Today in History (January 1st)

New Year’s Day,
First Foot Day,
Today is the first day of the year.

0045 B.C.: New Year’s Day was celebrated on Jan. 1 for the first time as the Julian calendar took effect.

0404: The last known gladiator competition took place.

1449: Birthdays: Lorenzo de Medici [The Magnificent], Florence, Italian statesman.

1502: Portuguese navigators Pedro Cabral and Amerigo Vespucci landed at a harbor on the coast of South America and named the site Rio de Janeiro (River of January).

1515: Francis, Duke of Angouleme, became Francis I of France on the death of Louis XII.

1557: Deaths: Jacques Cartier French explorer (Canada), died at 65.

1651: Charles II (Stuart) was crowned king of Scotland.

1673: The first regular mounted mail service in the United States was inaugurated between New York and Boston.

1700: Russia replaced Byzantine with Julian calendar.

1701: The union between Great Britain and Ireland became effective, creating the United Kingdom.

1735: Birthdays: Paul Revere Silversmith/United States Patriot (The British are coming).

1745: Birthdays: Anthony Wayne, American Revolution General.

1752: Birthdays: Elizabeth Griscom (Betsy) Ross, legend has it, made the first American flag

1764: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart played for the Royal Family at Versailles in France. He was even given the honor of standing behind the Queen at dinner – Mozart was only eight years old.

1776: George Washington unveiled the Grand Union Flag, the first national flag in America after King George III of England called on American forces to surrender.

1785: The ‘Daily Universal Register,’ which later became the Times of London, published its first issue in Britain.

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 between Great Britain and Ireland became effective, creating the United Kingdom. Ceres, classified as a dwarf planet, was discovered by Giuseppe Piazzi.

1803: Two months after his defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte’s colonial forces, Jean-Jacques Dessalines proclaimed the independence of Saint-Domingue, renaming it Haiti after its original Arawak name.

1804: Haiti gains independence from France (National Day). After helping to lead a rebellion against the French, Jean-Jacques Dessalines declared Haiti independent.

1808: The United Kingdom made Sierra Leone a crown colony. Congress prohibited the importation of slaves.

1818: The White House was officially reopened after being repaired from burning by British during War of 1812.

1833: The United Kingdom claimed sovereignty over the Falkland Islands.

1847: Michigan became the first state to abolish capital punishment.

1862: The first United States income tax (3% of incomes over $600, 5% of incomes over $10,000) went into effect.

1863: The Emancipation Proclamation, introduced the previous September by Abraham Lincoln, took effect. The proclamation freed all slaves in territories held by Confederates and encouraging the enlisting of black soldiers in the Union Army. The Emanicipation Proclamation did NOT free ALL the slaves, since it applied ONLY to states that joined the Confederacy. And they weren’t listening to Lincoln at that particular time. Birthdays: Pierre de Coubertin, modern Olympic movement founder

1864: Birthdays: Alfred Stieglitz, photography pioneer

1874: New York City annexed the Bronx.

1876: The first British trademark was registered – to Bass Pale Ale.

1877: Queen Victoria was proclaimed Empress of India.

1879: Birthdays: E.M. Forster, English novelist; William Fox, United States Film Pioneer (Nickelodeon).

1880: Building of Panama Canal began.

1886: The first Tournament Of Roses Parade took place in Pasadena, California. The United Kingdom annexed Upper Burma.

1890: The first Tournament of Roses parade took place in Pasadena, Calif.

1892: The Ellis Island Immigrant Station in New York Harbor, New York formally opened to begin the processing of what would amount to more than 20 million immigrants to the United States. The immigration center was also used as a deportation station, and later, a Coast Guard Station, and then, a national park. Ellis Island is now a museum.

1895: Birthdays: J. Edgar Hoover.

1896: Wilhelm Rontgen announced his discovery of x-rays.

1898: Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island were consolidated into New York City.

1900: Birthdays: Xavier Cugat, Barcelona, Spain, Bandleader (married Abbe Lane, Charo).

1901: The Commonwealth of Australia was established with Edmund Barton as prime minister, declaring its independence from the United Kingdom.

1902: The very first Tournament of Roses collegiate football game was played in Pasadena, California. Michigan trounced the Stanford Cardinal, 49-0. It would be 14 years before another Rose Bowl game was held.

1907: President Theodore Roosevelt shook a record 8,513 hands in one day.

1908: The ball announcing the beginning of the New Year was lowered for the first time in Times Square.

1909: Birthdays: Dana Andrews, Actor; Barry Goldwater Republican/Senator (Arizona, 1953-65, 69-..)/Presidential Candidate (1964).

1911: Birthdays: Hank Greenberg, Baseball Hall of Fame member

1912: Birthdays: Harold Kim Philby, British-born Soviet master spy, 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.

