2000 Years of January 1st
by Ronnee Ruselle
January 1st has been celebrated as the beginning of the year in many calendars since the early 1500's. It's interesting to look back at the events over these years and to see the progress of mankind, politics, world events and technology. It also brings to mind thoughts of whether we have progressed in a positive way or whether changes are needed to make us a world that we are proud of.
The past can help us understand our origins and tell us a little of who we are today and what made us the nations we are.
If nothing else, it makes for some interesting reading. We hope you enjoy this brief glimpse at January 1st for the past 2000 years.
- 45 BC - The Julian calendar first came into effect.
- 404 - The last known gladiator competition in Rome took place.
- 630 - Prophet Muhammad set out towards Mecca with the army to capture it without bloodshed.
- 1438 - Albert II of Habsburg was crowned King of Hungary.
- 1515 - King Francis I of France succeeded to the French throne.
- 1651 - Charles II was crowned King of Scotland.
- 1673 - Regular mail delivery began between New York and Boston.
- 1707 - John V crowned King of Portugal.
- 1739 - Bouvet Island discovered by French explorer Jean-Baptiste Charles Bouvet de Lozier.
- 1772 - The first traveller's cheques, which can be used in 90 European cities, went on sale in London for the first time.
- 1788 - First edition of The Times of London, previously The Daily Universal Register, was published.
- 1797 - Albany replaced Kingston as the capital of New York.
- 1800 - The Dutch East India Company ceased to exist.
- 1801 - The legislative union of Kingdom of Great Britain and Kingdom of Ireland was completed to form the United Kingdom.
- 1801 - Ceres was discovered by Giuseppe Piazzi.
- 1803 - Emperor Gia Long ordered all bronze wares of the Tay Son dynasty to be collected and melted into nine cannons for the Royal Citadel in Hue, Vietnam
- 1804 - French rule ended in Haiti. Haiti became the first black republic and first independent country in the West Indies.
- 1806 - The French Republican Calendar was abolished.
- 1808 - The importation of slaves into the United States was banned.
- 1818 - Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus was published.
- 1833 - Britain claimed sovereignty over the Falkland Islands.
- 1845 - The Cobble Hill Tunnel, in Brooklyn, was finished.
- 1861 - Porfirio Diaz conquered Mexico City.
- 1863 - American Civil War: The Emancipation Proclamation took effect in Confederate territory.
- 1863 - The first claim under the Homestead Act was made by Daniel Freeman for a farm in Nebraska.
- 1876 - The Reichsbank opened in Berlin.
- 1877 - Queen Victoria of Britain was proclaimed Empress of India.
- 1880 - Ferdinand de Lesseps began French construction of the Panama Canal.
- 1887 - Queen Victoria was proclaimed empress of India in Delhi.
- 1890 - The first Tournament of Roses was held in Pasadena, California.
- 1890 - First use of football goal nets in England.
- 1890 - Eritrea consolidated into a colony by the Italian government.
- 1892 - Ellis Island opened to begin accepting immigrants to the United States.
- 1893 - Japan began using the Gregorian calendar.
- 1894 - The Manchester Ship Canal, England, was officially opened to traffic.
- 1898 - New York City annexed land from surrounding counties, creating the City of Greater New York. The four initial boroughs, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and The Bronx, were joined on January 25 by Staten Island to create the modern city of five boroughs.
- 1899 - Spanish rule ended in Cuba.
- 1901 - Nigeria became a British protectorate.
- 1901 - The British colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia federated as the Commonwealth of Australia; Edmund Barton as appointed the first Prime Minister.
- 1901 - The first official Mummers Parade is held.
- 1902 - The first Rose Bowl game was played in Pasadena, California, with the University of Michigan beating Stanford University by a score of 49-0.
- 1906 - British India officially adopted the Indian Standard Time
- 1908 - For the first time, a ball was dropped in New York City's Times Square to signify the start of the New Year at midnight.
- 1909 - Drilling began on the Lakeview Gusher.
- 1910 - Captain David Beatty was promoted to Rear Admiral, and became the youngest admiral in the Royal Navy, except for Royal family members, since Horatio Nelson.
- 1911 - Northern Territory was separated from South Australia and transferred to Commonwealth control.
- 1912 - The Republic of China was established.
- 1916 - German troops abandoned Yaound and their Kamerun colony to British forces and began the long march to Spanish Guinea.
- 1925 - The American astronomer Edwin Hubble announced the discovery of galaxies outside the Milky Way.
- 1927 - Turkey adopted the Gregorian calendar: December 18, 1926 (Julian), was immediately followed by January 1, 1927 (Gregorian).
- 1934 - Alcatraz Island became a U.S. federal prison.
- 1934 - Nazi Germany passed the "Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring".
- 1935 - Bucknell University won the first Orange Bowl 26-0 over the University of Miami.
- 1937 - The first Cotton Bowl game was played in Dallas, Texas. TCU defeats Marquette University 16-6.
- 1939 - The first Vienna New Year's Concert was held.
- 1939 - William Hewlett and David Packard founded Hewlett-Packard.
- 1939 - Sydney, Australia sweltered in 45C heat, a record for the city.
- 1942 - The Declaration by the United Nations was signed by twenty-six nations.
- 1945 - In retaliation of the Malmedy massacre,U.S. troops massacred 30 SS prisoners at Chenogne.
- 1946 - The first civil flight from Heathrow Airport occured.
- 1947 - The American and British occupation zones in Germany, after the World War II, merged to form the Bizone, that later became the Federal Republic of Germany.
