January 13 – "Doctors' plot": The state newspaper Pravda publishes an article alleging that many of the most prestigious physicians in the Soviet Union, mostly Jews, are part of a major plot to poison the country's senior political and military leaders.
January 19 – 71.1% of all television sets in the United States are tuned into I Love Lucy to watch Lucy give birth to Little Ricky, which is more people than those who tuned into Dwight Eisenhower's inauguration the next day. This record has yet to be broken.