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  • January 13, 1939 - Otto Frisch detects fission fragments in an ionization chamber. He adopts the term "fission."
  • January 17, 1966 - A B-52 bomber carrying nuclear weapons has a mid-air accident while refueling and drops four nuclear weapons on Palomares, Spain. Although no nuclear explosion occurs, conventional explosions in two of the weapons scatter radioactive material over a populated area.
  • January 19, 2007 - King Abdullah II of Jordan announces Jordan's desire to create a "peaceful" nuclear program.
  • January 21, 1954 - The USS Nautilus (SSN 571), the world's first nuclear-powered submarine, is launched by the United States Navy.
 
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