January 1 is the 1st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 364 days remaining (365 in leap years). January has 31 days. January's flower is the snowdrop. January's birthstone is the garnet. The signs of the Zodiac within the month of January are Capricorn, the Goat (December 22-January 19) and Aquarius, the Water Bearer (January 20-February 18).
Events:
- 1801 - Legislative union of Great Britain and Ireland completed.
- 1863 - Abraham Lincoln delivers the Emancipation Proclamation during the second year of the American Civil War.
- 1892 - Ellis Island opens to begin accepting immigrants to the United States.
- 1901 - Establishment of the Commonwealth of Australia (Federation).
- 1970 - Unix epoch begins at 00:00:00 UTC.
- 1984 - Brunei becomes a fully independent state.
- 1999 - Euro currency introduced.
- 2002 - Euro banknotes and coins become legal tender.
Births:
- 1431 - Pope Alexander VI
- 1449 - Lorenzo de Medici, statesman (+ 1492)
- 1484 - Huldreich Zwingli, protestant leader (+ 1531)
- 1502 - Pope Gregor XIII (+ 1585)
- 1618 - Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, painter (+ 1682)
- 1735 - Paul Revere, silversmith, United States patriot
- 1752 - Betsy Ross, seamstress
- 1788 - The London Times
- 1857 - Wojciech Kossak, painter
- 1863 - Pierre de Coubertin, historian and pedagogue, initiator of modern Olympic Games (+1937)
- 1879 - E. M. Forster, novelist
- 1887 - Wilhelm Canaris, admiral (+ 1945)
- 1895 - J. Edgar Hoover, FBI director
- 1909 - Barry M. Goldwater, Arizona Senator
- 1911 - Hank Greenberg, baseball player
- 1919 - J. D. Salinger, novelist
- 1921 - Rocky Graziano, boxer, born "Rocky Barbella"
- 1940 - Frank Langella, actor
- 1940 - Helmut Jahn, architect
- 1942 - Country Joe McDonald, of Country Joe and the Fish fame
Deaths:
- 1953 - Hank Williams, heart failure
- 1972 - Maurice Chevalier, actor and singer
- 2001 - Ray Walston, 86, actor best known as the star of TV's My Favorite Martian, and later as a judge on Picket Fences.
Holidays and observances:
- Many countries around the world using Gregorian Calendar - New Year's Day
- United States - Copyright Expiration Day, celebrating the expiration of the copyright of a year's worth of works of authorship into the public ___domain. Not celebrated from 1978 to 2018 because of repeated copyright term extensions.
- Catholicism - Octave of Christmas Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God.
- World Day for Prayer for Peace
- Catholicism - National Migration Week begins (varying offical support by the office of U.S. President, not strictly religious)
- Last day of Kwanzaa
- Haiti Independence Day
- Sudan Independence Day
- Republic of China founding in Taiwan.
See Also:
December 31 - January 2 - December 1 - February 1 -- listing of all days
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December