List of Famous people born in January

Larry Smith is a former American professional basketball player. A 6'8" forward/center from Alcorn State University, Smith spent 13 seasons (1980–1993) in the National Basketball Association (NBA), playing for the Golden State Warriors, Houston Rockets, and San Antonio Spurs. Smith, nicknamed "Mr. Mean", received NBA All-Rookie Team Honors in 1981, and would become one of the best rebounders of the 1980s. He had career averages of 9.2 rebounds and 25.9 minutes per game. Smith was affectionally nicknamed and known as "Mr. Mean" throughout his career, especially during his time with the Warriors, due to the stark contrast between him being nice and soft-spoken off the court but always with a serious demeanor and angry scowl on the court while grabbing a rebound. Smith's popularity in Golden State and Houston led to local fan clubs who would attend games wearing hard hats holding up a sign saying "Larry's Local 13". At the end of his career, Smith earned praise from the Houston Rockets coaching staff and fanbase for adequately covering for an injured Hakeem Olajuwon.

James Vernon Scotti is an American astronomer. He was born in Bandon, Oregon and graduated from Woodway Senior High in Edmonds, Washington in 1978. He received his B.Sc. in Astronomy from the University of Arizona in Tucson in 1983. Ever since that time, he has worked on the Spacewatch project, which is one of a number of projects that look for near-Earth asteroids (NEAs). He wrote the first automatic asteroid detection software for the project in 1984.

Henry Nixon is an Australian actor.

Han Jingna is a Chinese retired badminton player who rated among the world's leading women's singles players in the 1990s. Han began practicing badminton at the age of seven. Two years later, she trained at the sports school in Wuhan. She was selected to join the Hubei team in 1988 when she was thirteen, and to join the national team in 1989. She was part of national teams that clinched the 1995 Sudirman Cup in Lausanne, and the 1998 Uber Cup in Hong Kong, She won the silver medal for women's singles at the 1995 World Championships by upsetting South Korea's Bang Soo-hyun in the semifinals before falling to Chinese teammate Ye Zhaoying in the finals. Han also earned a singles bronze medal at the next World Championships in 1997. She competed in the women's singles competition at the 1996 Olympic Games but was eliminated in the quarterfinals round by the defending Olympic gold medalist Susi Susanti of Indonesia.