#TodayInHistory – January 1
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January 1 – Some important events on this day
45 BC ๐๐ผ The Julian calendar takes effect for the first time
1 ๐๐ผ Origin of the Christian Era
104 ๐๐ผ Triumphal procession for the Roman General Gaius Marius with the defeated Numidian King Jugurtha led in chains though Rome
404 ๐๐ผ Last gladiator competition in Rome
630 ๐๐ผ Prophet Muhammad sets out with his army towards Mecca, capturing it bloodlessly
1660 ๐๐ผ 1st entry in English civil servant Samuel Pepys’ diary
1710 ๐๐ผ Paris merchant Jean Marius obtains 5-year royal privilege for his invention of a folding umbrella – first in Europe
1724 ๐๐ผ Glassblower Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit proposes system for making thermometers and the Fahrenheit temperature scale in a paper to the Royal Society of London and is elected a fellow on its basis
1758 ๐๐ผ The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature establish the “starting point” for standardized species names across the animal kingdom, based on the binomial nomenclature by Carolus Linnaeus 10th edition of Systema Naturae
1801 ๐๐ผ The Irish Parliament votes to join the Kingdom of Great Britain, forming the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
The Act of Union 1800 joined the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Both the Irish and British parliaments passed acts in 1800 and came into effect om this day.
A new flag was designed to reflect the union and remains the United Kingdoms flag to this day, commonly called the Union Jack. It is made up of flags from three parts of the union, the red St George’s Cross for the patron saint of England, the white diagonal St Andrews cross for Scotland and the red diagonal cross of St Patrick’s flag for Ireland. Wales is not included within the Union Jack because at that stage it was regarded as part of England.
1804 ๐๐ผ Haiti gains independence from France (National Day), making it the only state ever founded by former slaves and without slavery
1808 ๐๐ผ Sierra Leone becomes a British colony
1818 ๐๐ผ Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” is published
1838 ๐๐ผ 1st official horse race in South Australia-Adelaide
1847 ๐๐ผ Michigan is 1st state to abolish capital punishment
1863 ๐๐ผ Franz Schubert’s “Missa Solemnis,” premieres in Leipzig
1863 ๐๐ผ Emancipation Proclamation issued by Abraham Lincoln to free slaves in US confederate states
1892 ๐๐ผ Ellis Island opens as a US immigration inspection station – it would go on to be the gateway to the US for more than 12 million people
1896 ๐๐ผ German physicist Wilhelm Rรถntgen announces his discovery of x-rays
1925 ๐๐ผ Norway’s capital Christiania changes name to Oslo
1958 ๐๐ผ European Economic Community, better known as the European Common Market starts operation
1960 ๐๐ผ Johnny Cash plays first of many free concerts behind bars
1966 ๐๐ผ Military coup by Col. Jean-Bรฉdel Bokassa in Central African Republic leads to his dictatorship.
For ten years Jean-Bรฉdel Bokassa had reigned with an iron fist in the Central African Republic, having ousted his distant cousin from office when he was the head of the armed forces.
Attempting to emulate his idol, Napoleon Bonaparte, Bokassa had himself declared the Emperor of the Central African Republic. His coronation was unbelievably decadent: he spent some $20 million US dollars – more than a third of the country’s national income – on the occasion. No foreign leaders attended, and he was considered a laughing stock by much of the world.
The Central African Empire lasted only three years before Bokassa was himself overthrown in an operation by the French military. He was exiled to France and tried in absentia, though later returned and was tried again. He served six years of a life sentence before being released in 1993, dying three years later.
1993 ๐๐ผ Czechoslovakia separates into Czech Republic (Bohemia) & Slovakia
2002 ๐๐ผ Euro banknotes and coins become legal tender in twelve of the European Union’s member states.
2009 ๐๐ผ Slovakia officially adopts the Euro currency and becomes the sixteenth Eurozone country.
2015 ๐๐ผ Lithuania adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas and becoming the 19th member of the Eurozone
2019 ๐๐ผ Same-sex marriage becomes legal in Austria
6000 ๐๐ผ 1st reversible date since 11/11/1999
