Happy 2007 :)

Ever wonder what happened on the 1st of January though out the ages. Here is a brief account:

• 45 BC – The Julian calendar first takes effect.
• 404 – The last known gladiator competition in Rome takes place.
• 1673 – Regular mail delivery begins between New York and Boston.
• 1772 – The first traveller’s cheques, which can be used in 90 European cities, go on sale in London for the first time.
• 1800 – The Dutch East India Company ceases to exist.
• 1801 – The legislative union of Kingdom of Great Britain and Kingdom of Ireland is completed to form the United Kingdom.
• 1808 – The importation of slaves into the United States is banned.
• 1863 – American Civil War: The Emancipation Proclamation takes effect in Confederate territory.
• 1877 – Queen Victoria of Britain is proclaimed Empress of India.
• 1887 – Queen Victoria is proclaimed Empress of India in Delhi.
• 1890 – First use of soccer goal nets in England.
• 1892 – Ellis Island opens to begin accepting immigrants to the United States.
• 1898 – New York City 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.
• 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 Rose Bowl game is played in Pasadena, California, with the University of Michigan beating Stanford University by a score of 49-0.
• 1906 – British India officially adopts the Indian Standard Time
• 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.
• 1925 – The American astronomer Edwin Hubble announces the discovery of galaxies outside the Milky Way.
• 1934 – Alcatraz Island becomes a U.S. federal prison.
• 1939 – The first Vienna New Year’s Concert is held.
• 1939 – William Hewlett and David Packard found Hewlett-Packard.
• 1942 – The Declaration by the United Nations is signed by twenty-six nations.
• 1946 – The first civil flight from Heathrow Airport occurs.
• 1949 – UN Cease-fire orders to operate in Kashmir from one minute before midnight. War between India and Pakistan stops accordingly.
• 1958 – The European Community is established.
• 1959 – Fulgencio Batista, president of Cuba, is overthrown by Fidel Castro’s forces during the Cuban Revolution.
• 1962 – US Navy SEAL teams established
• 1965 – The People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan was founded in Kabul.
• 1971 – Cigarette advertisements are banned on American television.
• 1979 – Formal diplomatic relations are established between the People’s Republic of China and the United States of America.
• 1983 – The ARPANET officially changes to using the Internet Protocol, creating the Internet.
• 1985 – The Internet’s Domain Name System is created.
• 1985 – The first British mobile phone call is made by Ernie Wise to Vodafone.
• 1989 – The Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer comes into force.
• 1994 – The North American Free Trade Agreement comes into effect.
• 1995 – The World Trade Organization comes into effect.
• 1997 – Ghanaian diplomat Kofi Annan assumes as Secretary General of the United Nations.
• 1999 – The Euro currency is introduced.
• 2000 – As the world celebrates, no major crisis arises from the dreaded Y2K computer ‘millennium bug’.
• 2002 – Euro banknotes and coins become legal tender in twelve of the European Union’s member states.

A more detailed account on Wikipedia can be found at this link.