TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON: JANUARY 1
45 BC The Julian calendar takes effect for the first time
404 Last gladiator competition in Rome
630 Prophet Muhammad sets out with his army towards Mecca, capturing it bloodlessly
1430 Jews of Sicily are no longer required to attend conversionist services
1500 The Portuguese explorer Pedro Alvares Cabral reaches the coast of Brazil and claims the region for Portugal.
1586 Sir Francis Drake launches a surprise attack on the heavily fortified city of Santo Domingo in Hispanola.
1622 The Papal Chancery adopted January 1st as the beginning of the New Year (instead of March 25th).
1698 The Abenaki Indians and Massachusetts colonists sign a treaty halting hostilities between the two.
1772 The first traveler’s checks were issued in London.
1758 The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature establish the “starting point” for standardized species names across the animal kingdom, based on the binomial nomenclature by Carolus Linnaeus 10th edition of Systema Naturae
1788 The Times, London’s oldest running newspaper, publishes its first edition.
1808 A U.S. law banning the import of slaves comes into effect, but is widely ignored.
1830 William Lloyd Garrison publishes the first edition of a journal entitled The Liberator, calling for the complete and immediate emancipation of all slaves in the United States.
1863 President Abraham Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing the slaves in the Confederacy.
1892 Ellis Island opens as a US immigration inspection station – it would go on to be the gateway to the US for more than 12 million people
1895 In Battle Creek, MI, C.W. Post created his first usable batch of Monks Brew (later called Postum). It was a cereal-based substitute for caffeinated drinks.
1896 German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen announces his discovery of x-rays
1907 The Pure Food and Drug Act becomes law in the United States.
1912 Republic of China is founded It was succeeded by the People’s Republic of China in 1949.
1918 The first gasoline pipeline begins operation. Along the 40 miles and three inches of pipe from Salt Creek to Casper, Wyoming.
1937 At a party at the Hormel Mansion in Minnesota, a guest wins $100 for naming a new canned meat–Spam.
1942 Rose Bowl played in North Carolina due to Japanese threat-Oregon 20, Duke 16
1942 U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill issued a declaration called the “United Nations.” It was signed by 26 countries that vowed to create an international postwar World War II peacekeeping organization.
1944 Army defeats Navy 10-7 in football “Arab Bowl”, Oran, North Africa
1959 Fidel Castro seizes power in Cuba as General Fulgencio Batista flees.
1960 US census at 179,245,000
1966 All US cigarette packs have to carry “Caution Cigarette smoking may be hazardous to your health”
1975 John Mitchell, H. R. Haldeman, and John Ehrlichman were convicted of obstruction of justice in the Watergate affair.
1980 Mob storms Russian embassy in Teheran
1992 Russia is formed. The formation of the Russian Federation followed the disintegration of the Soviet Union.
1993 Czechoslovakia is dissolved. The country was peacefully divided into the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic.
1994 The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) went into effect.
1995 Frederick West, an alleged killer of 12 women and girls, was found hanged in his jail cell in Winston Green prison, in Birmingham. West had been under almost continuous watch since his arrest in 1994, but security had reportedly been relaxed in the months preceding the apparent suicide.
1999 In California, a law went into effect that defined “invasion of privacy as trespassing with the intent to capture audio or video images of a celebrity or crime victim engaging in a personal of family activity.”
2002 Euro coins and notes went into circulation in twelve European nations.
REFERENCES: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeoplehistory.com, timeandate.com, factmonster.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
