Eastern Front
Baltic Provinces: Battle of the Aa: Russians recover island in Dvina near Glandau. Heavy fighting south of Lake Babit; no material change of positions.
Romania: Falkenhayn captures Focsani with 5,500 PoWs (another source says 4,000) and crosses river Putna north and southeast of it on January 9, only to be repelled on January 10.
Asiatic and Egyptian Theaters
Mesopotamia: Khalil Pasha moves Sixth Army HQ from Baghdad to 20 miles west of Kut, but refuses to evacuate south bank.
Political, etc.
Russia: M. Aleksandr Trepov, Russian Premier, resigns and is succeeded by Prince Nikolai Golitsin (see November 24th, 1916 and March 13th, 1917).
Canada: Canadian official casualties now number 68,290 men killed, wounded, and missing.
Italy: Italy arrests more than 40 people as saboteurs for sinking the battleships
Benedetto Brin and
Leonardo da Vinci. (Note: at least the
da Vinci was not in fact, sabotaged, but rather destroyed by accidental internal explosion. The
Brin more likely was actually sabotaged).
United States: President Wilson criticizes newspapers for speculating on U.S. diplomatic moves, as it could lead to war.
Mary McElroy, sister of U.S. President Chester A. Arthur who served as First Lady (Chester had been widowed in 1880), passed away:
http://imgur.com/36y5hJv
Margaret Sanger at a courthouse in Brooklyn while on trial for opening the first birth control clinic in the US:
http://imgur.com/LWfbCQI
Greece: Allied ultimatum to government demands acceptance of December 31, 1916 terms. Greece accepts on January 10.