On January 1st...

New Year's Day

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1431 Pope Alexander VI was born.

1438 Albrecht II von Habsburg became King of Hungary.

1515 King Louis XII of France died.

1527 Croatian nobles elected Ferdinand I of Austria as King of Croatia.

1651 Charles II was crowned King of Scotland.

1673 Regular mail delivery between New York, New York, and Boston, Massachusetts, began.

1707 John V became King of Portugal.

1729 Philosopher Edmund Burke was born.

1735 Paul Revere, Revolutionary patriot and silversmith, was born.

1739 J. B. C. Bouvet de Lozier discovered Bouvet Island, near Antarctica.

1745 Anthony Wayne, Revolutionary War general, was born.

1752 Betsy Ross, American flagmaker, was born.

1772 The first traveler's cheques went on sale in London, England.

1785 The first issue of the Daily Universal Register (now the London Times) was published.

1788 Quakers in Pennsylvania emancipated their slaves.

1797 Albany officially became the capital of New York.

1801 The Irish Parliament voted to join the Kingdom of Great Britain, forming the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

1804 Haiti gained its independence from France.

1808 The African Benevolent Society was formed.
1808 The U.S. Congress prohibited the importation of slaves.
1808 Sierra Leone became a British colony.

1818 Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was published.
1818 The White House was officially reopened.

1840 The first recorded bowling match in the United States was played at Knickerbocker Alleys in New York City, New York.

1845 The Cobble Hill Tunnel in Brooklyn, New York, was completed.

1846 Yucatan declared its independence from Mexico.

1847 Michigan abolished capital punishment.

1852 The first public bath house in the United States opened in New York City, New York.

1854 Cultural anthropologist James George Frazer was born.

1863 Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.
1863 The first homestead under the Homestead Act was claimed by Daniel Freeman near Beatrice, Nebraska.*

1874 New York City, New York, annexed The Bronx.

1877 Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom was proclaimed Empress of India.

1879 William Fox, founder of 20th Century Fox, was born.

1886 The first Tournament of Roses* parade was held in Pasadena, California.

1890 Eritrea was consolidated into a colony by the Italian government.

1892 Ellis Island became the East Coast reception center for immigrants to the United States.

1894 The Manchester Ship Canal in England opened to traffic.

1895 J. Edgar Hoover, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, was born.

1898 Brooklyn merged with New York City, New York.

1900 The British Protectorates of Northern and Southern Nigeria were established.
1900 Musician Xavier Cugat was born.

1901 The Commonwealth of Australia was proclaimed.

1902 The University of Michigan defeated Stanford University 49-0 in the first Rose Bowl game.

1908 The New Year was marked by the dropping of a ball in Times Square for the first time.

1909 Actor Dana Andrews was born.
1909 U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater was born.

1912 Sun Yat-sen established the Republic of China.

1913 The United States Postal Service inaugurated parcel post service.

1914 Northern and Southern Nigeria were united into the single British colony of Nigeria.

1919 The Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic was established.
1919 Boxer Rocky Graziano was born.
1919 Author J.D. Salinger was born.

1923 The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was established.

1925 Norway's capital officially changed its name from Christiana to Oslo.

1930 Jurgens and Van den Berg merged with Lever Brothers to form Unilever.

1934 Alcatraz officially became a federal prison.
1934 The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation became effective.
1934 The International Telecommunication Union was established.

1935 Tulane beat Temple, 20-14, in the first Sugar Bowl.
1935 Bucknell beat Miami (Florida), 26-0, in the first Orange Bowl.

1937 Anastasio Somoza Garcia became President of Nicaragua.

1943 Businessman Ron Perelman was born.

1944 Wrestler Jimmy Hart was born.

1946 Japanese Emperor Hirohito formally renounced all claims to divinity.
1946 Hungary proclaimed itself a republic.

1948 The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade became effective.
1948 Italy adopted a new constitution.
1948 British Rail was formed.
1948 The first color newsreel was filmed in Pasadena, California.

