January 1
January 1 is the first day of the calendar year in both the
Julian and Gregorian calendars. Here a calendar year refers to the order in which the months are displayed,
January to December. The first day of
the medieval Julian year was usually a day other than January 1. This day was adopted as the first day of the Julian year by all
Western European countries except England between about 1450 and 1600. The Gregorian calendar as promulgated in 1582 did not specify that January 1 was to be either New Year's Day or the first day of its numbered year. Although England began its numbered year on March 25 (Lady Day or Annunciation Day)
between the 13th century and 1752
January 1 was called New Year's Day it was a holiday when gifts were exchanged during the same period.
There are 364 days remaining (365 in leap years).
Events
- 153 BC - Roman consuls first began their year in office
- 45 BC - Julian calendar
goes into effect
- 404 - Last gladiator competition in
Rome and martyrdom of Saint
Telemachus.
- 1438 - Albert II of
Habsburg becomes King of Hungary
- 1502 - The present-day location of Rio de Janeiro explored.
- 1600 - Scotland first began the numbered
year of its Julian calendar
- 1651 - Charles
II crowned King of Scotland
- 1700 - Russia first adopted Western numbers
for its Julian calendar
- 1707 - John V becomes
King of Portugal
- 1738 - Bouvet Island was
discovered
- 1752 - England and its colonies first began
the numbered year of their calendar
- 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
- 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
- 1885 - The Montgolfier brothers cross the English
Channel
- 1887 - Queen Victoria is proclaimed Empress of India at the first Imperial Assemblage (Durbar) in Delhi.
- 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
- 1898 - New York City annexes
land from surrounding counties, creating the City of Greater New York. The city is geographically divided into five boroughs:
Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx, and Staten Island.
- 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.
- 1908 - A ball signifying New
Year's Day drops in New York City's Times Square for the first time.
- 1911 - Northern
Territory is separated from South Australia.
- 1912 - Establishment of Republic of China
- 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.
- 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.
- 1958 - European
Community established.
- 1959 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista overthrown by Fidel
Castro.
- 1960 - Cameroon becomes independent.
- 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.
- 1976 - NBC introduces its new logo: an abstract
"N", similar to the Nebraska Educational Television Network logo
- 1978 - Air India
Flight 855 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.
- 1987 - Nunavut's capital changes it name to
Iqaluit from Frobisher Bay.
- 1992 - George H. W.
Bush is first President of the United
States to address the Australian Parliament .
- 1993 - Czechoslovakia
divides. Establishment of Slovakia and the 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.
- 2002 - Euro banknotes and coins become legal
tender.
- 2002 - The Open Skies mutual surveillance treaty, initially signed in 1992, officially enters in to force.
- 2003 - Luís Inácio Lula da Silva becomes president of Brazil.
- 2004 - Pervez Musharraf
gets vote of confidence to continue as President of
Pakistan from Parliament and provincial
assemblies.
Births
- 766 - Ali ar-Rida, Shia Imam (d. 818)
- 1431 - Pope Alexander
VI (d. 1503)
- 1449 - Lorenzo de
Medici, Italian statesman (d. 1492)
- 1484 - Huldreich
Zwingli, Swiss Protestant leader (d. 1531)
- 1516 - Margareta
Leijonhufvud, Queen of Sweden (d. 1551)
- 1618 - Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, Spanish painter (d. 1682)
- 1735 - Paul Revere, American
silversmith, patriot (d. 1818)
- 1750 - Frederick
Muhlenberg, first speaker of the United States House of Representatives (d. 1801)
- 1752 - Betsy Ross, American
seamstress (d. 1836)
- 1804? - James Fannin, Texas Revolutionary (d. 1836)
- 1823 - Sándor Petöfi,
Hungarian poet and revolutionary (d. 1849)
- 1839 - Ouida, English writer (d. 1908)
- 1857 - Wojciech Kossak, painter
- 1860 - George
Washington Carver, American educator, inventor, botanist (d. 1943)
- 1863 - Pierre de
Coubertin, French historian and pedagogue, initiator of modern Olympic
Games (d. 1937)
- 1864 - Alfred Stieglitz,
American photographer (d. 1946)
- 1874 - Gustave
Whitehead, German-American inventor (d. 1927)
- 1876 - Harriet Brooks, physicist (d. 1933)
- 1878 - Yau Yokose, writer?