1913: In the United States, parcel post started for the first time; the previous weight limit had been 4 pounds.

1914: Britain established the West African colony called Nigeria.

1919: The Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic was established. Birthdays: J. D. Salinger Author/Novelist (The Catcher in the Rye); Rocky Graziano, boxer

1923: A confederation of Russia, Byelorussia, Ukraine and Transcaucasia was established; the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics came into effect the following July. Birthdays: Ernest Hollings Democrat/Senator (South Carolina).

1924: Frank B. Cooney of Minneapolis received a patent for ink paste. Birthdays: Milt Jackson Jazz Musician.

1925: The capital city of Norway, known as Christiana or Kristiana since 1674, resumed its name of Oslo. The Four Horsemen of the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame played together for the last time as the Irish downed Stanford, 27-10. The Four Horsemen were Jim Crowley, Elmer Layden, Don Miller and Harry Stuhldreher. Lucrezia Bori and John McCormack of the famous Metropolitan Opera in New York City made their singing debuted on radio. The broadcast over what was WEAF Radio (now WABC) encouraged others to sing on radio. People like: Hootie and the Blowfish, Fat Head Todd and Toad the Wet Sprocket, to name a few.

1926: The Rose Bowl was carried coast to coast on network radio for the first time. Graham McNamee provided play-by-play on NBC Radio.

1927: Birthdays: Doak Walker, Football Hall of Fame member

1930: One of radio’s first comedy programs, ‘The Cuckoo Hour’ was heard for the first time on the NBC-Blue Network, which later became ABC Radio.

On online tadalafil the off chance that you are more established than 65 years, you can endure Sildenafil Citrate symptoms. Pomegranates aid longevity, reduce heart disease and strokes, reverse the buildup of arterial plaque, and reduce blood sugar levels and its effects lasted for more than 10 hours. 4. prescription de levitra Lycopene is a super antioxidant that tadalafil free shipping protects the heart, prostate and skin. There are some sexual disorders that affect both men as well as women but here we are going to levitra 10 mg pdxcommercial.com focus mainly on the sexual disorders those hit men. 1934: The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC), which guaranteed United States banks, went into effect. Alcatraz Island officially became a Federal Prison.

1935: Eastern Airlines hired Eddie Rickenbacker as General Manager.

1937: The First Cotton Bowl football game was played in Dallas. Texas Christian (TCU) beat Marquette, 16-6.

1938: Birthdays: Frank Langella, actor

1940: Birthdays: Frank Langella Actor (Dracula).

1942: Twenty-six nations signed the ‘Declaration of the United Nations,’ affirming opposition to Axis powers. Birthdays: Country Joe McDonald Rock/Folk Singer/Musician (Country Joe and the Fish).

1943: Birthdays: Don Novello [Father Guido Sarducci] Writer/Comedian; Ron Perelman, businessman

1945: France was admitted to the United Nations.

1946: Emperor Hirohito of Japan announced he is not a god. Birthdays: Shelby Steele, Writer.

1947: Birthdays: Jon Corzine, Former New Jersey Governor.

1948: The first newsreel in color was filmed in Pasadena, California.

1950: Ho Chi Minh begins offensive against French troops in Indo China.

1951: The Zenith Radio Corp. of Chicago demonstrated the first pay-per-view television system, offering three movies, April Showers, Welcome Stranger and Homecoming. Birthdays: Steve Ripley Country Singer (The Tractors).

1952: Chart Toppers: Why Don’t You Believe Me Joni James; Don’t Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes Skeets McDonald; Don’t Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes Perry Como; Because You’re Mine Mario Lanza.

1953: Deaths: Hank Williams Senior composer/country singer (Cold Cold Heart), On his way to a concert engagement in Canton, Ohio, quietly died of a heart attack while riding in the back seat of a Cadillac. His driver found Williams dead when he stopped at a gas station in West Virginia. Earlier that day, near Rutledge, Tennessee, the driver was stopped for speeding by a policeman. The officer commented that the person in the back seat looked dead. The driver thought that Williams was sleeping. Williams was only 29 years old when he died. His premature death was brought on by an overdose of alcohol and drugs.

1956: Sudan became an independent republic. Elvis Presley records ‘Heartbreak Hotel/I Was the One’ for RCA in Nashville. In 1999, the single would be certified multi-platinum for the second time.

1958: Treaties establishing the European Economic Community, or the Common Market, went into effect. Birthdays: Grandmaster Flash Rapper/Disc Jockey.

1959: Fidel Castro, leading Cuban revolutionaries, seized power in Cuba after dictator Fulgencio Batista fled to the Dominican Republic. Birthdays: Ren Woods Actress.

