| 5161 | January 12 | Birth | 1896 – David Wechsler, Romanian-American psychologist and author (d. 1981) |
| 5162 | January 12 | Birth | 1899 – Pierre Bernac, French opera singer and educator (d. 1979) |
| 5163 | January 12 | Birth | 1899 – Paul Hermann Müller, Swiss chemist and academic Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1965) |
| 5164 | January 12 | Birth | 1901 – Karl Künstler, German SS officer (d. 1945) |
| 5165 | January 12 | Birth | 1903 – Igor Kurchatov, Russian physicist and academic (d. 1960) |
| 5166 | January 12 | Birth | 1904 – Mississippi Fred McDowell, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1972) |
| 5167 | January 12 | Birth | 1905 – Nihal Atsız, Turkish author, poet, and philosopher (d. 1975) |
| 5168 | January 12 | Birth | 1905 – James Bennett Griffin, American archaeologist and academic (d. 1997) |
| 5169 | January 12 | Birth | 1905 – Tex Ritter, American singer and actor (d. 1974) |
| 5170 | January 12 | Birth | 1906 – Emmanuel Levinas, Lithuanian-French historian, philosopher, and academic (d. 1995) |
| 5171 | January 12 | Birth | 1907 – Sergei Korolev, Russian colonel and engineer (d. 1966) |
| 5172 | January 12 | Birth | 1908 – Jean Delannoy, French actor, director, and screenwriter (d. 2008) |
| 5173 | January 12 | Birth | 1908 – Clement Hurd, American illustrator (d. 1988) |
| 5174 | January 12 | Birth | 1910 – Patsy Kelly, American actress and singer (d. 1981) |
| 5175 | January 12 | Birth | 1910 – Luise Rainer, German-American actress (d. 2014) |
| 5176 | January 12 | Birth | 1912 – Richard Kuremaa, Estonian footballer (d. 1991) |
| 5177 | January 12 | Birth | 1914 – Mieko Kamiya, Japanese psychiatrist (d. 1979) |
| 5178 | January 12 | Birth | 1915 – Paul Jarrico, American screenwriter and producer (d. 1997) |
| 5179 | January 12 | Birth | 1915 – Joseph-Aurèle Plourde, Canadian archbishop (d. 2013) |
| 5180 | January 12 | Birth | 1916 – P. W. Botha, South African politician, 8th Prime Minister of South Africa (d. 2006) |
| 5181 | January 12 | Birth | 1916 – Jay McShann, American singer-songwriter and pianist (d. 2006) |
| 5182 | January 12 | Birth | 1916 – William Pleeth, English cellist and educator (d. 1999) |
| 5183 | January 12 | Birth | 1917 – Walter Hendl, American pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 2007) |
| 5184 | January 12 | Birth | 1917 – Jimmy Skinner, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 2007) |
| 5185 | January 12 | Birth | 1918 – Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Indian-Dutch guru and educator (d. 2008) |
| 5186 | January 12 | Birth | 1920 – James L. Farmer, Jr., American activist co-founded Congress of Racial Equality (d. 1999) |
| 5187 | January 12 | Birth | 1920 – Jerzy Zubrzycki, Polish-Australian sociologist and academic (d. 2009) |
| 5188 | January 12 | Birth | 1922 – Paul Hansard, German-English actor (d. 2013) |
| 5189 | January 12 | Birth | 1922 – Tadeusz Żychiewicz, Polish journalist and historian (d. 1994) |
| 5190 | January 12 | Birth | 1923 – Vic Allen, English sociologist, economist, and historian (d. 2014) |