The following events occurred in January 1903:

• King Edward VII of the United Kingdom was proclaimed Emperor of India, a title first established during the reign of his mother, Queen Victoria.^[1]
• Konstantin Tsiolkovski's article, Explorations of outer space with the help of reaction apparatuses, was published, describing his Basic Rocket Equation.^[2]
• In the United States, Syracuse Athletic Club defeated Orange Athletic Club 36–0 at Madison Square Garden, to win the 1902–03 World Series of Football.

• Born: Kane Tanaka, oldest living person in the world from 22 July 2018 to 19 April 2022.^[3]

• The Norwegian ship Remittant was towed into quarantine in Queenstown, Ireland, as a result of an outbreak of beriberi among the crew.

• Died: Alois Hitler, 65, Austrian civil servant, father of Adolf Hitler (suspected pleural hemorrhage)

• Born: Johann Georg Elser, German carpenter and attempted assassin of Adolf Hitler, in Hermaringen, Württemberg (d. 1945)
• Died:
  • Alexandr Aksakov, 70, Russian writer
  • Topsy, c. 28, female Asian elephant, killed by poisoning and electrocution at Luna Park, Coney Island, New York City.^[4] The Edison Manufacturing Company would release the film Electrocuting an Elephant, documenting Topsy's death, later in the month.^[5]

• Died: Práxedes Mateo Sagasta, 77, Spanish politician, former Prime Minister (b. 1825)

• Born: Maurice Abravanel, Greek conductor, in Thessaloniki (died 1993)

• In Nevada, twelve striking members of the Miners' Union attacked mine manager J. A. Traylor in his office. Traylor shot and killed three of the miners and seriously wounded three others.^[6][7]
• George Pardee was sworn in as Governor of California in Sacramento.^[8]
• Born: Alan Napier, English actor, in King's Norton, Birmingham (died 1988)^[9]

• The Irish cargo ship SS Palmas was last sighted whilst on a voyage from Liverpool, England, to Boston, Massachusetts, United States. The vessel was never seen again and was presumed to have sunk in the Atlantic Ocean with the loss of all 39 crew.^[10]

• Born: Barbara Hepworth, English sculptor, in Wakefield (died 1975)

• Born: Alan Paton, South African author and anti-apartheid activist, in Pietermaritzburg (died 1988)

• Born:
  • Igor Kurchatov, Russian physicist, in Simsky Zavod (died 1960)
  • Andrew J. Transue, American Congressman and attorney (Morissette v. United States), in Clarksville, Michigan (died 1995)^[11]

• The Hotel National, Moscow, designed by Alexander Ivanov and financed by The Varvarinskoe Joint-Stock Company of Householders,^[12] opened to customers.

• On a street corner in Columbia, South Carolina, James H. Tillman, the Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina, shot and mortally wounded newspaper editor Narciso Gener Gonzales, who would die on January 19. Tillman would be acquitted of Gonzales' murder on the grounds of self-defense on October 15, but the press would condemn the verdict, and Tillman would retire in disgrace from public life.^[13]

• A powder explosion in an 8-inch (203 mm) gun turret aboard the battleship USS Massachusetts (BB-2) killed nine men.^[14]
• Born:
  • Peter Brocco, American actor, in Reading, Pennsylvania (died 1992, heart attack)^{[15][better source needed]}
  • William Grover-Williams, French racing driver and war hero, in Montrouge (executed by Nazi Germany, 1945)^[16]

• El Yunque National Forest in Puerto Rico became part of the United States National Forest System, as the Luquillo Forest Reserve.

• The first west–east transatlantic radio broadcast was made from the United States to England (the first east–west broadcast having been made in 1901).
• Born: Boris Blacher, German composer and librettist, in Niutschuang (Newchwang), Fengtian, Qing Empire (died 1975)^[17]
• Died: Narciso Gener Gonzales, 44, American journalist and newspaper editor (gunshot wound sustained on January 15)^[13]

• In the New York election to the United States Senate, incumbent Republican Senator Thomas C. Platt was re-elected by the New York State Senate.^[18]

• The American tugboat Leyden foundered in heavy fog in the Atlantic Ocean off Block Island, Rhode Island, while returning from Puerto Rico.
• Robert Reid was appointed to the Australian Senate for Victoria to replace the recently deceased Senator Sir Frederick Sargood.^[19]

• Born: Fritz Houtermans, Polish physicist (d. 1966)

• Born: Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, Colombian politician, in Cucunubá or Manta^[20] (assassinated 1948)

• Born: John Eccles, Australian neuropsychologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, in Melbourne (died 1997)^[21]

• Esmond Train Wreck: Fourteen people lost their lives when the Crescent City Express, bound for Benson, Arizona, United States, collided head-on with the Pacific Coast Express, bound for Tucson, Arizona. The accident was caused by a communication failure.^[22]
• Died:
  • Augusta Holmès, 55, French composer (cardiac arrest)
  • Robert Planquette, 54, French composer^[23]

• An inaugural concert was held at the newly-opened Palais des Fêtes (then called "Sängerhaus") in Strasbourg - then in Germany, now in France.^[24]