On This Day = January 1
Bithdays + Events + Holidays + Observances
BIRTHDAYS
1735 = Paul Revere = American silversmith and engraver
1752 = Betsy Ross = American seamstress
1864 = Alfred Stieglitz = American photographer and curator
1874 = Toupie Lowther = English tennis player 🌈
1879 = E. M. Forster = English writer 🌈
1879 = William Fox = Hungarian-American founder of Fox Film Corporation
1895 = J. Edgar Hoover = American law office and 1st FBI Director 🌈
1900 = Xavier Cugat = Spanish-American singer-songwriter and actor
1909 = Dana Andrews = American actor
1919 = J. D. Salinger = American soldier and author
1919 = Rocky Graziano = American boxer and actor
1925 = Matthew Beard = American child actor
1929 = Larry L. King = American journalist, author, and playwright
1930 = Frederick Wiseman = American director and producer
1930 = Ty Hardin = American actor
1933 = James Hormel = American philanthropist and diplomate 🌈
1933 = Joe Orton = English playwright 🌈
1936 = James Sinegal = American businessman and Costco co-founder
1938 = Frank Langella = American actor
1954 = Martine Rothblatt = American lawyer, author, and entrepreneur 🌈
1954 = Richard Edson = American actor
1958 = Grandmaster Flash = Barbadian rapper and DJ
1969 = Morris Chestnut = American actor
1969 = Verne Troyer = American actor
EVENTS
45 BC = The Julian calendar takes effect as the civil calendar of the Roman Republic, establishing January 1 as the new date of the new year.
1700 = Russia begins using the Anno Domini era instead of the Anno Mundi era of the Byzantine Empire.
1772 = The first traveler's cheques, which could be used in 90 European cities, are issued by the London Credit Exchange Company.
1773 = The hymn that becomes known as "Amazing Grace", previously titled "1 Chronicles 17:16–17, Faith's Review and Expectation", is first used to accompany a sermon led by John Newton in the town of Olney, Buckinghamshire, England.
1776 = General George Washington hoists the first US flag, the Grand Union Flag, at Prospect Hill.
1788 = The first edition of The Times of London, previously The Daily Universal Register, is published.
1818 = Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (anonymously) publishes the pioneering work of science fiction, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, in London.
1863 = The Emancipation Proclamation takes effect in Confederate territory.
1892 = Ellis Island opens as a US immigration inspection station, becomes the gateway to the US for more than 12 million people.
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 between Michigan and Stanford, is held in Pasadena, California.
1960 = Johnny Cash plays the first of many free concerts at San Quentin Prison.
1962 = Illinois repeals its sodomy laws, becoming the first US state to decriminalize homosexuality.
1965 = San Francisco police arrest gay and lesbian party-goers at a fund-raising ball for the Council on Religion and the Homosexual, held at California Hall.
1967 = In the first hour of the new year, a raid occurs at the Black Cat Tavern on Sunset Blvd in Silverlake. Several hundred people demonstrate and picket outside the bar, fueling the formation of gay rights groups in California.
1971 = Cigarette advertisements are banned on American tv.
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.
1999 = The Euro currency is introduced in 11 member nations of the European Union (with the exception of the UK, Denmark, Greece and Sweden).
2005 = California law AB 205, which extends many rights and responsibilities of marriage to registered domestic partners, goes into effect.
HOLIDAYS + OBSERVANCES
Emancipation Day (US)
Euro Day (European Union)