January
- Catholic Schools Week starts on the last Sunday of January.
6th
- 1907 – Maria Montessori opens her first school and daycare center for working class children in Rome.
12th
- 1888 – In Nebraska, teacher Minnie Freeman leads thirteen children from her schoolhouse to safety during the Schoolhouse Blizzard.
17th
- 1989 – Stockton massacre: Patrick Purdy opens fire with an assault rifle at the Cleveland Elementary School playground in California, killing five children and wounding 29 others and one teacher before taking his own life.
28th
- 1986 – Christa McAuliffe, a teacher at Concord High School (New Hampshire), dies in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.