- 1879 - E. M. Forster, English
novelist (d. 1970)
- 1887 - Wilhelm Canaris,
German admiral (d. 1945)
- 1890 - Anton Melik, Slovene geographer (d. 1966)
- 1892 - Artur Rodzinski,
Croatian conductor (d. 1958)
- 1894 - Satyendra Nath
Bose, Indian mathematician (d. 1974)
- 1895 - J. Edgar Hoover,
FBI director (d. 1972)
- 1897 - Makoto Tomioka, writer
- 1900 - Xavier Cugat,
Catalan-Cuban musician, bandleader (d. 1990)
- 1904 - Fazal Ilahi
Chaudhry, Pakistani politician (d. 1982)
- 1906 - Giovanni D'Anzi,
Italian songwriter (d. 1974)
- 1909 - Barry M. Goldwater,
Arizona Senator
(d. 1998)
- 1909 - Dana Andrews, American
actor (d. 1992)
- 1911 - Hank Greenberg,
American baseball player (d. 1986)
- 1912 - Kim Philby, British spy (d.
1988)
- 1917 - Jule Gregory Charney, meteorologist (d. 1981)
- 1917 - Albert Mol, Dutch actor (d.
2004)
- 1919 - J. D. Salinger,
American novelist
- 1920 - Virgilio Savona,
Italian singer and songwriter (Quartetto Cetra)
- 1921 - Isma'il Raji' al-Faruqi, Palestinian-American Muslim thinker, philosopher, and comparative religion
scholar
- 1922 - Rocky Graziano,
American boxer (d. 1990)
- 1925 - Stymie Beard, actor (d. 1981)
- 1927 - Doak Walker, American football star
- 1928 - Ernest Tidyman,
American writer (d. 1984)
- 1931 - Chun Doo Hwan, president
of South Korea
- 1933 - Joe Orton, English writer (d.
1967)
- 1940 - Helmut Jahn, German
architect
- 1940 - Frank Langella
American actor
- 1942 - Martin Frost, American
politician
- 1942 - Country Joe
McDonald, American musician, (Country Joe and the
Fish)
- 1942 - Gennadi
Sarafanov, cosmonaut
- 1943 - Don Novello, American actor,
comedian, writer
- 1945 - Jacky Ickx, Belgian automobile racer
- 1958 - Grandmaster
Flash, Barbados-born singer
- 1961 - Marcia Cross, American
actress
- 1965 - Alison Doody, Irish
actress
- 1966 - Michael
Imperioli, American actor
- 1970 - Paul Thomas
Anderson, American film director, writer, producer
- 1972 - Neve McIntosh, actress
- 1975 - Joe Cannon, American soccer
player
- 1979 - Koichi Domoto, Japanese
artist
- 1980 - Elin Nordegren,
Swedish model
- 1981 - Zsolt
Baumgartner, Hungarian Formula
One racing driver
- 1982 - David Nalbandian,
Argentine tennis player
Deaths
- 379 - Saint Basil of
Caesarea
- 898 - Odo, Count of
Paris
- 1515 - Louis XII of
France (b. 1462)
- 1716 - William
Wycherley, English dramatist (b.
c. 1640)
- 1782 - Johann
Christian Bach, German composer (b. 1735)
- 1817 - Martin
Heinrich Klaproth, German chemist (b. 1743)
- 1892 - Roswell B. Mason,
mayor of Chicago, IL (b. 1805)
- 1894 - Heinrich Hertz, German
physicist (b. 1857)
- 1953 - Hank Williams, American
country music singer (b. 1923)
- 1958 - Edward Weston, American
photographer (b. 1886)
- 1960 - Margaret
Sullavan, American actress (b. 1911)
- 1972 - Maurice
Chevalier, French actor and singer (b. 1888)
- 1981 - Beulah Bondi, American
actress (b. 1888)
- 1982 - Paul Belmondo, French sculptor
- 1986 - Alfredo Binda, Italian
cyclist (b. 1902)
- 1992 - Grace Hopper, American
computer pioneer (b. 1906)
- 1994 - Cesar Romero, American
actor (b. 1907)
- 1994 - Lord Arthur
Espie Porritt, British athlete and physician; New Zealand Governor-General (b. 1900)
- 1996 - Arleigh Burke, U.S.
admiral (b. 1901)
- 1997 - Townes Van Zandt,
musician (b. 1944)
- 1998 - Helen Wills
Moody, tennis player (b. 1905)
- 2001 - Ray Walston, American actor
(b. 1914)
- 2003 - Joe Foss, American politician,
fighter pilot (b. 1915)
Holidays and observances
December 31 - January 2 -
December 1 - February 1 --
listing of all days
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