1st January

Events

• 153 BC - New Year's Day first celebrated
• 45 BC - Julian calendar goes into effect
• 404 - Last gladiator competition in Rome
• 1438 - Albert II of Habsburg becomes King of Hungary
• 1502 - Rio de Janeiro discovered
• 1622 - In the Gregorian calendar, January 1 is declared as the first day of the year, instead of for example March 25 in England
• 1651 - Charles II crowned King of Scotland
• 1700 - Russia accepts Julian calendar
• 1707 - John V becomes King of Portugal
• 1738 - Bouvet Island was discovered
• 1788 - First edition of The Times, previously The Daily Universal Register, was published.
• 1801 - Legislative union of Kingdom of Great Britain and Kingdom of Ireland completed to form United Kingdom
• 1801 - Discovery of 1 Ceres, first known asteroid
• 1801 - USS Chesapeake takes first prize the French privateer La Jeune Creole
• 1804 - End of French rule in Haiti.
• 1808 - Importation of slaves into the United States is banned
• 1863 - Abraham Lincoln delivers the Emancipation Proclamation during the second year of the American Civil War.
• 1863 - The first claim under the Homestead Act is made for a farm in Nebraska
• 1874 - New York City annexes The Bronx
• 1880 - Construction of the Panama Canal begins
• 1883 - USS Enterprise (1874) decommissioned
• 1885 - The Montgolfier brothers cross the English Channel
• 1887 - Queen Victoria is proclaimed Empress of India at the first Imperial Assemblage (Durbar) in Delhi.
• 1888 - Elias Disney marries Flora Call
• 1892 - Ellis Island opens to begin accepting immigrants to the United States
• 1893 - Japan accepts the Gregorian calendar
• 1897 - Brooklyn, New York merges with New York City
• 1899 - End of Spanish rule in Cuba.
• 1899 - Queens and Staten Island merge with New York City
• 1901 - Nigeria becomes a British protectorate
• 1901 - Establishment of the Commonwealth of Australia (Federation).
• 1902 - The first Rose Bowl game is played in Pasadena, California
• 1905 - USS Chicago (1885) relieves New York (ACR-2) as flagship of the Pacific Station
• 1906 - Robley D. Evans hoists his flag in the battleship Maine (BB-10)
• 1908 - A ball signifying New Year's Day drops in New York City's Times Square for the first time
• 1909 - USS Wyoming (BM-10) is renamed Cheyenne.
• 1911 - Northern Territory is separated from South Australia
• 1912 - Establishment of Republic of China
• 1919 - Edsel Ford succeeds his father as head of the Ford Motor Company
• 1923 - Grouping of all UK railway companies into four larger companies.
• 1931 - USS Wyoming (BB-32) was placed in reduced commission at the Philadelphia Navy Yard.
• 1934 - Alcatraz becomes a federal prison
• 1935 - Bucknell University wins the first Orange Bowl 26-0 over the University of Miami
• 1937 - Anastasio Somoza becomes President of Nicaragua
• 1937 - The first Cotton Bowl game is played in Dallas, Texas
• 1939 - Vienna New Year's Concert is first held.
• 1942 - World War II: The word "United Nations" is first officially used to describe the Allied pact.
• 1942 - USS Captor is acquired by the Navy as part of the Auxiliary Vessels Act.
• 1945 - USS California (BB-44) departs from Palau for the Luzon landings
• 1945 - USS Colorado (BB-45) Returns to Luzon on and participates in the preinvasion bombardments in Lingayen Gulf.
• 1945 - Bahawalpur State issues its own stamps.
• 1948 - Nationalisation of UK railways to form British Railways.
• 1948 - Enrico De Nicola becomes President of the State of Italy
• 1956 - End of Anglo-Egyptian Condominium in Sudan.
• 1959 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista overthrown by Fidel Castro.
• 1960 - Cameroon becomes independent
• 1960 - USS Raritan (LSM-540) is struck from the naval register.
• 1962 - Western Samoa becomes independent from New Zealand
• 1964 - Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland dissolved
• 1969 - Marien Ngouabi becomes President of the Republic of Congo
• 1970 - Unix epoch begins at 00:00:00 UTC.
• 1971 - Cigarette advertisements banned on United States television
• 1973 - United Kingdom, Ireland and Denmark join the EEC
• 1978 - An Air India Boeing 747 exploded and crashed into the sea off the coast of Bombay killing 213
• 1979 - United States and the People's Republic of China establish formal diplomatic relations
• 1981 - Palau becomes self-governing
• 1981 - Greece enters the European Community
• 1983 - The ARPANET officially changes to use the Internet Protocol, creating the Internet
• 1984 - Brunei becomes a fully independent state.
• 1984 - AT&T is broken up into 22 independent units
• 1984 - Spain and Portugal enter the European Community
• 1986 - Aruba becomes independent of Curacao
• 1992 - George H. W. Bush is first President of the United States to address the Australian Parliament
• 1993 - Czechoslovakia divides. Establishment of Slovak Republic and Czech Republic
• 1993 - A single market within the European Community is introduced
• 1994 - North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) goes into effect
• 1994 - The EZLN makes its presence known in the state of Chiapas, Mexico, initiating 12 days of armed conflict in that southeastern Mexican state.
• 1995 - World Trade Organization goes into effect
• 1995 - Austria, Finland and Sweden enter the European Union
• 1996 - Curacao gains limited self-government
• 1998 - Smoking is banned in all California bars and restaurants
• 1999 - Euro currency introduced.
• 2000 - Bleen is no longer Blue and is now Green.
• 2002 - Euro banknotes and coins become legal tender.
• 2003 - Luís Inácio Lula da Silva becomes president of Brazil

