This Day in History - January 1st

45BC: New Year's Day

New Year's Day is celebrated on January 1 for the first time in 45 BC, when Roman dictator Julius Caesar establishes the Julian calendar. On the advice of the astronomer Sosigenes, Caesar added 67 days to the year 46 BC in order to repair the damage done to the imperfect Roman calendar by the passage of time. Celebration of New Year's Day in January fell out of practice during the Middle Ages, but after the adoption of the Gregorian - or modern - calendar in 1582, New Year's was again observed on the first day of January. Since then, people around the world have gathered en masse in cities and towns to celebrate the arrival of the New Year.

Also On This Day

1999

Official launch of the new 'Euro' currency.

1995

In England, notorious murderer and serial killer Frederick West commits suicide in prison aged 53.

1973

British Prime Minister Edward Heath presides over Britain’s full entry into the European Economic Community.

1959

Cuban President Fulgencio Batista is forced to flee the country because of the success of the revolution led by Fidel Castro.

1948

Britain’s railways are nationalised.

1915

British battleship HMS Formidable is torpedoed by the German submarine U-24 in the English Channel killing 547 men.

1894

Opening of the Manchester Ship Canal linking Manchester to the River Mersey. Queen Victoria later formally opened the canal on 21 May 1894.

1892

The federal immigration station opens on Ellis Island, USA.

1876

Bass Ale’s ‘Red Triangle’ becomes the first registered trade mark in Britain.

1863

President Abraham Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, which legally frees all of the African American slaves in Confederate states. Though the Proclamation affects few slaves immediately, it encourages others to escape. For more, see our in-depth article on the American Civil War.

1818

Mary Shelley's novel 'Frankenstein' is published.

1803

Jean-Jacques Dessalines proclaims an independent Haiti after defeating Napoleon Bonaparte's colonial forces.

1801

Great Britain and Ireland are formally united into a single realm, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

1651

Charles II is crowned King of Scotland at Scone.