01/01/1735 - Paul Revere was born in Boston.

01/01/1752 - Betsy Ross was born in Philadelphia.

01/01/1863 - President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared that slaves in rebel states were free.

01/01/1892 - The Ellis Island Immigrant Station in NY formally opened.

01/01/1898 - Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island consolidated into NYC.

01/01/1901 - The Commonwealth of Australia officially came into existence.

01/01/1959 - Fidel Castro led Cuban revolutionaries to victory over Fulgencio Batista.

01/01/1994 - The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) went into effect.

01/01/1997 - Kofi Annan assumed the post of UN Secretary-General.

01/01/1999 - The Euro, the new single currency of 11 European countries, officially came into existence.

01/01/2012 - Kwanzaa ends

01/01/2012 - New Year's Day!

01/01/2012 - Ganjitsu / Oshogatsu - Shinto

01/02/1492 - The leader of the last Arab stronghold in Spain surrendered to Spanish forces loyal to King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella I.

01/02/1921 - KDKA in Pittsburgh broadcast religious services on the radio for the 1^st time when it aired the Sunday service of Calvary Episcopal Church.

01/02/1960 - Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts announced his candidacy for the democratic presidential nomination.

01/02/1974 - President Nixon signed legislation requiring states to limit highway speeds to 55 mph.

01/02/2012 - Cassé Gâteau - Voudon

01/03/1521 - The Roman Catholic Church excommunicated Martin Luther.

01/03/1892 - JRR Tolkien, author of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, was born in Bloemfontein South Africa.

01/03/1938 - The March of Dimes campaign to fight polio was organized.

01/03/1947 - TV broadcast Congressional proceedings for the 1^st time as viewers in Washington, Philadelphia & NY saw opening ceremonies of the 80^th Congress.

01/03/1961 - The US severed diplomatic relations with Cuba.

01/03/1989 - The Arsenio Hall Show premiered.

01/03/2000 - The last new daily Peanuts comic strip ran.

01/04/1790 - Washington delivered the 1^st annual presidential address - the State of the Union - to the nation.

01/04/1948 - Britain granted independence to Burma, now called Myanmar.

01/04/1960 - French author Albert Camus died in a car accident at the age of 46.

01/04/1974 - President Nixon refused to hand over tape recordings and documents subpoenaed by the Senate Watergate Committee.

01/04/1995 - The 104^th Congress – the 1^st entirely under Republican control since the Eisenhower era – convened.

01/04/1999 - Former pro-wrestler Jesse "The Body" Ventura took the oath of office as Minnesota's 37^th governor.

01/04/2012 - Trivia Day

01/05/1925 - Nellie Ross succeeded her late husband as governor of Wyoming, becoming the 1^st female governor in the US.

01/05/1949 - In his State of the Union address, President Truman labeled his administration the "Fair Deal."

01/05/1993 - The state of Washington executed Westley Allan Dodd, an admitted child sex killer, in America's 1^st legal hanging since 1965.

01/05/2012 - Twelfth Night

01/05/2011 - Asara B'Tevet - Judaism

01/06/1412 - Joan of Arc was born in Dom Remy.

01/06/2012 - Tirer Gâteau (Les rois) - Voudon

01/06/2012 - Epiphany of the Lord

01/07/1610 - Galileo discovered four of Jupiter's biggest moons using his makeshift telescope for the first time.

01/07/1789 - Americans held their 1^st US presidential election when they voted for electors who, a month later, voted to make George Washington the nation's 1^st president.

01/07/1953 - President Truman announced the development of the hydrogen bomb in his State of the Union address.

01/07/1959 - The US recognized Fidel Castro's new government in Cuba.

01/08/1642 - Astronomer Galileo Galilei died in Arcetri Italy.

01/08/1815 - US forces led by General Andrew Jackson defeated the British in the Battle of New Orleans, the closing battle in the War of 1812.

01/08/1959 - France inaugurated Charles De Gaulle as president of France's Fifth Republic.

01/08/1964 - President Lyndon Johnson declared a War on Poverty. I don't think we've won yet.

