Historical Events on 1 Jan

Historical Events on 1 Jan

1001 - Grand Prince Stephen I of Hungary is named the first King of Hungary by Pope Silvester II.
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 in the Parliament on Cetin.
153 BC - Roman consuls begin their year in office.
1600 - Scotland begins its numbered year on January 1 instead of 25 March.
1651 - Charles II is crowned King of Scotland.
1700 - Russia begins using the Anno Domini era and no longer uses the Anno Mundi era of the Byzantine Empire.
1707 - John V is crowned King of Portugal.
1739 - Bouvet Island is discovered by French explorer Jean-Baptiste Charles Bouvet de Lozier.
1772 - The first traveler's cheques, which can be used in 90 European cities, go on sale 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.
1788 - First edition of The Times of London, previously The Daily Universal Register, is published.
1800 - The Dutch East India Company is dissolved.
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 - The dwarf planet Ceres is discovered by Giuseppe Piazzi.
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 - French rule ends in Haiti. Haiti becomes the first black republic and first independent country in the West Indies.
1806 - The French Republican Calendar is abolished.
1808 - The importation of slaves into the United States is banned.
1833 - The United Kingdom claims sovereignty over the Falkland Islands.
1845 - The Cobble Hill Tunnel in Brooklyn is completed.
1861 - Porfirio Díaz conquers Mexico City.
1863 - The first claim under the Homestead Act is made by Daniel Freeman for a farm in Nebraska.
1863 - American Civil War: The Emancipation Proclamation takes effect in Confederate territory.
1876 - The Reichsbank opens in Berlin.
1877 - Queen Victoria of Britain is proclaimed Empress of India.
1880 - Ferdinand de Lesseps begins French construction of the Panama Canal.
1890 - Eritrea is consolidated into a colony by the Italian government.
1892 - Ellis Island opens to begin processing immigrants into the United States.
1893 - Japan begins using the Gregorian calendar.
1894 - The Manchester Ship Canal, England, is officially opened to traffic.
1898 - New York City 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.
1899 - Spanish rule ends in Cuba.
1901 - The British colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia federate as the Commonwealth of Australia; Edmund Barton is appointed the first Prime Minister.
1901 - Nigeria becomes a British protectorate.
1902 - The first American college football bowl game, the Rose Bowl between Michigan and Stanford, is held in Pasadena.
1906 - British India officially adopts the Indian Standard Time.
1908 - For the first time, a ball is dropped in New York City's Times Square to signify the start of the New Year at midnight.
1909 - Drilling begins on the Lakeview Gusher.
1910 - Captain David Beatty is promoted to Rear Admiral, and becomes the youngest admiral in the Royal Navy (except for Royal family members), since Horatio Nelson.
1911 - Northern Territory is separated from South Australia and transferred to Commonwealth control.
1912 - The Republic of China is established.
1916 - German troops abandon Yaoundé and their Kamerun colony to British forces and begin the long march to Spanish Guinea.
1919 - Edsel Ford succeeds his father, Henry Ford, as president of the Ford Motor Company.
1920 - The Belorussian Communist Organisation is founded as a separate party.
1922 - The Greek Constitution of 1822 is adopted by the First National Assembly of Epidaurus.
1923 - Britain's Railways are grouped into the Big Four: LNER, GWR, SR, and LMSR.
1925 - The American astronomer Edwin Hubble announces the discovery of galaxies outside the Milky Way.
1927 - Turkey adopts the Gregorian calendar: December 18, 1926 (Julian), is immediately followed by January 1, 1927 (Gregorian).
1929 - The former municipalities of Point Grey, British Columbia and South Vancouver, British Columbia are amalgamated into Vancouver.
1934 - Alcatraz Island becomes a United States federal prison.
1934 - Nazi Germany passes the "Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring".
1937 - Safety glass in vehicle windscreens becomes mandatory in Great Britain.
1939 - William Hewlett and David Packard found Hewlett-Packard.
1939 - Sydney, Australia, swelters in 45 ËšC (113 ËšF) heat, a record for the city.
1942 - The Declaration by the United Nations is signed by twenty-six nations.
1945 - World War II: The German Luftwaffe launches Unternehmen Bodenplatte, a massive, but failed attempt to knock out Allied air power in northern Europe in a single blow.
1945 - World War II: In retaliation for the Malmedy massacre, U.S. troops massacre 30 SS prisoners at Chenogne.
1947 - The American and British occupation zones in Germany, after the World War II, merge to form the Bizone, that later became the Federal Republic of Germany.
1948 - The Constitution of Italy comes into force.
1948 - British railways are nationalised to form British Rail.
1948 - After partition, India declines to pay the agreed share of Rs.550 million in cash balances to Pakistan.
1949 - United Nations cease-fire takes effect in Kashmir from one minute before midnight. War between India and Pakistan stops accordingly.