1960: Johnny Cash played the first of many free concerts behind bars when he entertained the inmates of San Quentin Prison. Among those in the audience was future country star Merle Haggard, serving time for burglary. Cameroon achieved independence from France. Chart Toppers: Wonderland by Night Bert Kaempfert; Wings of a Dove Ferlin Husky; Exodus Ferrante and Teicher; Are You Lonesome To-night? Elvis Presley.

1961: Birthdays: Marcia Cross Actress (Melrose Place). Deaths: Dashiell Hammett Author (Sam Spade, Maltese Falcon), died at 66.

1962: The Beatles auditioned for Decca records in London on the same day as Brian Poole and the Tremeloes. Decca chose the Tremeloes because the company felt ‘groups of guitars are on the way out’.

1964: Birthdays: DeDee Pfeiffer Actress (Cybill).

1966: Simon and Garfunkel’s ‘Sounds of Silence’ reached #1. Effective on this day, all United States cigarette packages had to carry the warning ‘Caution: Cigarette smoking may be hazardous to your health’. 12 day transit worker strike shuts down New York City subway and buses.

1967: In his annual New Year’s column of predictions, the great Criswell wrote that there would be a one-week war with Egypt and Russia against Israel. War broke out in the Mideast that June: The Arab-Israeli 6-Day War. His column also stated that actress Jayne Mansfield would die in that year. She did.

1968: Evel Knievel fails in his attempt to jump Caesar’s Palace Fountain. Criswell was at it again, predicting that a black civil rights leader would be assassinated before October. Martin Luther King Jr was shot in April. A group known as The Blue Velvets decided to change its name this day to Creedence Clearwater Revival, and the new name soon became a national pop music favorite as the group climbed to stardom. Chart Toppers: Wichita Lineman Glen Campbell; Stormy Classics IV featuring Dennis Yost; I Heard It Through the Grapevine Marvin Gaye; For Once in My Life Stevie Wonder.

1971: The last day we ever sang, ‘Winston tastes good like a cigarette should’ or heard the ‘Marlboro Theme’ on radio or TV. Tobacco ads representing $20 million dollars in advertising were banned from broadcast.

1972: ‘Promises Promises’ closed at Shubert Theater NYC after 1281 performances.

1973: Britain, Ireland and Denmark became members of the EEC.

1975: Former U.S. Attorney General John Mitchell and former presidential aides H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman were found guilty of conspiracy to obstruct the Watergate investigation. ‘Watergate’ is shorthand for the burglary of Democratic Party offices in Washington’s Watergate office complex. The burglars were caught, and were found to have White House connections.

1976: The Liberty Bell was moved to its new home behind Independence Hall. NBC Television debuted a new abstract capital ‘N’ – a corporate symbol that replaced the familiar peacock logo after 20 years. The cost of the new NBC logo was estimated to be between $750,000 and $1 million. After much ridicule, it took two more years before they got the really bad news. Nebraska Public Television went after NBC for copying ITS logo; which it had broadcast for several years. The cost…35 dollars. NBC paid the costs and the ‘N’ stayed around for a short time before being replaced by…the peacock. NBC shipped the abstract goofiness to Nebraska Public TV and told them to put it to good use. Chart Toppers: You Make Me Feel Like Dancing Leo Sayer; You Don’t Have to Be a Star (To Be in My Show) Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Junior; Tonight’s the Night (Gonna Be Alright) Rod Stewart; Sweet Dreams Emmylou Harris.

1978: An Air India jumbo jet exploded in mid-air near Bombay, killing 213.

1979: The United States and China held celebrations in Washington and Beijing to mark the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, 30 years after the foundation of the People’s Republic.

1980: Birthdays: Elin Nordegren, Model, Former wife of golfer Tiger Woods.

1981: Greece was admitted as the 10th member of the European Economic Community.

1982: Washington’s Huskies beat the Iowa Hawkeyes, 28-0, in the Rose Bowl. It had been 29 years since the last Rose Bowl shutout.

1984: The breakup of AT&T took place as the telecommunications giant was divested of its 22 Bell System companies into 8 companies, under terms of an antitrust agreement. Brunei became an independent state. Chart Toppers: Why Not Me The Judds; The Wild Boys Duran Duran; Sea of Love The Honeydrippers; Like a Virgin Madonna.

1985: VH-1 made its broadcasting debut. United States’s first manadatory seat belt law went into effect in New York. 237,839,000 people lived in the United States. The number represented a birth rate well below the levels of the ’50s and ’60s baby boom which saw 3,690,000 newborns.

1986: Soviet television aired a 5-minute greeting from U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Americans got the same from Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in the first such exchange between the superpowers.

1990: A settlement was announced in the bitter, violent nine-month Pittston coal strike. David Dinkins was sworn in as New York City’s first black mayor. British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher distanced herself from United States vows to punish whoever bombed Pam Am Flight 103, saying in a TV interview that revenge ‘can affect innocent people’. Deaths: Gerhard Schroeder West German minister of Defense, died at 79.

