January 1

Events

Pre-1600

• 153 BC - For the first time, Roman consuls begin their year in office on January 1.
• 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.
• 42 BC - The Roman Senate posthumously deifies Julius Caesar.
• 193 - The Senate chooses Pertinax against his will to succeed Commodus as Roman emperor.
• 404 - Saint Telemachus tries to stop a gladiatorial fight in a Roman amphitheatre, and is stoned to death by the crowd. This act impresses the Christian Emperor Honorius, who issues a historic ban on gladiatorial fights.
• 417 - Emperor Honorius forces Galla Placidia into marriage to Constantius, his famous general .
• 947 - Emperor Taizong of the Khitan-led Liao dynasty captures Daliang, ending the dynasty and empire of the Later Jin.
• 1001 - Grand Prince Stephen I of Hungary is named the first King of Hungary by Pope Sylvester II.
• 1068 - Romanos IV Diogenes marries Eudokia Makrembolitissa and is crowned Byzantine Emperor.
• 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.
• 1502 - The present-day location of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is first explored by the Portuguese.
• 1515 - Twenty-year-old Francis, Duke of Brittany, succeeds to the French throne following the death of his father-in-law, Louis XII.
• 1527 - Croatian nobles elect Ferdinand I, Archduke of Austria as King of Croatia in the 1527 election in Cetin.
• 1600 - Scotland recognises January 1 as the start of the year, instead of March 25.

  1601–1900

• 1604 - The Masque of Indian and China Knights is performed by courtiers of James VI and I at Hampton Court.
• 1651 - Charles II is crowned King of Scotland at Scone Palace.
• 1700 - Russia begins using the Anno Domini era instead of the Anno Mundi era of the Byzantine Empire.
• 1707 - John V is proclaimed King of Portugal and the Algarves in Lisbon.
• 1725 - J. S. Bach leads the first performance of his chorale cantata Jesu, nun sei gepreiset, BWV 41, which features the trumpet fanfares from the beginning also in the end.
• 1726 - J. S. Bach leads the first performance of Herr Gott, dich loben wir, BWV 16, his church cantata for New Year's Day to a libretto by Georg Christian Lehms.
• 1739 - Bouvet Island, the world's remotest island, is discovered by French explorer Jean-Baptiste Charles Bouvet de Lozier.
• 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 - American Revolutionary War: Burning of Norfolk - Norfolk, Virginia, is burned to the ground by combined Royal Navy and Continental Army action.
• 1776 - General George Washington hoists the first United States flag, the Continental Union Flag, at Prospect Hill.
• 1781 - American Revolutionary War: One thousand five hundred soldiers of the 6th Pennsylvania Regiment under General Anthony Wayne's command rebel against the Continental Army's winter camp in Morristown, New Jersey in the Pennsylvania Line Mutiny of 1781.
• 1788 - The first edition of The Times of London, previously The Daily Universal Register, is published.
• 1801 - The legislative union of Kingdom of Great Britain and Kingdom of Ireland is completed, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland is proclaimed.
• 1801 - Ceres, the largest and first known object in the Asteroid belt, is discovered by Giuseppe Piazzi.
• 1804 - French rule ends in Haiti. Haiti becomes the first black-majority republic and second independent country in North America after the United States.
• 1806 - The French Republican Calendar is abolished.
• 1808 - The United States bans the importation of slaves.
• 1810 - Major-General Lachlan Macquarie officially becomes Governor of New South Wales.
• 1818 - Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley publishes the pioneering work of science fiction, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, in London.
• 1822 - The Greek Constitution of 1822 is adopted by the First National Assembly at Epidaurus.
• 1834 - Most of Germany forms the Zollverein customs union, the first such union between sovereign states.
• 1845 - The Philippines moves its national calendar to align with other Asian countries' calendars by skipping Tuesday, December 31, 1844. The change has been ordered by Governor–General Narciso Claveria to reform the country's calendar so that it aligns with the rest of Asia. Its territory has been one day behind the rest of Asia for 323 years since the arrival of Ferdinand Magellan in the Philippines on March 16, 1521.
• 1847 - The world's first "Mercy" Hospital is founded in Pittsburgh, United States, by a group of Sisters of Mercy from Ireland; the name will go on to grace over 30 major hospitals throughout the world.
• 1860 - The first Polish postage stamp is issued, replacing the Russian stamps previously in use.
• 1861 - Liberal forces supporting Benito Juárez enter Mexico City.
• 1863 - American Civil War: The Emancipation Proclamation takes effect in Confederate territory.
• 1877 - Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom is proclaimed Empress of India.
• 1885 - Twenty-five nations adopt Sandford Fleming's proposal for standard time.
• 1890 - Eritrea is consolidated into a colony by the Italian government as Italian Eritrea.
• 1892 - Ellis Island begins processing immigrants into the United States.
• 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.
• 1899 - Spanish rule ends in Cuba.
• 1900 - Nigeria becomes a British protectorate with Frederick Lugard as high commissioner.

