Today
in History ~ January 1
* New Years Day *
Events
0045 BC -
The Julian calendar took effect [H]
1502 - Portuguese navigator Pedro Cabral and Amerigo Vespucci
sail into harbor of Rio de Janeiro
1651 - Charles II (Stuart) crowned king of Scotland
1700 - Russia replaces Byzantine with Julian calendar
1785 - "Daily Universal Register" (Times of London)
publishes 1st issue
1788 - Quakers in Pennsylvania emancipate their slaves
1764 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at 8 years old played for the
Royal Family at Versailles in France.
1797 - Albany replaces NYC as capital of NY
1804 - Haiti gains independence from France (National Day) [H]
1808 - Congress prohibits importation of slaves
1818 - Official reopening of the White House (After being
repaired from burning by British during War of 1812)
1862 - 1st US income tax
1863 - The Emancipation Proclamation took effect, a few months
after Abraham Lincoln announced it. The Emanicipation
Proclamation did NOT free any slaves, since it applied ONLY
to states that joined the Confederacy. And they weren't listening
to Lincoln at that particular time. [H]
1863 - A
Nebraska farmer files the first homestead claim.
1876 - First
modern Mummers' Parade
1874 - New York City annexes the Bronx
1880 - Building of Panama Canal begins
1897 - Brooklyn merges with NY to form present City of NY
1902 - First
Demonstration in US of Radio Broadcasting
1907 - Pres Theodore Roosevelt shakes a record 8,513 hands in 1
day
1908 - 1st time, ball signifying new year dropped at Times Square
1919 - Edsel
Ford Takes Dad’s Job
1934 - Alcatraz officially becomes a federal prison
1934 - Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (US bank guarantor)
effective
1935 - Eastern Airlines hires Eddie Rickenbacker as GM
1937 - Safety glass
in windshields became mandatory in Great Britain.
1942 - U.S.
Government Ends Sale Of Civilian Cars
1942 - United
Nations created
1946 - Hidden
Japanese surrender after Pacific War has ended
1946 - Emperor Hirohito of Japan announces he is not a god
1950 - Ho Chi Minh begins offensive against French troops in Indo
China
1956 - Elvis Presley records "Heartbreak Hotel" for RCA
in Nashville
1958 - Treaties establish European Economic Community (Common
Market)
1959 - Fidel Castro leads Cuban rebels to power as Fulgencio
Batista flees to Dom Rep
[H]
1966 - 12 day transit worker strike shuts down NYC subway and
buses
1966 - 1st
Marine Division advance elements arrive in
Vietnam.
1966 - Simon & Garfunkel's "Sounds of Silence"
reaches #1
1966 - All US cigarette packs must carry "Caution! Cigarette
smoking may be hazardous to your health"
1967 - Operation
Sam Houston begins as a continuation of border surveillance
operations in Vietnam
1968 - Evel Knievel fails in his attempt to jump Caesar's Palace
Fountain
1971 - Cigarette advertisements banned on TV
1972 - "Promises Promises" closes at Shubert Theater
NYC after 1281 performances
1973 - The
Real-Life Murder Behind Looking For
Mr. Goodbar
1975 - A jury convicted Richard Nixon's three top advisers on ALL
counts in the Watergate coverup.
1976 - NBC replaces the peacock logo
1984 - AT&T's 22 owned Bell system companies divests into 8
companies
1985 - US's 1st manadatory seat belt law goes into effect (NY)
1990 - David Dinkins sworn in as 1st black mayor of NYC
1994 - Wedding
Bells for Bill
Gates.
1996 - After 27 years, Betty Rubble debuts as a Flintstone
vitamin
1998 - All Calif bars, clubs & card rooms must be smoke-free
1998 - Mongolia switches from a 46 hour to 40 hour work week
1999 - US Census Bureau estimates population at 271,646,717
Birthdays
Today
1449 - Lorenzo de
Medici [The Magnificent], of Florence
1618 - Bartolome Murillo (artist)
1735 - Paul Revere (silversmith, patriot: "The British are
coming!", member of Sons of Liberty and participant in
Boston Tea Party)
1752 - Betsy Ross (Elizabeth Griscom) (flagmaker from
Philadelphia, legendary folklore says she sewed the first
American flag)
1879 - William Fox, US film pioneer (Nickelodeon)
1895 - J Edgar Hoover, FBI director
1900 - Xavier Cugat (Francisco Deulogeo) (violinist, composer,
band leader: The Lady in Red, Perfidia, Brazil, Begin the
Beguine; (married Abbe Lane, Charo)
1909 - Barry Goldwater (U.S. Senator, 1964 Republican
Presidential nominee: "...extremism in the defense of
liberty is no vice")
1909 - Dana Andrews (actor: State Fair)
1912 - Kim Philby, ringleader of a group of upper crust
Englishmen who entered public service or, in many cases, the
British SECRET Service, then spied for the Soviet Union. Philby
got away and spent his last years in Moscow.
1916 - Earl Wrightson (actor, singer: Shakespeare's Greatest
Hits)
1919 - J.D. (Jerome David) Salinger (short story writer: Franny
and Zooey; novelist: The Catcher in the Rye)
1921 - John Logan (basketball)
1921 - Rocky Graziano (Rocco Barbella) (champion prize fighter;
actor)
1922 - Ernest Hollings (U.S. Senator from South Carolina)
1927 - Ewell Doak Walker (football: 1948 Heisman Trophy winner:
SMU)
1928 - Frank Pourcel (composer, violinist: group: The French
Fiddles: Only You)
1940 - Frank Langella (actor: The Twelve Chairs, Dracula)
1942 - Billy Lothridge (football)
1942 - Country Joe McDonald (singer: group: Country Joe & the
Fish: The F-I-S-H Cheer from Woodstock)
1945 - Jacky (Jacques) Ickx (race car driver)
1947 - Leonard Thompson (golfer)
Famous
deaths
1557 - Jacques Cartier, French
explorer (Canada), dies at 65
1953 - Hank Williams, country singer (Cold Cold Heart), dies at
29
1961 - Dashiell Hammett, author (Sam Spade, Maltese Falcon), dies
at 66
1990 - Gerhard Schroeder, West German minister of Defense, dies
at 79
1994 - Cesar Romero, US actor (Joker-Batman), dies at 86
1995 - Eugene Wigner, physicist (Nobel prize for physics-1963),
dies at 92
1996 - Arthur Rudolph, German/US rocket Engineer, dies at 89. His
final years were marked by his forced return to his native
Germany from the US because of his earlier involvement with the
slave labor that powered the Third Reich's V1 & V2 rocket
programs
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