1992: Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt succeeded Javier Perez de Cuellar of Peru as United Nations secretary-general. A peace accord to end the El Salvador civil war was reached at the United Nations.

1993: The country of Czechoslovakia peacefully split into two new countries: the states of the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

1994: The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) went into effect. Bill Gates, Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft, wed Marilyn French. The wedding was held on the island of Lanai in Hawaii.

1995: The last ‘The Far Side’ appeared as cartoonist Gary Larson retired the strip he began in 1980. The North American Free Trade Agreement went into effect. Sweden, Finland and Austria joined the European Union. Suspected serial killer Frederick West, accused of murdering 12 women and girls in Britain’s notorious ‘House of Horrors’ case, was found hanged in his jail cell. A cease-fire supposed to last four months began in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Deaths: Eugene Wigner Physicist/Nobel Prize (1963-Physics), died at 92; Cesar Romero United States, Actor (Joker-Batman), died in Santa Monica, California, at age 86.

1996: Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd handed over the running of the country to his younger brother Crown Prince Abdullah after suffering a stroke. After 27 years, Betty Rubble made her debut as a Flintstone vitamin. Deaths: Arthur Rudolph German/United States Rocket Engineer, died at 89. His final years were marked by his forced return to his native Germany from the United States because of his earlier involvement with the slave labor that powered the Third Reich’s V1 and V2 rocket programs.

1998: Mongolia switched from a 46 hour to 40 hour work week. A law went into effect in California banning smoking in bars and nightclubs. It already was illegal to smoke in the state’s restaurants and cafes.

1999: United States Census Bureau estimated population at 271,646,717. The euro officially became the new single currency of 11 European countries. President Fidel Castro, marking 40 years as Cuba’s leader, portrayed his socialist nation as a defender of humanity against rapacious capitalism. A new anti-smoking law went into effect in California, prohibiting people from lighting up in bars.

2000: Chart Toppers: U Know What’s Up Donell Jones on Laface; Smooth Santana (Featuring Rob Thomas) on Arista; My Love Is Your Love Whitney Houston on Arista; I Wanna Love You Forever Jessica Simpson on Columbia; I Need To Know Marc Anthony on Columbia; I Knew I Loved You Savage Garden on Columbia; Hot Boyz Missy ‘Misdemeanor’ Elliot (Featuring Nas, Eve and Q-Tip) on The Gold Mind; Bring It All To Me Blaque on Track Masters; Back At One Brian Mcknight on Motown; Auld Lang Syne Kenny G. on Arista.

2002: 12 European countries turned in their own currency and adopted a common one, the euro, in the biggest currency change in history. Argentina, staggered by severe economic problems, chose its fifth president in two weeks.

2005: Colombian officials suspected left-wing rebels were responsible for the slaughter of 17 people during a New Year’s Eve celebration.

2007: A Jakarta airliner crashed in bad weather in Indonesian mountains killing most of its 102 passengers. South Korea’s Ban Ki-moon succeeded Kofi Annan as secretary-general of the United Nations.

2008: In a vicious chapter of the Kenyan presidential dispute, 15 members of the Kikuyu tribe, whose ranks include President Mwai Kibaki, were reported burned to death by a rival tribe after taking refuge in a church in the Rift Valley.

2009: New Year celebrations ended in tragedy at a Bangkok nightclub where police said a fire killed at least 52 people and injured about 100 more. The blaze at the two-story Santika Club erupted shortly after the approximately 1,000 revelers rang in 2009.

2010: A suicide bomber killed nearly 90 people, most of them children, during a New Year’s Day volleyball game in Laki Marwat, a city in northwest Pakistan. Landslides in the Rio de Janeiro area triggered by heavy rains caused at least 45 deaths. Twenty-two people died when a slide struck the Angra dos Reis resort.

2011: 21 people were killed by a car bomb outside an Egyptian Coptic Christian church in Alexandria. The Ivory Coast prime minister said his West African country was in the throes of civil war in which 200 people had died and 1,000 others were wounded in the aftermath of a disputed presidential election.

2012: Iran announced it had produced its first nuclear fuel rod, said to be fueling a civilian nuclear facility in Tehran. A week later, Iran revealed it had begun to enrich uranium, another step toward possibly building a nuclear weapon arsenal. The 27-state European Union considered an Iranian oil embargo in an effort to short circuit the move. With the New Year, Hawaii and Delaware expanded the number of U.S. states recognizing same-sex civil unions to five. Six other states and Washington, D.C., allowed same-sex marriage.

2013: Ivory Coast authorities said at least 60 people were killed in a stampede as crowds left a New Year’s fireworks show at a stadium in Abidjan.

2014: Colorado became the first state where specialty shops began legally selling small amounts of recreational marijuana.


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