (1986). They are Little Richard, Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Fats Domino, The Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley.

January 24

• Beginning of the California Gold Rush (1848), when gold is found at Sutter’s Mill in Sacramento.
• Birth of Edith Wharton (1862)
• Birth of Maria Tallchief (1925), considered to be the USA’s first prima ballerina

January 25

• The University of Virginia, founded by Thomas Jefferson, is chartered (1819)
• American investigative journalist Nellie Bly (née Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman) completes her trip around the world after 72 days (1890), attempting to re-create and beat the time of the fictional story recounted in Jules Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days.

January 26

• Michigan becomes the 26th U.S. state (1837)
• Rocky Mountain National Park is established by an act of Congress (1915)
• Death of Nelson Rockefeller (1979)
• Death of Kobe Bryant (2020)

January 27

• International Holocaust Remembrance Day
• The University of Georgia, the first public university in the United States, is founded in Athens, Georgia (1785)
• Death of Nellie Bly (1922)
• Death of John Updike (2009)
• Death of J.D. Salinger (2010)

January 28

• Explosion of Space Shuttle Challenger (1986)

January 29

• Kansas becomes the 34th U.S. state (1861)

January 30

• The California settlement of Yerba Buena is renamed San Francisco (1847)

January 31

• Birth of Tallulah Bankhead (1902)
• Birth of Jackie Robinson (1919)
• Birth of Norman Mailer (1923)
• Birth of Justin Timberlake (1981)