01/08/2012 - Jackson Day

01/09/1793 - Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard flew between Philadelphia and Woodbury NJ in a hot-air balloon.

01/09/1968 - The Surveyor VII space probe made a soft landing on the moon, marking the end of an American series of unmanned explorations of the lunar surface.

01/09/2006 - Alito confirmation hearings commence in the Senate Judiciary Committee, Washington DC.

01/10/1776 - Thomas Paine published Common Sense.

01/10/1845 - Poet Elizabeth Barrett received her first note - "I love you" - from her eventual husband, poet Robert Browning.

01/10/1870 - John D. Rockefeller incorporated Standard Oil.

01/10/1920 - The Treaty of Versailles went into effect establishing the League of Nations.

01/10/1928 - The Soviet Union ordered the exile of Leon Trotsky.

01/10/1946 - The 1^st General Assembly of the UN convened in London.

01/10/1949 - RCA introduced the 1^st 45 rpm record.

01/11/1913 - The 1^st sedan-type automobile, a Hudson, went on display at the 13th Automobile Show in NY.

01/11/1964 - Under orders from Surgeon General Luther Terry, the 1^st cigarette package labels appeared warning Americans that cigarettes "may be a health hazard."

01/12/1519 - Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I died.

01/12/1773 - Charleston SC established the 1^st public museum in America.

01/12/1965 - American playwright Lorraine Hansberry, whose A Raisin in the Sun was the 1^st Broadway production by a black woman, died in NYC.

01/12/1971 - All in the Family premiered on CBS.

01/12/1998 - According to Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey, computer HAL was born today.

01/13/1966 - Appointed Secretary of Housing & Urban Development by President Johnson, Robert Weaver became the 1^st black Cabinet member.

01/13/2012 - Stephen Foster Memorial Day

01/13/2012 - Maghi - Sikh

01/14/1784 - The US ratified a peace treaty with England ending the Revolutionary War.

01/14/1963 - Alabama swore in George C. Wallace as governor with a pledge of "segregation forever."

01/14/1970 - Diana Ross and the Supremes performed their last concert together, at the Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas.

01/14/2012 - Maghi - Sikh

01/14/2012 - Pongal (Makar Sankranthi) - Hinduism

01/15/1559 - England crowned Queen Elizabeth I in Westminster Abbey.

01/15/1870 - A cartoon by Thomas Nast in Harper's Weekly represented the Democratic Party as a donkey for the 1^st time.

01/15/1928 - Civil Rights Leader Martin Luther King Jr. was born in Atlanta.

01/15/1943 - Construction began on the Pentagon.

01/16/1547 - Ivan the Terrible was crowned tsar of Russia.

01/16/1920 - Prohibition began in the US as the 18^th Amendment to the Constitution took effect. (We later found out it was a pretty stupid thing to do and got rid of it!)

01/16/1991 - The White House announced the start of Operation Desert Storm in the Middle East.

01/16/2012 - Religious Freedom Day

01/16/2012 - Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

01/17/1706 - Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston.

01/17/1893 - A group of businessmen & sugar planters overthrew Hawaii's monarchy, forcing Queen Liliuokalani to abdicate.

01/17/1946 - The UN Security Council held its first meeting.

01/17/1961 - In his farewell address, President Eisenhower warned against the rise of "the military-industrial complex."

01/18/1788 - The 1^st English settlers arrived in Australia's Botany Bay to establish a penal colony.

01/18/1912 - English explorer Robert F. Scott & his expedition reached the South Pole, only to discover that Roald Amundsen had beaten them to it. Scott and his party perished during the return trip.

01/18/1943 - A wartime ban on the sale of pre-sliced bread in the US - aimed at reducing bakeries' demand for metal replacement parts - went into effect.

01/19/1809 - Author and poet Edgar Allen Poe was born in Boston, where his actor-parents were performing. Three years later he became an orphan.

01/19/1955 - TV filmed a presidential news conference for the 1^st time with permission from President Eisenhower.

01/19/1966 - India elected Indira Gandhi as prime minister.

01/20/1801 - John Marshall became chief justice of the Supreme Court.

