January 2026: euro day, five Saturdays, one Cup shock
The year opened on Thursday 1 January, and the calendar earned its keep at once. In Bulgaria the first coins of the morning were euros. The country had joined the single currency as its twenty-first member. The lev retired after more than 140 years. The grid around that news was generous. January 2026 ran 31 days from a Thursday start, with five Thursdays, five Fridays and five Saturdays. Count 22 business days, 9 weekend days and ISO weeks 1 to 5. A full moon rose over the first Saturday.
Five Thursdays, five Fridays, five Saturdays
The five Thursdays fell on the 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th. The five Fridays followed on the 2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd and 30th. The five Saturdays landed on the 3rd, 10th, 17th, 24th and 31st, and they carried the month's nine weekend days.
The four Sundays arrived on the 4th, 11th, 18th and 25th. Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays also took four turns each. The opening week was brief. Thursday 1 January and Friday 2 January did the work, then the first weekend arrived.
Euro day, and the week's other money
The lev had circulated for more than 140 years, through kingdoms, reforms and the odd currency crisis. On Thursday 1 January it stopped, and Bulgaria became the eurozone's twenty-first member. Anyone booking a Sofia city break now has one fewer conversion to work out on the train.
Money stayed newsworthy all month. On Tuesday 27 January, India and the European Union signed a free trade agreement in New Delhi. It covered a market of about two billion people.
Closer to home, Sarah Mullally was confirmed as Archbishop of Canterbury on Wednesday 28 January. She was the first woman to lead the Church of England.
Gadgets, a tuna and a Cup shock
Las Vegas did its usual January. CES ran from Tuesday 6 January to Friday 9 January, filling the week with artificial intelligence of every description. Nvidia brought its Cosmos world-simulation model, and Samsung's Galaxy Z TriFold took best-of-show honours.
The month's prices peaked early. A single bluefin tuna went under the hammer at Tokyo's Toyosu auction on Monday 5 January. It fetched about 3.2 million dollars, a record for the market's traditional first sale.
English football supplied the romance. Sixth-tier Macclesfield beat holders Crystal Palace 2-1 in the FA Cup third round on Saturday 10 January. Few upsets in the competition's long history have been bigger.
The month's heavy news
January also carried hard losses. A fire at a bar in the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana killed about 40 people as the year turned. Two trains derailed and collided near Adamuz in southern Spain on Sunday 18 January. At least 46 people died, in the country's deadliest rail crash in more than a decade.
On Saturday 31 January, the month's final day, came the hardest news of all. A landslide struck the Rubaya coltan mine in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. More than 200 artisanal miners were confirmed dead.
The facts are recorded here plainly. February would bring worse.
January closed on Saturday 31 January, five Saturdays deep and 22 working days lighter. February promised exactly four of each weekday, which felt like restraint.