  1901–present

• 1901 - The Southern Nigeria Protectorate is established within the British Empire.
• 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.
• 1902 - The first American college football bowl game, the Rose Bowl between Michigan and Stanford, is held in Pasadena, California.
• 1910 - Captain David Beatty is promoted to rear admiral, and becomes the youngest admiral in the Royal Navy since Horatio Nelson.
• 1912 - The Republic of China is established.
• 1914 - The SPT Airboat Line becomes the world's first scheduled airline to use a winged aircraft.
• 1923 - Britain's Railways are grouped into the Big Four: LNER, GWR, SR, and LMS.
• 1927 - New Mexican oil legislation goes into effect, leading to the formal outbreak of the Cristero War.
• 1928 - Boris Bazhanov defects through Iran to seek asylum in France. He is the only member of Joseph Stalin's secretariat to have defected from the Soviet Union.
• 1929 - The former municipalities of Point Grey, British Columbia and South Vancouver, British Columbia are amalgamated into Vancouver.
• 1932 - The United States Post Office Department issues a set of 12 stamps commemorating the 200th anniversary of George Washington's birth.
• 1934 - Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay becomes a United States federal prison.
• 1934 - A "Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring" comes into effect in Nazi Germany.
• 1942 - The Declaration by United Nations is signed by twenty-six nations.
• 1945 - World War II: The German Luftwaffe launches Operation Bodenplatte, a massive, but failed, attempt to knock out Allied air power in northern Europe in a single blow.
• 1947 - Cold War: The American and British occupation zones in Allied-occupied Germany, after World War II, merge to form the Bizone, which later became part of West Germany.
• 1947 - The Canadian Citizenship Act 1946 comes into effect, converting British subjects into Canadian citizens. Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King becomes the first Canadian citizen.
• 1948 - The British railway network is nationalized to form British Railways.
• 1949 - United Nations cease-fire takes effect in Kashmir from one minute before midnight. War between India and Pakistan stops accordingly.
• 1956 - Sudan achieves independence from Egypt and the United Kingdom.
• 1957 - George Town, Penang, is made a city by a royal charter of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.
• 1957 - Lèse majesté in Thailand is strengthened to include "insult" and changed to a crime against national security, after the Thai criminal code of 1956 went into effect.
• 1958 - The European Economic Community is established.
• 1959 - Cuban Revolution: Fulgencio Batista, dictator of Cuba, is overthrown by Fidel Castro's forces.
• 1960 - Cameroon achieves independence from France and the United Kingdom.
• 1962 - Western Samoa achieves independence from New Zealand; its name is changed to the Independent State of Western Samoa.
• 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 is founded in Kabul, Afghanistan.
• 1970 - The defined beginning of Unix time, at 00:00:00.
• 1971 - Cigarette advertisements are banned on American television.
• 1973 - Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom are admitted into the European Economic Community.
• 1976 - A bomb explodes on board Middle East Airlines Flight 438 over Qaisumah, Saudi Arabia, killing all 81 people on board.
• 1978 - Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747, crashes into the Arabian Sea off the coast of Bombay, India, due to instrument failure, spatial disorientation, and pilot error, killing all 213 people on board.
• 1979 - the Joint Communiqué on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations and Taiwan Relations Act enter into force. Through the Communiqué, the United States establishes normal diplomatic relations with China. Through the Act, the United States guarantees military support for Taiwan.
