January 1: General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) inaugurated. - UK railways are nationalized to form British Railways. - The Italian republican constitution goes into effect. - The latest New Jersey State Constitution goes into effect.

January 4: Burma gains its independence from the United Kingdom. On 4 January 1948, the nation became an independent republic, named the Union of Burma, with Sao Shwe Thaik as its first President and U Nu its first Prime Minister.

January 5: Warner Brothers shows the first color newsreel (Tournament of Roses Parade and the Rose Bowl).

January 12: Mahatma Gandhi begins his fast-unto-death in Delhi, to stop the communal violence during the Partition of India.

January 17: A truce is declared between nationalist Indonesian and Dutch troops in Java.

January 22: British foreign secretary Bevin proposes the formation of a Western Union between Britain, France and the Benelux countries to stand up against the Soviet Union. The Treaty of Brussels is signed March 17 as a consequence, a predecessor to NATO.

January 26: Teigin poison case: a man masquerading as a doctor poisons 12 of 16 bank employees of the Tokyo branch of Imperial Bank and takes the money; artist Sadamichi Hirasawa is later sentenced to death for the crime, but is never executed.

January 29: Plane crash at Los Gatos Creek, California, kills four US citizens and 28 deportees, commemorated in a song by Woody Guthrie.

January 30: Indian pacifist and leader Mahatma Gandhi is assassinated by Nathuram Godse. - 1948 Winter Olympics open in St. Moritz, Switzerland.

January 31: The British crown colony of the Malayan Union, Penang and Malacca form the Federation of Malaya. (source: Wikipedia)