January 5 is the fifth day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 360 days remaining until the end of the year (361 in leap years).
- 1066 – Edward the Confessor dies childless, sparking a succession crisis that will eventually lead to the Norman conquest of England.
- 1757 – Louis XV of France survives an assassination attempt by Robert-François Damiens, the last person to be executed in France by drawing and quartering, the traditional and gruesome form of capital punishment used for regicides.
- 1846 – The United States House of Representatives votes to stop sharing the Oregon Territory with the United Kingdom.
- 1914 – The Ford Motor Company announces an eight-hour workday and a minimum wage of $5 for a day's labor.
- 1925 – Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming becomes the first female governor in the United States.
- 1933 – Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge begins in San Francisco Bay.
- 1940 – FM radio is demonstrated to the Federal Communications Commission for the first time.
- 1957 – In a speech given to the United States Congress, President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces the establishment of what will later be called the Eisenhower Doctrine.
- 1969 – Members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary damage property and assault occupants in the Bogside in Derry, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. In response, residents erect barricades and establish Free Derry.
- 1972 – U.S. President Richard Nixon orders the development of a Space Shuttle program.
- 1974 – Warmest reliably measured temperature in Antarctica of +59°F (+15°C) recorded at Vanda Station
- 1993 – Washington state executes Westley Allan Dodd by hanging (the last judicial hanging in America).
- 2005 – Eris, the largest known dwarf planet in the solar system, is discovered by the team of Michael E. Brown, Chad Trujillo, and David L. Rabinowitz using images originally taken on October 21, 2003, at thePalomar Observatory.
- 2008 – Mikheil Saakashvili wins his second term as President of Georgia in the snap election.