1950 - The state of Ajaigarh is ceded to the Government of India.
1956 - The Republic of the Sudan achieves independence from the Egyptian Republic and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
1956 - A new year event causes panic and stampedes at Yahiko Shrine, Yahiko, central Niigata, Japan, killing at least 124 people.
1957 - George Town, Penang becomes a city by a royal charter granted by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
1957 - An Irish Republican Army (IRA) unit attacks Brookeborough RUC barracks in one of the most famous incidents of the IRA's Operation Harvest.
1958 - The European Community is established.
1959 - Fulgencio Batista, president of Cuba, is overthrown by Fidel Castro's forces during the Cuban Revolution.
1960 - The Republic of Cameroon achieves independence from France and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
1962 - Western Samoa achieves independence from New Zealand; its name is changed to the Independent State of Western Samoa.
1962 - United States Navy SEALs established.
1964 - The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is divided into the independent republics of Zambia and Malawi, and the British-controlled Rhodesia.
1965 - The People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan is founded in Kabul.
1966 - After a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa assumes power as president of the Central African Republic.
1966 - A twelve-day New York City transit strike begins.
1971 - Cigarette advertisements are banned on American television.
1973 - Denmark, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland are admitted into the European Community.
1978 - The Constitution of the Northern Mariana Islands becomes effective.
1978 - Air India Flight 855 Boeing 747 crashes into the sea, due to instrument failure and pilot disorientation, off the coast of Bombay, killing 213.
1979 - Formal diplomatic relations are established between the People's Republic of China and the United States of America.
1980 - Victoria is crowned princess of Sweden.
1981 - The Republic of Palau achieves self-government though it is not independent from the United States.
1981 - The Republic of Greece is admitted into the European Community.
1982 - Peruvian Javier Pérez de Cuéllar becomes the first Latin American to hold the title of Secretary General of the United Nations.
1983 - The ARPANET officially changes to using the Internet Protocol, creating the Internet.
1984 - The original American Telephone & Telegraph Company is broken up into twenty-two independent units as a result of the settlement of the 1974 United States Department of Justice antitrust suit against AT&T .
1984 - The Sultanate of Brunei becomes independent of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
1985 - The Internet's Domain Name System is created.
1985 - The first British mobile phone call is made by Ernie Wise to Vodafone.
1986 - The Kingdom of Spain and the Portuguese Republic are admitted into the European Community.
1986 - Aruba becomes independent of Curaçao, though it remains in free association with the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
1988 - The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America comes into existence, creating the largest Lutheran denomination in the United States.
1989 - The Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer comes into force.
1990 - David Dinkins is sworn in as New York City's first black mayor.
1993 - Dissolution of Czechoslovakia: Czechoslovakia is divided into the Slovak Republic and the Czech Republic.
1993 - A single market within the European Community is introduced.
1994 - The North American Free Trade Agreement comes into effect.
1994 - The European Economic Area comes into effect.
1994 - The Zapatista Army of National Liberation initiates twelve days of armed conflict in the Mexican State of Chiapas.
1994 - The International Tropical Timber Agreement comes into effect.
1995 - The Conference for Security and Co-operation in Europe becomes the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.
1995 - The Draupner wave in the North Sea in Norway is detected, confirming the existence of freak waves.
1995 - The World Trade Organization comes into effect.
1995 - The Kingdom of Sweden and the republics of Austria and Finland are admitted into the European Union.
1996 - Curaçao gains limited self-government, though it remains within free association with the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
1997 - Ghanaian diplomat Kofi Annan is appointed Secretary General of the United Nations.
1997 - The Republic of Zaïre officially joins the World Trade Organization, as Zaïre.
1998 - The European Central Bank is established.
1998 - Russia begins to circulate new rubles to stem inflation and promote confidence.
1999 - The Euro currency is introduced.
2002 - Euro banknotes and coins become legal tender in twelve of the European Union's member states.
2002 - Taiwan officially joins the World Trade Organization, as Chinese Taipei.
2002 - The Open Skies mutual surveillance treaty, initially signed in 1992, officially comes into force.
2004 - In a vote of confidence, General Pervez Musharraf wins 658 out of 1,170 votes in the Electoral College of Pakistan, and according to Article 41(8) of the Constitution of Pakistan, was "deemed to be elected" to the office of President until October 2007.
2007 - Adam Air Flight 574 disappears over Indonesia with 102 people on board.
2007 - Bulgaria and Romania officially join the European Union. Also, Bulgarian, Romanian, and Irish become official languages of the European Union, joining 20 other official languages.
2008 - A New Hampshire law legalizing civil unions for same-sex couples comes into effect.
2008 - Malta and Cyprus officially adopt the Euro currency.
404 - The last known gladiatorial competition in Rome takes place.
45 BC - The Julian calendar takes effect for the first time.
630 - The Prophet Muhammad sets out toward Mecca with the army that captures it bloodlessly.