Events

• 153 BC - Roman consuls begin their year in office.
• 45 BC - The Julian calendar first takes effect.
• 404 - The last known gladiator competition in Rome takes place.
• 630 - Prophet Muhammad sets out toward Mecca with the army that will capture it bloodlessly.
• 990 - Kievan Rus' adopts the Julian calendar.
• 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.
• 1600 - Scotland begins using the Julian calendar.
• 1651 - Charles II is crowned King of Scotland.
• 1660 - Samuel Pepys starts his diary.
• 1673 - Regular mail delivery begins between New York and Boston.
• 1700 - Russia begins using the Julian calendar.
• 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 traveller's cheques, which can be used in 90 European cities, go on sale in London for the first time.
• 1781 - 1,500 soldiers of the 6th Pennsylvania Regiment under General Anthony Wayne's command rebelled 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.
• 1797 - Albany replaces Kingston as the capital of New York State.
• 1800 - The Dutch East India Company ceases to exist.
• 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 - 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 country independent in the West Indies.
• 1806 - The French Republican Calendar is abolished.
• 1808 - The importation of slaves into the United States is banned.
• 1818 - Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus is published.
• 1833 - United Kingdom claims sovereignty over the Falkland Islands.
• 1845 - The Cobble Hill Tunnel, in Brooklyn, was finished.
• 1861 - Porfirio Díaz conquers Mexico City.
• 1863 - American Civil War: The Emancipation Proclamation takes effect in Confederate territory.
• 1863 - The first claim under the Homestead Act is made by Daniel Freeman for a farm in Nebraska.
• 1870 - First edition of The Northern Echo newspaper is published.
• 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.
• 1887 - Queen Victoria is proclaimed empress of India in Delhi.
• 1890 - The first Tournament of Roses is held in Pasadena, California.
• 1890 - First use of football goal nets in England.
• 1890 - Eritrea consolidates into a colony by the Italian government.
• 1892 - Ellis Island opens to begin accepting immigrants to 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 French rugby team play their first Test against the New Zealand All Blacks.
• 1901 - Nigeria becomes a British protectorate.
• 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 - The first official Mummers Parade is held.
• 1902 - The first Rose Bowl game is played in Pasadena, California, with the University of Michigan beating Stanford University by a score of 49-0.
• 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 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 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 succeeded his father, Henry Ford, as president of the Ford Motor Company.
• 1920 - The Belorussian Communist Organisation is founded as a separate party.
• 1923 - Britains Railways are grouped into the Big Four, LNER, GWR, SR, 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).
• 1934 - Alcatraz Island becomes a United States federal prison.
• 1934 - Nazi Germany passes the "Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring".
• 1935 - Bucknell University wins the first Orange Bowl 26–0 over the University of Miami.
• 1937 - The first Cotton Bowl game is played in Dallas, Texas. TCU defeats Marquette University 16–6.
• 1937 - Safety glass in windshields became mandatory in Great Britain.
• 1939 - The first Vienna New Year's Concert is held.
• 1939 - William Hewlett and David Packard found Hewlett-Packard.
• 1939 - Sydney, Australia swelters in 45˚C (113˚F) heat, a record for the city.
• 1942 - The Declaration by the United Nations is signed by twenty-six nations.
• 1942 - The U.S. Office of Production Management prohibited sales of new cars and trucks to civilians.
• 1945 - In retaliation of the Malmedy massacre, U.S. troops massacre 30 SS prisoners at Chenogne.
• 1946 - The first civil flight from Heathrow Airport occurs.
• 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 - 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.
• 1948 - The Constitution of Italy comes into force.
• 1949 - The British Nationality Act 1948 comes into force.
• 1949 - United Nation cease-fire orders to operate in Kashmir from one minute before midnight. War between India and Pakistan stops accordingly.
• 1950 - The state of Ajaigarh acceded 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.
• 1957 - George Town, Penang became a city by a royal charter granted by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
• 1958 - The European Community is 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, 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 was founded in Kabul.
• 1966 - A twelve day New York City transit strike begins.
• 1966 - After a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa assumes power as president of the Central African Republic.
• 1970 - Unix time begins.
• 1971 - Cigarette advertisements are banned on American television.
• 1972 - Austrian diplomat Kurt Waldheim assumes 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 are admitted into the European Community.
• 1978 - Air India Flight 855 Boeing 747 explodes and crashes into the sea off the coast of Bombay, killing 213.
• 1978 - The Constitution of the Northern Mariana Islands becomes effective.
• 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 Greece is admitted into the European Community.
• 1981 - The Republic of Palau achieves self-government though it isn't independent from the United States.
• 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 - AT&T is broken up into twenty-two independent units.
• 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 - Aruba becomes independent of Curaçao, though it remains in free association with the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
• 1986 - The Kingdom of Spain and the Portuguese Republic are admitted into the European Community.
• 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 Zapatista Army of National Liberation initiates twelve days of armed conflict in the Mexican State of Chiapas.
• 1994 - The North American Free Trade Agreement comes into effect.
• 1994 - The European Economic Area comes into effect.
• 1994 - The International Tropical Timber Agreement comes into effect.
• 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.
• 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 - Jean-Claude Juncker assumes as Prime Minister of Luxembourg.
• 1995 - Firecrackers are banned in Vietnam on Tết because of safety reasons.
• 1996 - Curaçao gains limited self-government, though it remains within free association with the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
• 1997 - The Republic of Zaïre officially joins the World Trade Organization, as Zaïre.
• 1997 - Ghanaian diplomat Kofi Annan assumes as Secretary General of the United Nations.
• 1998 - The European Central Bank is established.
• 1999 - The Euro currency is introduced.
• 1999 - The Polish administrative region of Opole Voivodeship is created, out of the former Opole Voivodeship and parts of Częstochowa Voivodeship.
• 2000 - As the world celebrates, no major crisis arises from the dreaded Y2K computer 'millennium bug'.
• 2000 - Hama Amadou assumes as Prime Minister of Niger.
• 2001 - Tommy Remengesau assumes as president of Palau.
• 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 enters into force.
• 2003 - Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva assumes as the President of Brazil.
• 2004 - In a vote of confidence, General Pervez Musharraf won 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.
• 2006 - The Football Federation Australia moved from the Oceania Football Confederation to the Asian Football Confederation.
• 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.
• 2007 - Adam Air Flight 574 disappears over Indonesia with 102 people on board.

Births