1949 The Tokelau (Union) Islands were declared part of New Zealand.

1950 Ho Chi Minh began an offensive against French trrops in Indochina.

1953 Singer Hank Williams, Sr. died.

1956 Sudan became independent of Great Britain.
1956 American politician Frank Hague died.

1957 The Saar region was formally reunited with Germany.
1957 Florida Governor LeRoy Collins ordered the suspension of bus service in Tallahassee to prevent violence over racial desegregation of passengers.

1958 Treaties establishing the European Economic Community went into effect.
1958 Delegates in Cairo, Egypt, voted to establish an Afro-Asian People's Solidarity Council.
1958 Two passenger trains collided near New Delhi, India, killing 32 persons.
1958 General Thanom Kittakachorn was formally named Prime Minister of Thailand by King Phumibol Adulyadej.

1960 Cameroon became independent of French-administered U.N. trusteeship.

1962 A band of 40 rebels attacked an infantry barracks in Beja, Portugal.
1962 The Anglican Church of Australia became independent of the Church of England.
1962 At least 70 persons drowned when a passenger boat sank on the Savitri River near Mhapal, India.
1962 Rwanda was granted internal self-government by Belgium.
1962 Western Samoa became the Independent State of Samoa.

1965 International Cooperation Year began.
1965 A bus, on a run between Huancayo and Ayacucho, Peru, dropped into a ravine of the Mantaro River, killing 28 persons.

1967 Football player Derrick Thomas was born.

1968 Evel Knievel failed in his attempt to jump Caesar's Palace Fountain in Las Vegas, Nevada.

1970 The University College of Zululand attained full academic autonomy as the University of Zululand.

1971 The advertising of tobacco products on television became illegal in the United States (effective at 12:01 am January 2).

1972 Singer Maurice Chevalier died.

1973 The United Kingdom joined the European Economic Community.
1973 The West African Economic Community was formed.

1974 World Population Year began.

1975 International Women's Year began.

1976 The Liberty Bell was moved to a special pavillion behind Independence Hall.

1977 Jacqueline Means became the first woman to be ordained an Episcopal priest.

1978 An Air India Boeing 747 exploded in midair and plunged into the Arabian Sea shortly after taking off from Bombay, India, killing all 213 persons aboard.

1979 The United States formally opened diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China and ended its ties with the Nationalist Chinese government.
1979 China formally adopted the Pinyin phonetic alphabet.
1979 The International Year of the Child began.

1980 The International Decade of Water and Sanitation began.
1980 Sweden changed the order of succession to the throne.
1980 Adbou Diouf became President of Senegal.
1980 Victoria was crowned Princess of Sweden.

1981 The International Year for the Disabled began.
1981 Palau (Trust Territory of Pacific Islands) became self-governing.

1983 World Communications Year began.

1984 Brunei became independent of the United Kingdom.

1985 International Youth Year began.
1985 The U.S.'s first mandatory seat belt law went into effect in New York.
1985 VH-1 made its broadcasting debut.

1986 The Internet Domain Name System was created.1986 Aruba became independent from Curacao.
1986 International Peace Year began.

1987 The International Year of Shelter for Homeless began.

1988 Year of the Reader began.

1989 Year of the Young Reader began.

1990 David Dinkins was sworn in as the first black Mayor of New York City, New York.
1990 The Sports News Network began operations on cable television.

1992 The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic was renamed the Russian Federation.
1992 International Space Year began.

1993 Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic.

1994 The North American Free Trade Agreement went into effect.
1994 The International Year of the Family began.
1994 Actor Cesar Romero died.

1995 The International Year of Tolerance began.
1995 The last "Far Side" cartoon was published.

1996 Curacao gained limited self-rule.

1999 The International Year of Elderly began.

2002 The Euro became legal tender in twelve of the European Union member nations.

2005 American politician Shirley Chisholm died.

2009 A nightclub fire in Bangkok, Thailand, killed 61 persons.
2009 Former U.S. Senator Claiborne Pell died.

2010 A suicide car bomb detonated at a volleyball tournament in Lakki Marwat, Pakistan, killing 105 persons and injuring 100.

2013 A bus and mini-bus collision in Thies, Senegal, killed 18 persons and injured 16.
2013 Ten persons were killed and 120 injured in a stampede in Luanda, Angola.

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This page was last updated on January 01, 2019.