January 1, 2009 (Thursday)
- Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- An Israeli airstrike on the Gaza Strip city of Jabalia kills senior Hamas military commander Nizar Rayan and six members of his family. (The Guardian)
- At least five people die and more than 50 are injured in serial bombings in Guwahati, India. (CNN-IBN)
- All Gabriele D'Annunzio's works becomes of public domain, since it has been 70 years since his death in 1938.
- A nightclub fire in Bangkok, Thailand, kills 61 people and injures more than 200. (AP via Google News)
- Russia's Gazprom halts deliveries of natural gas to Ukraine after negotiations over prices fail. (RIA Novosti) (Reuters)
- Slovakia adopts the euro and becomes the 16th member of the Eurozone. (Reuters) (BBC)
- A man is shot and killed at California's Fruitvale BART station by a Bay Area Rapid Transit officer. (Mercury News)
- Virgin Galactic and the U.S. state of New Mexico sign a US$150-250 million agreement to launch sub-orbital commercial space flights at Spaceport America, near Las Cruces and Truth or Consequences. (Space.com)