January Curriculum Calendar - Lesson Plan Ideas by Date
Enhance your current curriculum with this fun reference calendar. Whether you want to highlight historic events, honor birthdays of significant people, or celebrate holidays, this is a valuable tool for every teacher. Click on any event to find a breadth of related teaching resources that will spark new ideas to spice up your daily lessons. There's something worth celebrating every day!
Curriculum Calendar
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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December 28, 2025
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December 29, 2025
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December 30, 2025
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December 31, 2025
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January 1, 2026
New Year's Day
Also try:
New Year's resolutions
National Thank You Month begins
Also try:
gratitude, appreciation
President Abraham Lincoln signs Emancipation Proclamation (1863)
Also try:
Abraham Lincoln, slavery
Ellis Island opens for immigration (1892)
Also try:
immigration
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January 2, 2026
Mahatma Gandhi begins march for peace in East Bengali (1947)
Also try:
colonial India, civil disobedience
USSR launches Mechta for first solar orbit (1959)
Also try:
space exploration, spacecraft
|
January 3, 2026
J.R.R. Tolkien born (1892)
Also try:
The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit
Alaska named 49th state (1959)
Also try:
US expansion, statehood
Israeli ground forces invade Gaza (2009)
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January 4, 2026
Isaac Newton born (1643)
Also try:
Scientific Revolution, Newton's laws of motion
Louis Braille born (1809)
Also try:
blindness, visual impairment
Spirit, a NASA Mars rover, successfully lands on Mars (2004)
Also try:
NASA missions, terrestrial planets
|
January 5, 2026
George Washington Carver Day
Also try:
peanuts, crop rotation
National Bird Day
Also try:
ornithology, bird-watching
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde published (1886)
Also try:
Robert Louis Stevenson
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January 6, 2026
Joan of Arc born (1412)
Also try:
Hundred Years' War
Alfred Wegener first presents the theory of continental drift (1912)
Also try:
Alfred Wegener, Pangaea
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January 7, 2026
President Millard Fillmore born (1800)
Also try:
Whig Party, US presidents
Zora Neale Hurston born (1891)
Also try:
Harlem Renaissance
Jupiter's moons discovered (1610)
Also try:
Galileo Galilei, telescopes
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January 8, 2026
Elvis Presley born (1935)
Also try:
rock 'n roll, popular music
George Washington delivers first State of the Union Address (1790)
Also try:
George Washington
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January 9, 2026
National Static Electricity Day
Also try:
electricity, electric charge
President Richard Nixon born (1913)
Also try:
Watergate Scandal, US presidents
Jean-Pierre Blanchard takes first hot air balloon flight in the US (1793)
Also try:
Jean-Pierre Blanchard, history of flight
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January 10, 2026
Common Sense by Thomas Paine published (1776)
Also try:
Thomas Paine, American Revolution
League of Nations formed (1920)
Also try:
Paris Peace Conference
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January 11, 2026
Alexander Hamilton born (1755)
Also try:
Founding Fathers, The Federalist Papers
Amelia Earhart flies solo from Honolulu to California (1935)
Also try:
aviation, history of flight
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January 12, 2026
Charles Perrault born (1628)
Also try:
fairy tales
Earthquake in Haiti kills 230,000 (2010)
Also try:
natural disasters, plate tectonics
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January 13, 2026
First public radio broadcast (1910)
Also try:
mass media
Publication of first "Mickey Mouse" comic strip (1930)
Also try:
comic strips, Walt Disney
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January 14, 2026
Clarinet invented in Nuremberg, Germany (1690)
Also try:
woodwinds, musical instruments
First Model T automobile is built on an assembly line (1914)
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January 15, 2026
Elizabeth I crowned Queen of England (1559)
Also try:
Queen of England, monarchy
Wikipedia goes online (2001)
Also try:
media literacy, internet research
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January 16, 2026
National Appreciate a Dragon Day
Also try:
mythical creatures, fantasy literature
First publication of Don Quixote (1605)
Also try:
Miguel de Cervantes
Operation Desert Storm announced (1991)
Also try:
Gulf War, George H. W. Bush
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January 17, 2026
Benjamin Franklin born (1706)
Also try:
American Enlightenment, inventors
Captain James Cook is the first to cross the Antarctic Circle (1773)
Also try:
Antarctica, English explorers
Prohibition begins (1920)
Also try:
Volstead Act, 18th amendement
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January 18, 2026
A.A. Milne born (1882)
Also try:
Winnie-the-Pooh
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January 19, 2026
James Watt born (1736)
Also try:
inventors, steam engines
Edgar Allan Poe born (1809)
Also try:
Tell-Tale Heart, Fall of the House of Usher
Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Also try:
civil rights movement, nonviolence
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January 20, 2026
Inaguration Day (US 2025, 2029, 2033, etc. )
Also try:
Presidential Inaguration
Penguin Awareness Day
Also try:
birds, animal adaptations
John Marshall appointed Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court (1801)
Also try:
supreme court, judicial branch
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January 21, 2026
King Louis XVI executed for treason (1793)
Also try:
French Revolution
Neptune becomes outermost planet (1979)
Also try:
solar system, planets
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January 22, 2026
Sir Francis Bacon born (1561)
Also try:
scientific method, inductive reasoning
The uranium atom split at Columbia University (1939)
Also try:
nuclear fission, Manhattan Project
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January 23, 2026
National Handwriting Day
Also try:
cursive, penmanship
John Hancock born (1737)
Also try:
Declaration of Independence
Madeleine Albright sworn in as US Secretary of State (1997)
Also try:
US Secretary of State
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January 24, 2026
Edith Wharton born (1862)
Also try:
Ethan Frome, Pulitzer Prize
Gold discovered at Sutter's Mill (1848)
Also try:
Gold Rush
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January 25, 2026
National Opposite Day
Also try:
antonyms, positive and negative numbers
Alexander Graham Bell inaugurates US transcontinental telephone service (1915)
Also try:
Alexander Graham Bell
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January 26, 2026
Michigan becomes the 26th state in the United States (1837)
Also try:
statehood, Great Lakes
Rocky Mountain National Park established in Colorado (1915)
Also try:
national parks, conservationism
Condoleezza Rice becomes first African American woman US Secretary of State (2005)
Also try:
Secretary of State
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January 27, 2026
International Holocaust Remembrance Day
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart born (1756)
Also try:
Classical period, composers
Lewis Carroll born (1832)
Also try:
Alice in Wonderland
Paris Peace Accords signed, ending the Vietnam War (1973)
Also try:
Vietnam War
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January 28, 2026
National Kazoo Day
Also try:
musical instruments, sound waves
Jackson Pollock born (1912)
Also try:
abstract expressionism, artists
Pride and Prejudice published in United Kingdom (1813)
Also try:
Jane Austen
Space shuttle Challenger explodes (1986)
Also try:
NASA, space missions
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January 29, 2026
Chinese New Year
Also try:
Lunar New Year, Chinese culture
National Puzzle Day
Also try:
brain teaser, riddle
Thomas Paine born (1737)
Also try:
Common Sense, American Revolution
President William McKinley born (1843)
Also try:
US presidents, Spanish-American War
Oprah Winfrey born (1954)
Also try:
book club, entrepreneurs
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January 30, 2026
President Franklin D. Roosevelt born (1882)
Vietnam War: Tet Offensive launched (1968)
Also try:
Vietnam War
Erno Rubik patents the Rubik's cube (1975)
Also try:
puzzles, problem solving
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January 31, 2026
Franz Schubert born (1797)
Also try:
Romantic era, composers
Jackie Robinson born (1919)
Also try:
color barrier, baseball
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