Births

• 1431 - Pope Alexander VI, (d. 1503)
• 1449 - Lorenzo de Medici, statesman, (d. 1492)
• 1484 - Huldreich Zwingli, protestant leader, (d. 1531)
• 1516 - Margareta Leijonhufvud, former Queen of Sweden
• 1618 - Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, painter, (d. 1682)
• 1735 - Paul Revere, silversmith, United States patriot, (d. 1818)
• 1750 - Frederick Muhlenberg, first speaker of the United States House of Representatives, (d. 1801)
• 1752 - Betsy Ross, seamstress, (d. 1836)
• 1839 - Ouida, writer, (d. 1908)
• 1842 - Albert Alonzo Ames, former mayor of Minneapolis, (d. 1911)
• 1849 - Sir Edmund Barton, former premier minister of Australia, (d. 1920)
• 1857 - Wojciech Kossak, painter
• 1860 - George Washington Carver, educator, inventor, botanist, (d. 1943)
• 1863 - Pierre de Coubertin, historian and pedagogue, initiator of modern Olympic Games, (d. 1937)
• 1864 - Alfred Stieglitz, , American photographer, (d. 1946)
• 1874 - Gustave Whitehead, inventor, (d. 1927)
• 1876 - Harriet Brooks, physicist, (d. 1933)
• 1878 - Yau Yokose, writer?
• 1879 - E. M. Forster, novelist, (d. 1970)
• 1887 - Wilhelm Canaris, admiral, (d. 1945)
• 1890 - Anton Melik, Slovene geographer, (d. 1966)
• 1894 - Satyendra Nath Bose, mathematician, (d. 1974)
• 1895 - J. Edgar Hoover, FBI director, (d. 1972)
• 1897 - Makoto Tomioka, writer?
• 1900 - Xavier Cugat, musician, bandleader, (d. 1990)
• 1904 - Fazal Ilahi Chaudhry, Pakistani politician, (d. 1982)
• 1909 - Barry M. Goldwater, Arizona Senator, (d. 1998)
• 1909 - John Glenn, astronaut, soldier, Senator from Ohio
• 1909 - Dana Andrews, actor, (d. 1992)
• 1911 - Hank Greenberg, baseball player, (d. 1986)
• 1912 - Kim Philby, spy, (d. 1988)
• 1917 - Jule Gregory Charney, meteorologist, (d. 1981)
• 1919 - J. D. Salinger, novelist
• 1922 - Rocky Graziano, boxer, born "Rocky Barbella", (d. 1990)
• 1925 - Stymie Beard, actor, (d. 1981)
• 1927 - Doak Walker, American football star
• 1928 - Ernest Tidyman, writer, (d. 1984)
• 1931 - Chun Doo Hwan, former president of South Korea
• 1933 - Joe Orton, writer, (d. 1967)
• 1940 - Frank Langella, actor
• 1940 - Helmut Jahn, architect
• 1942 - Country Joe McDonald, musician, (Country Joe and the Fish)
• 1942 - Gennadi Sarafanov, cosmonaut
• 1943 - Don Novello, actor, comedian, writer ("Father Guido Sarducci")
• 1945 - Jacky Ickx, automobile racer
• 1958 - Grandmaster Flash, singer
• 1970 - Paul Thomas Anderson, film director, writer, producer
• 1979 - Koichi Domoto, artist

Deaths

• 898 - Odo, Count of Paris
• 1716 - William Wycherley, English dramatist, (b. c. 1640)
• 1817 - Martin Heinrich Klaproth, chemist
• 1894 - Heinrich Hertz, physicist, (b. 1857)
• 1953 - Hank Williams, country music singer, (b. 1923)
• 1972 - Maurice Chevalier, actor and singer, (b. 1888)
• 1986 - Alfredo Binda, Italian cyclist, (b. 1902)
• 1992 - Grace Hopper, computer pioneer, (b. 1906)
• 1994 - Cesar Romero, actor, (b. 1907)
• 1996 - Arleigh Burke, admiral, (b. 1901)
• 1997 - Townes Van Zandt, musician, (b. 1944)
• 2001 - Ray Walston, actor, (b. 1914)
• 2003 - Dieter Lindemann, long-time trainer of swimmer Franziska van Almsick

Holidays and observances

• The seventh day of Christmas in Western Christianity.
• Many countries around the world using Gregorian Calendar - New Year's Day; often celebrated at 0:00 with fireworks.
• Vienna New Year's Concert
• United States - Copyright Expiration Day, celebrating the expiration of the copyright of a year's worth of works of authorship into the public domain. Not celebrated from 1978 to 2018 because of repeated copyright term extensions.
• Catholicism - Octave of Christmas, Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God (New calendar).
• Catholicism - Feast of the Circumcision (Old calendar).
• Catholicism - National Migration Week begins (varying official support by the office of U.S. President, not strictly religious)
• Haiti Independence Day
• Taiwan Founding of Republic of China.
• Sudan Independence Day
• Cuba Liberation Day
• Slovakia: Establishment of Slovak Republic.
• Last day of Kwanzaa
• Pasadena, California - The Tournament of Roses parade and, traditionally, the Rose Bowl football championship
• World Day for Prayer for Peace

December 31 - January 2 - December 1 - February 1 -- listing of all days

January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December

Referenced By