January 1
Subject to Britannica's Privacy Policy and Terms of Use
Featured Event
© JohannesS/Shutterstock.com
Eleven European Union countries changed their money to the euro on this day in 1999. All electronic transactions switched to the new monetary unit, although coins and banknotes stayed unchanged in these countries until January 1, 2002. [Read today’s edition of Today in History >>]
Featured Biography
Featured Biography
Imogen Cunningham Trust. www.imogencunningham.com
Wherever there is light, one can photograph.
Born this day in 1864, Alfred Stieglitz was an American art dealer, an advocate for Modernist art, and his era’s preeminent photographer, among whose most famous photos were those of his wife, painter Georgia O’Keeffe.
Famous Birthdays
More on January 1
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
2026
Bulgaria adopted the euro as its official currency, replacing the lev. [Why does the € symbol look the way it does?]
© Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images
2024
The New York Sirens played the Toronto Sceptres in the first regular-season game of the Professional Women’s Hockey League.
Jason Merritt—Getty Images/Thinkstock
2011
The Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) debuted on television.
© Ricochet69/Dreamstime.com
1995
The World Trade Organization was formally established. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about world organizations.]
AP Images
1994
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) went into effect, eliminating most tariffs and other trade barriers on products and services passing between the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
Hulton Archive/Getty Images
1959
Dictator Fulgencio Batista fled Cuba after his regime was toppled by rebel forces led by Fidel Castro. [Discover six interesting facts about Fidel Castro.]
© Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
1953
American country-and-western musician Hank Williams, Sr., died. [Discover famous alter egos of the music industry.]
Bettmann/Getty Images
1919
J.D. Salinger—whose only novel, The Catcher in the Rye (1951), won wide critical acclaim—was born in New York, New York. [Can you match these opening lines to their works?]
© Ben Martin/Getty Images
1909
Barry M. Goldwater, a longtime U.S. senator who was the Republican presidential candidate in 1964, was born in Phoenix, Arizona. [Test your knowledge of U.S. presidential elections.]
© Walter Arce/Dreamstime.com
1902
The first college football bowl game was held as the University of Michigan defeated Stanford in what became known as the Rose Bowl; however, the game did not become an annual event until 1916. [How much do you know about American football?]
AP
1895
J. Edgar Hoover—who, as director of the FBI (1924–72), firmly established it as the principal investigative agency of the federal government of the United States—was born in Washington, D.C. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about famous Americans.]
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-DIG-pga-02797)
1863
The Emancipation Proclamation, which freed enslaved people in the Confederacy (the states in rebellion against the Union during the American Civil War), was issued by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. [How much do you know about Abraham Lincoln?]
© AISA—Everett/Shutterstock.com
1818
The first print run of Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus—500 copies, with no author identified—was produced by a largely unknown publisher in London. The novel soon gained wide popularity, which prompted 20-year-old Mary Shelley to go public as its author. [Frankenstein wasn’t the only offspring of the haunted summer of 1816.]
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
1808
The United States made the slave trade illegal as the Act Prohibiting the Importation of Slaves went into effect, although slavery persisted in the country. [Take our quiz about slavery and resistance through history.]
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1804
Haiti declared its independence from France, bringing the Haitian Revolution to an end and making Haiti the only country to be founded as a result of a rebellion by formerly enslaved people. [What do Haitians traditionally eat to celebrate Independence Day?]
© SuperStock
1735
Paul Revere, the horseback-riding folk hero of the American Revolution, was born in Boston, Massachusetts. [How much do you know about the American Revolution?]
Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1943.4.92
1449
Florentine statesman, ruler, and patron of arts and letters Lorenzo de’ Medici was born. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about famous Europeans.]