| 1471 | January 3 | Holiday and observance | The tenth of the Twelve Days of Christmas (Western Christianity) |
| 1472 | January 4 | Event | 46 BCE – Julius Caesar defeats Titus Labienus in the Battle of Ruspina. |
| 1473 | January 4 | Event | 871 – Battle of Reading: Æthelred of Wessex fights, and is defeated by, a Danish invasion army. |
| 1474 | January 4 | Event | 1490 – Anne of Brittany announces that all those who would ally with the King of France will be considered guilty of the crime of lèse-majesté. |
| 1475 | January 4 | Event | 1642 – King Charles I of England sends soldiers to arrest members of Parliament, commencing England's slide into civil war. |
| 1476 | January 4 | Event | 1649 – English Civil War: The Rump Parliament votes to put Charles I on trial. |
| 1477 | January 4 | Event | 1717 – The Netherlands, Great Britain, and France sign the Triple Alliance. |
| 1478 | January 4 | Event | 1762 – Great Britain declares war on Spain and Naples. |
| 1479 | January 4 | Event | 1798 – Constantine Hangerli arrives in Bucharest, Wallachia, as its new Prince, invested by the Ottoman Empire. |
| 1480 | January 4 | Event | 1847 – Samuel Colt sells his first revolver pistol to the United States government. |
| 1481 | January 4 | Event | 1853 – After having been kidnapped and sold into slavery in the American South, Solomon Northrup regains his freedom his memoir 12 Years a Slave later becomes a national bestseller. |
| 1482 | January 4 | Event | 1854 – The McDonald Islands are discovered by Captain William McDonald aboard the Samarang. |
| 1483 | January 4 | Event | 1863 – The New Apostolic Church, a Christian and chiliastic church, is established in Hamburg, Germany. |
| 1484 | January 4 | Event | 1865 – The New York Stock Exchange opens its first permanent headquarters at 10-12 Broad near Wall Street in New York City. |
| 1485 | January 4 | Event | 1878 – Sofia is emancipated from Ottoman rule. |
| 1486 | January 4 | Event | 1884 – The Fabian Society is founded in London, England, United Kingdom. |
| 1487 | January 4 | Event | 1889 – The Oklahoma Land Run opens 2 million acres of unused Oklahoma Territory to first serve first come settlers on April 22. |
| 1488 | January 4 | Event | 1896 – Utah is admitted as the 45th U.S. state. |
| 1489 | January 4 | Event | 1903 – Topsy, an elephant, is electrocuted by the owners of Luna Park, Coney Island. Thomas Edison's movie company shoots the film Electrocuting an Elephant of the execution. |
| 1490 | January 4 | Event | 1912 – The Scout Association is incorporated throughout the British Empire by royal charter. |
| 1491 | January 4 | Event | 1944 – World War II: Operation Carpetbagger, involving the dropping of arms and supplies to resistance fighters in Europe, begins. |
| 1492 | January 4 | Event | 1948 – Burma gains its independence from the United Kingdom. |
| 1493 | January 4 | Event | 1951 – Korean War: Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul. |
| 1494 | January 4 | Event | 1955 – The Greek National Radical Union is formed by Konstantinos Karamanlis. |
| 1495 | January 4 | Event | 1958 – Sputnik 1 falls to Earth from orbit. |
| 1496 | January 4 | Event | 1959 – Luna 1 becomes the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon. |
| 1497 | January 4 | Event | 1965 – United States President Lyndon B. Johnson proclaims his "Great Society" during his State of the Union address. |
| 1498 | January 4 | Event | 1966 – A military coup takes place in Upper Volta (later Burkina Faso), dissolving the National Parliament and leading to a new national constitution. |
| 1499 | January 4 | Event | 1970 – A magnitude 7.7 earthquake strikes Tonghai County, China, killing at least 15,000 people. |
| 1500 | January 4 | Event | 1972 – Rose Heilbron becomes the first female judge to sit at the Old Bailey in London, England. |