On January 13

The Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia (pictured) ran aground on a reef and capsized off Isola del Giglio, Tuscany.

The trans-Neptunian object 208996 Achlys was discovered by Chad Trujillo and Michael E. Brown at Palomar Observatory, California.

The first of two large earthquakes in the span of a month struck El Salvador, killing at least 944 people and destroying over 100,000 homes.

Steve Ballmer replaced Bill Gates as the chief executive officer of Microsoft.

Bernice Gera won a sex-discrimination lawsuit against the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues, allowing her to become the first female professional baseball umpire.

Ghanaian military officer Ignatius Kutu Acheampong led a coup to overthrow Prime Minister Kofi Abrefa Busia and President Edward Akufo-Addo.

British rock band Led Zeppelin released their first album, Led Zeppelin, in the United States.

American singer Johnny Cash recorded his landmark album At Folsom Prison live at Folsom State Prison in California.

Togo's first president, Sylvanus Olympio (pictured), was assassinated by military officers in a coup d'état led by Emmanuel Bodjollé, Étienne Eyadéma, and Kléber Dadjo.

Nine Moscow doctors were accused of a plot to poison members of the Soviet political and military leadership.

In the first recorded instance of strike action by Catholic laity against the clergy, gravediggers at Calvary Cemetery in Queens, New York City, went on strike.

The first Feminist Congress of Yucatán (delegates pictured) began in Mérida, Mexico, to propose reforms for women's social, educational, and legal rights.

About 30,000 people were killed when an earthquake struck the Province of L'Aquila in Italy.

Welsh physician William Price (pictured) was arrested for attempting to cremate his deceased infant son; this eventually led to the passing of the Cremation Act 1902 by Parliament.

The Treaty of Cahuenga was signed, informally ending the fighting of the Mexican–American War in California.

First Anglo-Afghan War: William Brydon, an assistant surgeon in the British Army, was the sole European of the 14,000 people retreating from Kabul to Jalalabad who evaded capture or death.

British troops captured Fort Peter in St. Marys, in the only battle of the War of 1812 to take place in the state of Georgia.

French Revolutionary Wars: A naval battle off the coast of Brittany between two British frigates and a French ship of the line ended with hundreds of deaths when the latter ran aground.

Pope Eugene IV promulgated the papal bull Sicut dudum, forbidding the enslavement of the native Guanche of the Canary Islands by the Spanish.