| 151 | January 1 | Event | 2012 – A Moldovan civilian is fatally wounded by a Russian peacekeeper in the Transnistrian security zone, leading to demonstrations against Russia. |
| 152 | January 1 | Event | 2013 – At least 60 people are killed and 200 injured in a stampede after celebrations at Félix Houphouët-Boigny Stadium in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. |
| 153 | January 1 | Event | 2014 – Latvia becomes the 18th member of the Eurozone. |
| 154 | January 1 | Event | 2015 – The Eurasian Economic Union comes into effect, creating a political and economic union between Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. |
| 155 | January 1 | Event | 2015 – Lithuania becomes the 19th member of the Eurozone. |
| 156 | January 1 | Birth | 870 – Zwentibold, Frankish son of Arnulf of Carinthia (d. 900) |
| 157 | January 1 | Birth | 1431 – Pope Alexander VI (d. 1503) |
| 158 | January 1 | Birth | 1449 – Lorenzo de' Medici, Italian politician (d. 1492) |
| 159 | January 1 | Birth | 1467 – Sigismund I the Old, Polish king (d. 1548) |
| 160 | January 1 | Birth | 1484 – Huldrych Zwingli, Swiss pastor and theologian (d. 1531) |
| 161 | January 1 | Birth | 1488 – Magnus I, Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg (d. 1543) |
| 162 | January 1 | Birth | 1511 – Henry, Duke of Cornwall (d. 1511) |
| 163 | January 1 | Birth | 1516 – Margaret Leijonhufvud, Swedish wife of Gustav I of Sweden (d. 1551) |
| 164 | January 1 | Birth | 1557 – Stephen Bocskay, Romanian prince (d. 1606) |
| 165 | January 1 | Birth | 1600 – Friedrich Spanheim, Dutch theologian and academic (d. 1649) |
| 166 | January 1 | Birth | 1628 – Christoph Bernhard, German composer and theorist (d. 1692) |
| 167 | January 1 | Birth | 1638 – Emperor Go-Sai of Japan (d. 1685) |
| 168 | January 1 | Birth | 1655 – Christian Thomasius, German jurist and philosopher (d. 1728) |
| 169 | January 1 | Birth | 1684 – Arnold Drakenborch, Dutch scholar and author (d. 1748) |
| 170 | January 1 | Birth | 1704 – Soame Jenyns, English author, poet, and politician (d. 1787) |
| 171 | January 1 | Birth | 1709 – Johann Heinrich Hartmann Bätz, German-Dutch organ builder (d. 1770) |
| 172 | January 1 | Birth | 1711 – Baron Franz von der Trenck, Austrian soldier (d. 1749) |
| 173 | January 1 | Birth | 1714 – Giovanni Battista Mancini, Italian soprano and author (d. 1800) |
| 174 | January 1 | Birth | 1714 – Kristijonas Donelaitis, Lithuanian pastor and poet (d. 1780) |
| 175 | January 1 | Birth | 1735 – Paul Revere, American silversmith and engraver (d. 1818) |
| 176 | January 1 | Birth | 1745 – Anthony Wayne, American general and politician (d. 1796) |
| 177 | January 1 | Birth | 1750 – Frederick Muhlenberg, American minister and politician, 1st Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (d. 1801) |
| 178 | January 1 | Birth | 1752 – Betsy Ross, American seamstress credited with designing the Flag of the United States (d. 1836) |
| 179 | January 1 | Birth | 1768 – Maria Edgeworth, Anglo-Irish author (d. 1849) |
| 180 | January 1 | Birth | 1774 – André Marie Constant Duméril, French zoologist and academic (d. 1860) |