This Day in History

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January 1, 2017

Today is New Year's Day, marking the first day of the new year.<---Get it?

Today is the last day of Kwanzaa.

Today is Global Family Day, "One day of peace and sharing.".

Today, you can celebrate National Bloody Mary Day, if you maybe celebrated New Year's Eve a little too much.

There are 364 days remaining in 2017.

There are 357 days until Christmas.


Events

45 BC – The Julian calendar takes effect as the civil calendar of the Roman Empire, establishing January 1 as the new date of the new year.

42 BC – The Roman Senate posthumously deifies Julius Caesar.

404 – Telemachus, a Christian monk, is killed for attempting to stop a gladiators' fight in the public arena held in Rome.

1001 – Grand Prince Stephen I of Hungary is named the first King of Hungary by Pope Sylvester II.

1068 – Romanos IV Diogenes marries Eudokia Makrembolitissa and is crowned Byzantine Emperor.

1259 – Michael VIII Palaiologos is proclaimed co-emperor of the Empire of Nicaea with his ward John IV Laskaris.

1438 – Albert II of Habsburg is crowned King of Hungary.

1515 – King Francis I of France succeeds to the French throne.

1527 – Croatian nobles elect Ferdinand I of Austria as King of Croatia.

1651 – Charles II is crowned King of Scotland.

1707 – John V is crowned King of Portugal.

1772 – The first traveler's cheques, which can be used in 90 European cities, go on sale in London, England.

1773 – The hymn that became known as "Amazing Grace", then titled "1 Chronicles 17:16–17" is first used to accompany a sermon led by John Newton in the town of Olney, England.

1781 – American Revolutionary War: One thousand five hundred soldiers of the 6th Pennsylvania Regiment under General 'Mad' Anthony Wayne's command rebel against the Continental Army's winter camp in Morristown, New Jersey in the Pennsylvania Line Mutiny of 1781.

1788 – First edition of The Times of London, previously The Daily Universal Register, is published.

1801 – The legislative union of Kingdom of Great Britain and Kingdom of Ireland is completed to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

1801 – Ceres, the largest and first known object in the Asteroid belt, is discovered by Giuseppe Piazzi.

1808 – The United States bans the importation of slaves.

1833 – The United Kingdom claims sovereignty over the Falkland Islands.

1847 – The world's first "Mercy" Hospital is founded in Pittsburgh by the Sisters of Mercy; the name will go on to grace over 30 major hospitals throughout the world.

1863 – American Civil War: The Emancipation Proclamation takes effect in Confederate territory.

1881 – Ferdinand de Lesseps begins French construction of the Panama Canal.

1892 – Ellis Island opens to begin processing immigrants into the United States.

1898 – New York, New York annexes land from surrounding counties, creating the City of Greater New York. The four initial boroughs, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and The Bronx, are joined on January 25 by Staten Island to create the modern city of five boroughs.

1902 – The first American college football bowl game, the Rose Bowl, is held in Pasadena, California.

1934 – Alcatraz Island becomes a United States federal prison.

1937 – Safety glass in vehicle windscreens becomes mandatory in the United Kingdom.

1942 – The Declaration by United Nations is signed by twenty-six nations. This is the basis for the modern United Nations.

1947 – The American and British occupation zones in Germany, after World War II, merge to form the Bizone, which later (with the French zone) became part of West Germany.

1947 – The Canadian Citizenship Act 1946 comes into effect, converting British subjects into Canadian citizens. Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King becomes the first Canadian citizen.

1948 – The British railway network is nationalized to form British Railways.

1953 - American singer-songwriter Hank Williams, Sr. died of a heart attack brought on by a lethal cocktail of pills and alcohol aged 29.

1959 – Fulgencio Batista, dictator of Cuba, is overthrown by Fidel Castro's forces during the Cuban Revolution.

1959 - Johnny Cash played a free concert for the inmates of San Quentin Prison. One of the audience members was 19 year-old Merle Haggard, who was in the midst of a 15 year sentence (he served three years) for grand theft auto and armed robbery.

1971 – Cigarette advertisements are banned on American television.

1983 – The ARPANET officially changes to using the Internet Protocol, creating the Internet.

1984 – The original American Telephone & Telegraph Company is divested of its 22 Bell System companies as a result of the settlement of the 1974 United States Department of Justice antitrust suit against AT&T.

1985 – The first British mobile phone call is made by Michael Harrison to his father Sir Ernest Harrison, chairman of Vodafone.

1989 – The Montreal Protocol comes into force, stopping the use of chemicals contributing to ozone depletion.

1990 – David Dinkins is sworn in as New York City's first black mayor.

1994 – The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) comes into effect.

1995 – The Draupner wave in the North Sea in Norway is detected, confirming the existence of freak waves.

1999 – The Euro currency is introduced in 11 countries - members of the European Union (with the exception of the United Kingdom, Denmark, Greece and Sweden).

Continued in next post