1863 – U.S. President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared that all slaves in the rebel states were free.
0001 – Origin of the Christian Era
0104 – Triumphal procession for the Roman General Gaius Marius with the defeated Numidian King Jugurtha led in chains though Rome
0177 – Commodus, son of Emperor Marcus Aurelius becomes consul for the first time – at 15 then youngest ever in Roman history
0404 – The last gladiator competition was held in Rome.
0630 – Prophet Muhammad sets out with an army 10,000 strong to conquer Mecca
1430 – Jews of Sicily are no longer required to attend conversionist services
1515 – Francis, Duke of Angouleme succeeds King Louis XII as Francis I of France
1600 – Scotland begins its numbered year on January 1 instead of 25 March.
1622 – The Papal Chancery adopted January 1st as the beginning of the New Year (instead of March 25th).
1673 – Regular mail delivery begins between NY & Boston
1724 – Glassblower Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit proposes system for making thermometers and the Fahrenheit temperature scale in a paper to the Royal Society of London and is elected a fellow on its basis
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
1772 – The first traveler’s checks were issued in London.
1781 – 1,500 soldiers of the 6th Pennsylvania Regiment under General Anthony Wayne’s command rebel against the Continental Army’s winter camp in Morristown, New Jersey as part of the Pennsylvania (Continentals; Regiment) Mutiny of 1781.
1785 – London’s oldest daily paper “The Daily Universal Register” (later renamed “The Times” in 1788) was first published.
1788 – Quakers in Pennsylvania emancipate their slaves
1797 – Albany became the capital of New York state, replacing New York City.
1801 – The Act of Union of England and Ireland came into force.
1801 – Italian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi became the first person to discover an asteroid. He named it Ceres.
1803 – Emperor Gia Long orders all bronze wares of the Tây Sơn Dynasty to be collected and melted into nine cannons for the Royal Citadel in Huế, Vietnam.
1804 – Haiti gained its independence from France.
1808 – The U.S. prohibited import of slaves from Africa.
1818 – Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus” is published anonymously by the small London publishing house of Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones
1831 – William Lloyd Garrison publishes 1st issue of abolitionist journal, “The Liberator”; publication continued until the 13th Amendment abolished slavery in 1865
1847 – Michigan is 1st state to abolish capital punishment
1862 – 1st US income tax (3% of incomes > $600, 5% of incomes > $10,000)
1863 – U.S. President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared that all slaves in the rebel states were free. https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured-documents/emancipation-proclamation#:~:text=President%20Abraham%20Lincoln%20issued%20the,and%20henceforward%20shall%20be%20free.%22
1887 – Queen Victoria was proclaimed empress of India in Delhi.
1890 – The Rose Parade, then known as the Tournament of Roses, is first held in Pasadena, California
1894 – The Manchester Ship Canal was officially opened to traffic.
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.
1898 – Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island were consolidated into New York City.
1900 – Nigeria became a British protectorate with Frederick Lagard as the high commissioner.
1901 – The Commonwealth of Australia was founded. Lord Hopetoun officially assumed the duties as the first Governor-General.
1902 – The first Tournament of Roses (later the Rose Bowl) collegiate football game was played in Pasadena, CA.
1909 – The first payments of old-age pensions were made in Britain. People over 70 received five shillings a week.
1912 – Republic of China is founded, It was succeeded by the People’s Republic of China in 1949.
1934 – Alcatraz Island officially became a Federal Prison.
1934 – The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) began operation.
1934 – Nazi Germany passes the “Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring”.
1936 – The “New York Herald Tribune” began microfilming its current issues.
1944 – Army defeats Navy 10-7 in football “Arab Bowl,” Oran, North Africa
1945 – France was admitted to the United Nations.
1953 – The first TV detector van, used to track down users of unlicensed television sets, begins operation in the UK
1958 – The European Economic Community (EEC) started operations.
1959 – Fidel Castro overthrew the government of Fulgencio Batista, and seized power in Cuba.
1960 – A photograph of a South African boy in a torn vest is published in the Daily Herald; it was illegal to employ a ‘native’ under 18 in the mines under the Native Labour Regulation Act
1962 – United States Navy SEALs established.
1966 – 12 day transit worker strike shuts down NYC subway
1971 – Tobacco ads representing $20 million dollars in advertising were banned from TV and radio broadcast.
1973 – Britain, Ireland, Denmark and Norway joined the EEC.
1975 – The magazine “Popular Electronics” announced the invention of a person computer called Altair. MITS, using an Intel microprocessor, developed the computer.
1979 – The United States and China held celebrations in Washington, DC, and Beijing to mark the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
1981 – Greece joined the European Community.
1986 – South African Government closes its borders with Lesotho, cutting off important food and fuel supplies, after Lesotho refuses to sign a non-aggression pact
1991 – Iraq rejects peace proposal from Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak
1992 – The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic is renamed the Russian Federation, becoming the successor state to the Soviet Union.
1992 – The ESPN Radio Network was officially launched.
1993 – Czechoslovakia split into two separate states, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The peaceful division had been engineered in 1992.
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.
1995 – The World Trade Organization came into existence. The group of 125 nations monitors global trade.
1998 – A new anti-smoking law went into effect in California. The law prohibiting people from lighting up in bars.
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.”
1999 – The Euro becomes the official currency in 11 countries, While the Euro was already valid for bank transfers, notes and coins were introduced on January 1, 2002.
2001 – The “Texas 7,” rented space in an RV park in Woodland Park, CO.
2002 – The Open Skies mutual surveillance treaty, initially signed in 1992, officially comes into force.
2007 – Slovenia officially adopts the Euro currency and becomes the thirteenth Eurozone country.
2008 – A New Hampshire law legalizing civil unions for same-sex couples comes into effect.
2010 – Suicide car bomb detonates at a volleyball tournament in Lakki Marwat, Pakistan, killing 105 and injuring 100
2013 – 13 Boko Harem members are killed by Nigeria’s military in Maiduguri
2013 – 13 FARC members are killed by an airstrike by the Colombian military
2018 – California becomes largest US state to legalise cannabis for recreational use
2019 – Millions of women create a 300 mile ‘Women’s Wall’ across state of Kerala, India, in support of women’s access to temple of Sabarimala
2019 – Qatar introduces a 100% tax on alcohol and other “health-damaging goods”, doubling the price of alcohol, tobacco, energy drinks and pork in the oil-rich, predominantly Muslim nation
2019 – Qatar withdraws from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) after 57 years of membership
2021 – African Continental Free Trade Area, signed by 54 countries comes into effect, largely symbolically with full implementation expected to take years
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
