45BC: New Year's Day
New Year's Day is celebrated on January 1 for the first time in 45 BC, when Roman dictator Julius Caesar establishes the Julian calendar.
On the advice of the astronomer Sosigenes, Caesar added 67 days to the year 46 BC in order to repair the damage done to the imperfect Roman calendar by the passage of time.
Celebration of New Year's Day in January fell out of practice during the Middle Ages, but after the adoption of the Gregorian - or modern - calendar in 1582, New Year's was again observed on the first day of January.
Since then, people around the world have gathered en masse in cities and towns to celebrate the arrival of the New Year.
1999
Official launch of the new 'Euro' currency.
1995
In England, notorious murderer and serial killer Frederick West commits suicide in prison aged 53.
1973
British Prime Minister Edward Heath presides over Britain’s full entry into the European Economic Community.
1959
Cuban President Fulgencio Batista is forced to flee the country because of the success of the revolution led by Fidel Castro.
1948
Britain’s railways are nationalised.
1915
British battleship HMS Formidable is torpedoed by the German submarine U-24 in the English Channel killing 547 men.
1894
Opening of the Manchester Ship Canal linking Manchester to the River Mersey. Queen Victoria later formally opened the canal on 21 May 1894.
1892
The federal immigration station opens on Ellis Island, USA.
1876
Bass Ale’s ‘Red Triangle’ becomes the first registered trade mark in Britain.
1863
President Abraham Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, which legally frees all of the African American slaves in Confederate states. Though the Proclamation affects few slaves immediately, it encourages others to escape. For more, see our in-depth article on the American Civil War.
1818
Mary Shelley's novel 'Frankenstein' is published.
1803
Jean-Jacques Dessalines proclaims an independent Haiti after defeating Napoleon Bonaparte's colonial forces.
1801
Great Britain and Ireland are formally united into a single realm, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
1651
Charles II is crowned King of Scotland at Scone.
1642
1642
1642
404
The last known public contest between Gladiators takes place in the city of Rome. Constantine I had first banned the spectacles in 325.