• 1981 - Greece is admitted into the European Community.
• 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 TCP/IP, the Internet Protocol, effectively creating the Internet.
• 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.
• 1984 - Brunei becomes independent of the United Kingdom.
• 1985 - The first British mobile phone call is made by Michael Harrison to his father Sir Ernest Harrison, chairman of Vodafone.
• 1985 - Eastern Air Lines Flight 980 crashes into Mount Illimani in Bolivia, killing all 29 aboard.
• 1987 - The Isleta Pueblo tribe elect Verna Williamson to be their first female governor.
• 1988 - The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America comes into existence, creating the largest Lutheran denomination in the United States.
• 1989 - The Montreal Protocol comes into force, stopping the use of chemicals contributing to ozone depletion.
• 1990 - David Dinkins is sworn in as New York City's first black mayor.
• 1993 - Dissolution of Czechoslovakia: Czechoslovakia is divided into the Czech Republic and Slovak Republic.
• 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.
• 1995 - The World Trade Organization comes into being.
• 1995 - The Draupner wave in the North Sea in Norway is detected, confirming the existence of freak waves.
• 1995 - Austria, Finland and Sweden join the EU.
• 1998 - Following a currency reform, Russia begins to circulate new rubles to stem inflation and promote confidence.
• 1998 – Argentinian physicist Juan Maldacena publishes a landmark paper initiating the study of AdS/CFT correspondence, which links string theory and quantum gravity.
• 1999 - The Euro currency is introduced in 11 member nations of the European Union.
• 2001 - Greece adopts the Euro, becoming the 12th Eurozone country.
• 2004 - In a vote of confidence, General Pervez Musharraf wins 658 out of 1,170 votes in the Electoral College of Pakistan, and according to Article 41 of the Constitution of Pakistan, is "deemed to be elected" to the office of President until October 2007.
• 2007 - Bulgaria and Romania join the EU.
• 2007 - Adam Air Flight 574 breaks apart in mid-air and crashes near the Makassar Strait, Indonesia, killing all 102 people on board.
• 2009 - Sixty-six people die in a nightclub fire in Bangkok, Thailand.
• 2010 - A suicide car bomber detonates at a volleyball tournament in Lakki Marwat, Pakistan, killing 105 and injuring 100 more.
• 2011 - A bomb explodes as Coptic Christians in Alexandria, Egypt, leave a new year service, killing 23 people.
• 2011 - Estonia officially adopts the Euro currency and becomes the 17th Eurozone country.
• 2013 - At least 60 people are killed and 200 injured in a stampede after celebrations at Félix Houphouët-Boigny Stadium in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.
• 2015 - The Eurasian Economic Union comes into effect, creating a political and economic union between Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
• 2017 - An attack on a nightclub in Istanbul, Turkey, during New Year's celebrations, kills 39 people and injures 79 others.
• 2023 - Croatia officially adopts the Euro, becoming the 20th Eurozone country, and becomes the 27th member of the Schengen Area.
• 2024 - A 7.5 earthquake strikes the western coast of Japan, killing more than 500 people and injuring over 1,000 others. A majority of direct deaths were due to collapsed homes.
• 2024 - Disney's copyright protection on Steamboat Willie and the original Mickey Mouse expires as they enter the public domain.
• 2024 - Artsakh ceases to exist.
• 2025 - Fourteen people are killed and 57 others injured during a vehicle-ramming and shooting attack in New Orleans, Louisiana.
• 2026 - Bulgaria officaly adopts the Euro, becoming the 21st Eurozone country.
• 2026 - A fire at a bar during New Year's Eve celebrations in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, kills at least 40 people and injures 100 others.