NEW YEAR'S DAY
1863 - The Emancipation Proclamation, freeing slaves in rebellious states, was issued by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln.
1959 - Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba.
2002 - The euro entered circulation in the European Union.

1788 - Georgia became a U.S. state.
1905 - The Russo-Japanese War ended.

1521 - Martin Luther, German leader of the Protestant Reformation, was excommunicated by the Roman Catholic Church.
1959 - Alaska became a U.S. state.

1896 - Utah became a U.S. state.
1948 - Myanmar (Burma) became independent.
2007 - Nancy Pelosi (Democrat, California) became the first female Speaker of the House.

1914 - Henry Ford started the $5-per-day wage.

1540 - Anne of Cleves and England's King Henry VIII were married.
1759 - Martha Custis and George Washington were married.
1912 - New Mexico became a U.S. state.

1989 - Japan's Emperor Hirohito died.

1964 - U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson announced his War on Poverty.

1788 - Connecticut became a U.S. state.

1776 - Thomas Paine's Common Sense was published.

1917 - Zimmermann Note dispatched
1964 - The U.S. Surgeon General issued the first government report on the dangers of smoking.

1998 - The cloning of humans was banned in 19 European nations.

1941 - Irish writer James Joyce (Finnegan's Wake; Ulysses) died in Zurich, Switzerland.

2008 - Bobby Jindal of Louisiana became the first Indian-American governor in the United States.

1559 - Coronation of England's Queen Elizabeth I.
1759 - The British Museum opened.
1967 - The first Super Bowl was held.  In it, the Green Bay Packers beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 35 to 10.

1547 - Coronation of Russia's Ivan the Terrible.
1883 - The United States Civil Service Commission was established.

1893 - Queen Liliuokalani of Hawaii was forced to abdicate.
1916 - Thrift Week was inaugurated in the United States as part of the World War I effort on the home front. The annual event, begun each year on the anniversary of Benjamin Franklin's birth, was celebrated widely throughout the United States until the mid-1960s. Americans were educated on being thrifty, saving for the future, and maintaining fiscal responsibility.
1991 - Operation Desert Storm was launched, following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.

1778 - Captain James Cook reached the Sandwich Islands (now known as Hawaii).

1953 - Baby Ricky was born on the popular television program I Love Lucy.

1841 - The British gained control of Hong Kong.
1942 - The Wannsee Conference established Nazi Germany's "Final Solution" for eradicating Jews.

1793 - France's King Louis XVI died on the guillotine in Paris, France.

1905 - Bloody Sunday occurred in St. Petersburg, Russia.

1556 - The world's deadliest recorded earthquake struck Shansi, China, killing over 800,000 people.
1789 - Georgetown University was established.
1964 - The 24th Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified.

41 C.E. - Emperor Caligula of ancient Rome was assassinated.
1848 - Gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill in California, sparking the California gold rush.

1890 - The United Mine Workers of America was founded.
1924 - The first ever Winter Olympics opened in Chamonix, France.

1788 - The first group of settlers reached Sydney, Australia, from Europe.
1837 - Michigan became a U.S. state.

1880 - A patent was granted for Thomas Alva Edison's electric incandescent light bulb.
1945 - The Auschwitz concentration camp was liberated by Russian forces (World War II).

1915 - Congress established the United States Coast Guard.

1845 - The Raven, by Edgar Allan Poe, was published.
1861 - Kansas became a U.S. state.

1649 - England's King Charles I was beheaded.
1948 - Mohandas Gandhi, the leading figure of India's independence movement, was assassinated.

1606 - Guy Fawkes was executed in England.