[CaptainCrunch]

A fresh new year to look back

Jan 1st

45 BC – The Julian calendar takes effect as the civil calendar of the Roman Empire, establishing January 1 as the new date of the new year.

42 BC – The Roman Senate posthumously deifies Julius Caesar.

AD 69 – The Roman legions in Germania Superior refuse to swear loyalty to Galba. They rebel and proclaim Vitellius as emperor.

193 – The Senate chooses Pertinax against his will to succeed Commodus as Roman emperor.

404 – Telemachus, a Christian monk, is killed for attempting to stop a gladiators' fight in the public arena held in Rome.

1502 – The present-day location of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil is first explored by the Portuguese.

1772 – The first traveler's cheques, which can be used in 90 European cities, is issued by the London Credit Exchange Company.

1773 – The hymn that became known as "Amazing Grace", then titled "1 Chronicles 17:16–17" is first used to accompany a sermon led by John Newton in the town of Olney, Buckinghamshire, England.

1776 – American Revolutionary War: Norfolk, Virginia is burned by combined Royal Navy and Continental Army action.

1788 – 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 to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

1801 – Ceres, the largest and first known object in the Asteroid belt, is discovered by Giuseppe Piazzi.

1808 – The United States bans the importation of slaves.

1863 – American Civil War: The Emancipation Proclamation takes effect in Confederate territory.

1881 – Ferdinand de Lesseps begins French construction of the Panama Canal.

1892 – Ellis Island opens to begin 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.

1902 – The first American college football bowl game, the Rose Bowl between Michigan and Stanford, is held in Pasadena, California.

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.

1912 – The Republic of China is established.

1914 – The SPT Airboat Line becomes the world's first scheduled airline to use a winged aircraft.

1928 – Boris Bazhanov defects through Iran. He is the only assistant of Joseph Stalin's secretariat to have defected from the Eastern Bloc.

1929 – The former municipalities of Point Grey, British Columbia and South Vancouver, British Columbia are amalgamated into Vancouver.

1934 – Alcatraz Island becomes a United States federal prison.

1934 – Nazi Germany passes the "Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring".

1942 – The Declaration by United Nations is signed by twenty-six nations.

1945 – World War II: In retaliation for the Malmedy massacre, U.S. troops kill 60 German POWs at Chenogne.

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 – The American and British occupation zones in Germany, after World War II, merge to form the Bizone, which later (with the French zone) 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.

1949 – United Nations cease-fire takes effect in Kashmir from one minute before midnight. War between India and Pakistan stops accordingly.

1959 – Fulgencio Batista, dictator of Cuba, is overthrown by Fidel Castro's forces during the Cuban Revolution.

1971 – Cigarette advertisements are banned on American television.

1979 – Formal diplomatic relations are established between China and the United States.

1983 – The ARPANET officially changes to using the Internet Protocol, 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.

1985 – The first British mobile phone call is made by Michael Harrison to his father Sir Ernest Harrison, chairman of Vodafone.

1994 – The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) comes into effect.

1995 – The World Trade Organization goes into effect.

1995 – The Draupner wave in the North Sea in Norway is detected, confirming the existence of freak waves.