Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index January 1 is the 1st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 364 days remaining (365 in leap years). Table of contents 1 Events 2 Births 3 Deaths 4 Holidays and observances 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 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 († 1503) 1449 - Lorenzo de Medici, statesman († 1492) 1484 - Huldreich Zwingli, protestant leader († 1531) 1516 - Margareta Leijonhufvud, former Queen of Sweden 1618 - Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, painter († 1682) 1735 - Paul Revere, silversmith, United States patriot († 1818) 1750 - Frederick Muhlenberg, first speaker of the United States House of Representatives († 1801) 1752 - Betsy Ross, seamstress († 1836) 1839 - Ouida, writer († 1908) 1842 - Albert Alonzo Ames, († 1911), former mayor of Minneapolis 1849 - Sir Edmund Barton, († 1920), former premier minister of Australia 1857 - Wojciech Kossak, painter 1860 - George Washington Carver, educator, inventor, botanist († 1943) 1863 - Pierre de Coubertin, historian and pedagogue, initiator of modern Olympic Games († 1937) 1864 - Alfred Stieglitz, , American photographer († 1946) 1874 - Gustave Whitehead, inventor 1876 - Harriet Brooks, physicist († 1933) 1878 - Yau Yokose, writer? 1879 - E. M. Forster, novelist († 1970) 1887 - Wilhelm Canaris, admiral († 1945) 1890 - Anton Melik, Slovene geographer († 1966) 1894 - Satyendra Nath Bose, mathematician († 1974) 1895 - J. Edgar Hoover, FBI director († 1972) 1897 - Makoto Tomioka, writer? 1900 - Xavier Cugat, musician, bandleader († 1990) 1909 - Barry M. Goldwater, Arizona Senator († 1998) 1909 - John Glenn, astronaut, soldier, Senator from Ohio 1909 - Dana Andrews, actor († 1992) 1911 - Hank Greenberg, baseball player († 1986) 1912 - Kim Philby, spy († 1988) 1917 - Jule Gregory Charney, meteorologist († 1981) 1919 - J. D. Salinger, novelist 1922 - Rocky Graziano, boxer, born "Rocky Barbella" († 1990) 1925 - Stymie Beard, actor († 1981) 1927 - Doak Walker, American football star 1928 - Ernest Tidyman, writer († 1984) 1931 - Chun Doo Hwan, former president of South Korea 1933 - Joe Orton, writer († 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 1817 - Martin Heinrich Klaproth, chemist 1894 - Heinrich Hertz, physicist 1953 - Hank Williams, country music singer 1972 - Maurice Chevalier, actor and singer 1986 - Alfredo Binda, Italian cyclist 1992 - Grace Hopper, computer pioneer 1994 - Cesar Romero, actor 1996 - Arleigh Burke, admiral 1997 - Townes Van Zandt, musician 2001 - Ray Walston, actor 2003 - Dieter Lindemann, long-time trainer of swimmer Franziska van Almsick Holidays and observances The eight 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. Catholicism - Feast of the Circumcision 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 See Also: December 31 - January 2 - December 1 - February 1 -- listing of all days January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.