01/20/1841 - China ceded the island of Hong Kong to Great Britain. It returned to Chinese control in July 1997.

01/20/1942 - Nazi officials held the notorious Wannsee conference, during which they arrived at their "final solution" that called for exterminating Jews.

01/21/1915 - The 1^st Kiwanis Club was founded in Detroit.

01/21/1930 - Newspapers published the 1^st Buck Rogers comic strip.

01/21/1954 - The US launched the world's 1^st nuclear submarine, the Nautilus, at Groton CT.

01/21/1977 - President Carter pardoned almost all Vietnam War draft evaders.

01/22/1953 - Arthur Miller's The Crucible opened on Broadway.

01/22/1968 - Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In premiered on NBC.

01/22/1973 - The Supreme Court handed down its Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized abortion using a trimester approach.

01/23/1789 - Georgetown University opened in Washington DC.

01/23/1845 - Congress decided to hold all national elections on the 1^st Tuesday after the first Monday in November.

01/23/1950 - The Israeli Knesset approved a resolution proclaiming Jerusalem the capital of Israel.

01/23/1964 - The US ratified the 24^th amendment to the Constitution, eliminating the poll tax in federal elections.

01/23/1968 - North Korea seized the US Navy ship Pueblo, charging its crew with being on a spying mission. They released the crew 11 months later.

01/23/2012 - Chinese New Year

01/24/1848 - James W. Marshall discovered a gold nugget at Sutter's Mill in northern California, a discovery that led to the Gold Rush of '49.

01/24/1908 - The 1^st Boy Scout troop was organized in England.

01/24/1916 - The US Supreme Court ruled that the federal income tax was constitutional.

01/24/1922 - Inventor Christian K. Nelson, of Onawa IA, patented the Eskimo Pie.

01/24/2012 - The State of the Union Address (tentative date)

01/25/1961 - President Kennedy held the 1^st presidential news conference carried live on radio & television.

01/26/1788 - The 1^st European settlers in Australia, led by Captain Arthur Phillip, landed in present-day Sydney.

01/27/1951 - A period of atomic testing in the Nevada desert began as an Air Force plane dropped a one-kiloton bomb on Frenchman Flats.

01/27/1973 - The Vietnam peace accords were signed in Paris.

01/28/1596 - English navigator Sir Francis Drake died off the coast of Panama and was buried at sea.

01/28/1909 - The US ended direct control over Cuba.

01/28/1915 - An act of Congress created the US Coast Guard.

01/28/1970 - The soap opera All My Children debuted on TV.

01/28/1973 - A cease-fire officially went into effect in the Vietnam War.

01/28/1986 - The space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after liftoff from Cape Canaveral, killing all seven crewmembers.

01/29/1820 - Britain's King George III died insane at Windsor Castle. He was the king we were revolting against during the Revolutionary War.

01/29/1845 - Edgar Allan Poe's poem, The Raven, was 1^st published in the NY Evening Mirror. The Baltimore Ravens took their name from that poem because Poe spent a lot of time in that city.

01/30/1815 - The US Library of Congress recovered from its 1812 destruction by acquiring Thomas Jefferson's 6,457-volume personal library.

01/30/1933 - Station WXYZ in Detroit aired the 1^st episode of The Lone Ranger radio program.

01/30/1933 - Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany.

01/30/1958 - A Hindu extremist murdered Indian political and spiritual leader, Mahatma Gandhi.

01/30/1968 - The Vietnam War's Tet Offensive began as Communist forces launched surprise attacks against South Vietnamese provincial capitals.

01/31/1865 - General Robert E. Lee became General-In-Chief of all the Confederate armies.

01/31/1928 - Scotch Tape was used for the 1^st time.

01/31/1936 - The Green Hornet premiered on radio.

01/31/1945 - An American firing squad in France executed Private Eddie Slovik, the only US soldier since the Civil War executed for desertion.

01/31/1950 - President Truman announced he had ordered development of the hydrogen bomb.

01/31/1958 - The US entered the Space Age with its 1^st successful launch of a satellite into orbit, Explorer I.

01/31/2006 - Coretta Scott King, widow of Marin Luther King Jr., died in Atlanta GA