January 18, 2009 (Sunday)
- El Salvador holds its legislative elections. (Los Angeles Times)
- 2008-09 National Football League playoffs (Super Bowl XLIII):
- The Arizona Cardinals defeat the Philadelphia Eagles 32-25 in the NFC Championship Game. (USA Today)
- The Pittsburgh Steelers defeat the Baltimore Ravens 23-14 in the AFC Championship Game. (ESPN)
- The roof of the Born Again in Christ Church in São Paulo, Brazil, collapses, killing nine worshippers and injuring more than one hundred others. (International Herald Tribune)
- The Republic of China (Taiwan) distributes shopping vouchers to all its 22.7 million citizens as part of a US$2.53-billion plan to stimulate the economy. (AFP via Google News)
- A French military helicopter crashes off the coast of Gabon, killing at least seven people and rendering one other missing. (BBC News)
- A series of avalanches occurs near Kabul, Afghanistan, killing at least ten people and injuring eleven others. (Irish Independent)
- 2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflict:
- Hamas agrees to a one-week ceasefire, but fires at least two rockets into Israel afterward. (CNN)
- Israel begins withdrawing its Defense Forces from the southern Gaza Strip. (Xinhua)
- Most of the wreckage of US Airways Flight 1549 is successfully recovered from the Hudson River. (Fox News)