Editing 1951 (section)

===January===
[[File:Mount Lamington 1951 eruption column.jpg|200px|thumb|right|[[January 21]]: The [[1951 eruption of Mount Lamington|eruption of Mount Lamington]]]]
* [[January 4]] – [[Korean War]]: [[Third Battle of Seoul]] – Chinese and [[North Korea]]n forces capture [[Seoul]] for the second time (having lost the [[Second Battle of Seoul]] in September 1950).
* [[January 9]] – The Government of the United Kingdom announces abandonment of the [[Tanganyika groundnut scheme]] for the cultivation of [[peanut]]s in the [[Tanganyika Territory]], with the writing off of £36.5M debt.<ref>{{cite news |work=[[The Times]] |location=London |date=January 10, 1951 |page=6 |issue=51895 |title=Groundnuts Plan Modified}}</ref>
* [[January 11]] – In the U.S., a top secret report is delivered to U.S. President Truman by his National Security Resources Board, urging Truman to expand the Korean War by launching "a global offensive against communism" with sustained bombing of Red China and diplomatic moves to establish "moral justification" for a U.S. nuclear attack on the Soviet Union. The report will not not be declassified until 1978.<ref>{{cite news |title=Security Report to Truman Urged Global Offensive |first=Norman |last=Kempster |newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date=October 6, 1978 |page=I-1}}</ref>
* [[January 15]] – In a criminal court in West Germany, [[Ilse Koch]], The "Witch of Buchenwald", wife of the [[commandant]] of the [[Buchenwald concentration camp]], is sentenced to life imprisonment.<ref>{{cite news |title=Ilse Koch is given life term |work=[[Gettysburg Times]] |date=15 January 1951 |page=2 |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=0IElAAAAIBAJ&sjid=3fQFAAAAIBAJ&pg=4254%2C5369899 |access-date=16 December 2012}}</ref>
* [[January 20]] – [[Winter of Terror]]: [[Avalanche]]s in the [[Alps]] kill 240 and bury 45,000 for a time, in Switzerland, Austria and Italy.
* [[January 21]] – [[Mount Lamington]] in Papua New Guinea [[1951 eruption of Mount Lamington|erupts catastrophically]], killing nearly 3,000 people and causing great devastation in Oro Province.<ref name="NGDC">{{cite web |title=Significant Volcanic Eruption |url=https://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/hazel/view/hazards/volcano/event-more-info/2188 |website=NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information |access-date=23 January 2022}}</ref>
* [[January 25]] – Dutch author [[Anne de Vries]] releases the first volume of his children's novel ''[[Journey Through the Night]]'' (''Reis door de nacht''), set during World War II.