- 1948 - British railways were nationalised to form British Rail.
- 1948 - After partition, India declined to pay the agreed share of Rs.550 million in cash balances to Pakistan.
- 1948 - The Constitution of Italy came into force.
- 1949 - The British Nationality Act 1948 came into force.
- 1949 - UN ordered a Cease-fire in Kashmir from one minute before midnight. War between India and Pakistan stopped accordingly.
- 1950 - The state of Ajaigarh acceded to the Government of India.
- 1956 - The Republic of the Sudan achieved independence from the Egyptian Republic and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
- 1958 - The European Community was established.
- 1959 - Cultivars of plants named after this date must be named in a modern language, not in Latin.
- 1959 - Fulgencio Batista, president of Cuba, was overthrown by Fidel Castro's forces during the Cuban Revolution.
- 1960 - The Republic of Cameroon achieved independence from France and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
- 1962 - Western Samoa achieved independence from New Zealand; its name is changed to the Independent State of Western Samoa.
- 1962 - Decca Records turned down the Beatles
- 1962 - US Navy SEAL teams established
- 1964 - The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland was divided into the independent republics of Zambia and Malawi, and the British-controlled Rhodesia.
- 1965 - The People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan was founded in Kabul.
- 1966 - A twelve day New York City transit strike began.
- 1966 - After a coup, Colonel Jean-B?el Bokassa assumed power as president of the Central African Republic.
- 1970 - Jimi Hendrix, Buddy Miles, and Billy Cox were recorded live at the Fillmore East. The resulting album, Band of Gypsys, was the last Hendrix album to be released before his death.
- 1971 - Cigarette advertisements were banned on American television.
- 1972 - Austrian diplomat Kurt Waldheim assumed as Secretary General of the United Nations.
- 1973 - The Kingdom of Denmark, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland were admitted into the European Community.
- 1978 - Air India Flight 855 Boeing 747 exploded and crashed into the sea off the coast of Bombay, killing 213.
- 1978 - The Constitution of the Northern Mariana Islands became effective.
- 1979 - Formal diplomatic relations were established between the People's Republic of China and the United States of America.
- 1980 - Victoria was crowned princess of Sweden.
- 1981 - The Republic of Greece was admitted into the European Community.
- 1981 - The Republic of Palau achieved self-government though it was not independent from the United States.
- 1982 - Peruvian Javier P?ez de Cu?lar became the first Latin American to hold the title of Secretary-General of the United Nations.
- 1983 - The ARPANET officially changed to using the Internet Protocol, creating the Internet.
- 1984 - AT&T was broken up into twenty-two independent units.
- 1984 - The Sultanate of Brunei became independent of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
- 1985 - The Internet's Domain Name System was created.
- 1985 - The first British mobile phone call was made by Ernie Wise to Vodafone.
- 1986 - Aruba becames independent of Cura?o, though it remained in free association with the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
- 1986 - The Kingdom of Spain and the Portuguese Republic were admitted into the European Community.
- 1988 - The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America cames into existence, creating the largest Lutheran denomination in the United States.
- 1989 - The Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer came into force.
- 1990 - David Dinkins was sworn in as New York City's first black mayor.
- 1993 - Dissolution of Czechoslovakia: Czechoslovakia was divided into the Slovak Republic and the Czech Republic.
- 1993 - A single market within the European Community was introduced.
- 1994 - The Zapatista Army of National Liberation initiated twelve days of armed conflict in the Mexican State of Chiapas.
- 1994 - The North American Free Trade Agreement came into effect.
- 1994 - The European Economic Area came into effect.
- 1994 - The International Tropical Timber Agreement came into effect.
- 1995 - The World Trade Organization came into effect.
- 1995 - The Kingdom of Sweden and the republics of Austria and Finland were admitted into the European Union.
- 1995 - The Conference for Security and Co-operation in Europe became the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.
- 1995 - The Draupner wave in the North Sea in Norway was detected, confirming the existence of freak waves.
- 1995 - Jean-Claude Juncker assumed the role of Prime Minister of Luxembourg.
- 1996 - Cura?o gained limited self-government.
- 1997 - The Republic of Za?e officially joined the World Trade Organization, as Za?e.
- 1997 - Ghanaian diplomat Kofi Annan assumed the role of Secretary General of the United Nations.
- 1998 - The European Central Bank was established.
- 1999 - The Euro currency was introduced.
- 2000 - The expected Y2K computer 'millennium bug' did not occur.
- 2000 - Hama Amadou assumed the role of Prime Minister of Niger.
- 2001 - Tommy Remengesau assumed the role of president of Palau.
- 2002 - Euro banknotes and coins became legal tender in twelve of the European Union's member states.
- 2002 - Taiwan officially joined the World Trade Organization, as Chinese Taipei.
- 2002 - The Open Skies mutual surveillance treaty, initially signed in 1992, officially entered into force.
- 2003 - Luiz In?io Lula da Silva assumed the role of President of Brazil.
- 2007 - Bulgaria and Romania officially join the European Union. Also, Bulgarian, Romanian, and Irish became official languages of the European Union, joining 20 other official languages.
- 2007 - Slovenia was the thirteenth country to adopt Euro currency.
- 2007 - Adam Air Flight 574 disappeared over Indonesia with 102 people on board.
- 2008 - A New Hampshire law legalizing civil unions for same-sex couples comes into effect.
- 2008 - Malta and Cyprus officially adopt the Euro currency.
*The information in this timeline is courtesy of Wikipedia - the online encyclopedia. For the original timeline and more information on the events you see in this chart, click here.