January 01
1863
Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.
1908
The ball signifying the New Year was dropped for the first time at Times Square in New York City.
1914
The world’s first airline, St. Petersburg Tampa Airboat Line, starts operation in St. Petersburg, Florida.
1959
Fidel Castro and his revolutionaries took over Cuba and toppled Fulgencio Batista’s regime.
1975
John Mitchell, H. R. Haldeman, and John Ehrlichman were convicted of obstruction of justice in the Watergate affair.
1993
Czechoslovakia peacefully split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
1994
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) went into effect.
2002
Euro coins and notes went into circulation in twelve European nations.
Birthdays
Paul Revere
1735–1818, American patriot
Lorenzo de’ Medici
merchant prince (1449)
Huldreich Zwingli
Protestant reformer (1484)
Anthony Wayne
general (1745)
Betsy Ross
seamstress (1752)
Pierre de Coubertin
father of the Modern Olympic Games (1863)
Alfred Stieglitz
photographer (1864)
J. Edgar Hoover
director of FBI (1895)
J. D. Salinger
writer (1919)