01 January History
- 1500 - The Portuguese explorer Pedro Alvares Cabral searches the coast of Brazil and claims the region for Portugal.
- 1586 - Sir Francis Drake launches a surprise attack on the heavily fortified city of Santo Domingo in Hipanola.
- 1698 - The Abenaki Indians and Massachusetts colonists sign a treaty halting hostilities between the two.
- 1766 - The Old Pretender, son of James III, dies.
- 1788 - The Times, London's oldest running newspaper, publishes its first edition.
- 1808 - A U.S. law banning the import of slaves comes into effect, but is widely ignored.
- 1824 - The Camp Street Theatre opens as the first English-language playhouse in New Orleans.
- 1830 - William Lloyd Garrison publishes the first edition of a journal entitled The Liberator, calling for the complete and immediate emancipation of all slaves in the United States.
- 1863 - Confederate General Braxton Bragg and Union General William Rosecrans readjust their troops as the Battle of Murfreesboro continues.
- 1863 - President Abraham Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing the slaves in the Confederacy.
- 1891 - Facilities opened on Ellis Island, New York, to cope with the vast flood of immigrants coming into the United States.
- 1907 - The Pure Food and Drug Act becomes law in the United States.
- 1915 - The German submarine U-24 sinks the British battleship Formidable in the English Channel.
- 1918 - The first gasoline pipeline begins operation. Along the 40 miles and three inches of pipe from Salt Creek to Casper, Wyoming.
- 1923 - Sadi Lecointe sets a new aviation speed record flying an average of 208 mph at Istres.
- 1937 - At a party at the Hormel Mansion in Minnesota, a guest wins $100 for naming a new canned meat–Spam.
- 1945 - In Operation Bodenplatte, German planes attack American forward air bases in Europe. This is the last major offensive of the Luftwaffe.
- 1959 - Fidel Castro seizes power in Cuba as General Fulgencio Batista flees.
- 1986 - As the United States builds its strength in the Mediterranean, Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi threatens to retaliate if attacked.
01 January Birthdays
- 1735 - Paul Revere, U.S. patriot.
- 1752 - Betsy Ross, flag maker.
- 1879 - E.M. [Edward Morgan] Forster, English novelist (A Passage to India, A Room With a View).
- 1895 - J. Edgar Hoover, founding director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI).
- 1919 - J.D. [Jerome David] Salinger, U.S. novelist (The Catcher in the Rye, Franny and Zooey).