• 1808 – The United States banned the importation of slaves.
• 1892 – Ellis Island began processing immigrants into the United States.
• January 1, 1980 – The Far Side, Comic Strip debuted
• 1847 – The world’s first “Mercy” Hospital was founded in Pittsburgh, United States, by a group of Sisters of Mercy from Ireland.
• 1958 – The European Economic Community (EEC) was established.
• 1979 – Normal diplomatic relations are established between the People’s Republic of China and the United States.
• 1995 – The World Trade Organization began.
• If you were born on January 1st,
  You were likely conceived the week of… April 10th (prior year)

The true poet has no choice of material. The material plainly chooses him, not he it.
– J. D. Salinger

January,
The first month of the year,
A perfect time to start all over again,
Changing energies and deserting old moods,
New beginnings, new attitudes
– Charmaine J Forde

Lots of people go mad in January. Not as many as in May, of course. Nor June. But January is your third most common month for madness.
– Karen Joy Fowler

Dickensian poverty tends to occur after Christmas in January. For it is then, with pockets empty, diary decimated and larder bare, that the general populace sinks into a collective pauper’s hibernation until Valentine’s Day.
– Stewart Stafford

4713 BC – Julian Calendar day #1, according to Joseph Justus Scaliger’s cycle of 7980 years.

45 BC – The Julian Calendar began, and was used widespread until 1582.

1622 – January 1st became the start of the “New Year” (it was March 25 for a long time prior)

1776 – General George Washington raised the first United States flag- the Grand Union Flag, at Prospect Hill, Massachusettes.

1788 – The Times of London newspaper began publication.

1801 – Great Britain, Scotland and Ireland unite, founding the “United Kingdom”.

1801 – Ceres, the largest and first known object in the Asteroid belt, was discovered by Giuseppe Piazzi.

1818 – Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus was published (anonymously) in London. (500 copies were made)

1862 – U.S. income tax began, with 3% of incomes over $600, 5% of incomes over $10,000.

1863 – The ‘Emancipation Proclamation’ issued by Abraham Lincoln

1886 – 1st Tournament of Roses took place in Pasadena, California

1896 – German scientist Wilhelm Röntgen announced his discovery of X-rays.

1908 – 1st New Year’s ball drop at Times Square, NYC

1910 – The Hydrox “biscuit bonbon,” a chocolate sandwich cookie with creme filling, was introduced. Oreos came out in 1912.

1915 – Aspirin was made available for the first time in tablet form. The pills were manufactured by Bayer pharmaceuticals, and had been available in powder form before that.

1923 – Britain’s Railways were grouped into the ‘Big Four’: LNER, GWR, SR, and LMS.

1928 – The 21-story Milam Building was the first air-conditioned, high-rise office building in the United States (San Antonio, TX)

1925 – 1st Sugar Bowl and 1st Orange Bowl

1934 – Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay became a United States Federal Prison.

1936 – The Herald Tribune of New York began microfilming the latest issues, becoming the first US newspaper to make a current record of its publication.

1946 – ENIAC, the first U.S. computer was completed. It was built at the Moore School of Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia,

1948 – The first motion picture ‘newsreel’ in color was taken at the Tournament of Roses and the Rose Bowl Game, Pasadena, California.

1954 – NBC broadcasted Pasadena’s Rose Bowl parade, for the first time in color.

1960 – US population: 179,245,000

1962 – The Rose Bowl game on NBC was the first coast-to-coast color television broadcast of a college football game in the US.

1964 – Tops of the Pops first aired on BBC

1966 – #1 Hit January 1, 1966 – January 7, 1966: Simon & Garfunkel – The Sound Of Silence

1966 – “Caution Cigarette smoking may be hazardous to your health” warning started appearing on cigarettes.

1971 – Cigarette advertisements were banned on American television.

Janury 1, 1980 – The Far Side, Comic Strip debuted

1983 – The Evil Dead was released in theaters

January 1, 1983 – The Apple Lisa was released.

1983 – The ARPANET officially changed to using the Internet Protocol, creating the Internet by default.

1985 – VH1 debuted on US cable

January 1, 1985 – The Apple Macintosh XL was released.

1985 – The AT&T monopoly was broken up into seven companies: Ameritech, Bell Atlantic, BellSouth, NYNEX, Pacific Telesis, Southwestern Bell and US West.

1988 – The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America organized.

January 1, 1990 (fiction) The Ghostbusters defeated Vigo the Carpathian, Ghostbusters II, Film

1995- The History Channel was launched

1995 – The last syndicated Far Side by cartoonist Gary Larson appeared. (started in 1985)

1997 – U.S. television networks adopted a ratings system for programming similar to the one used for motion pictures.

1997 – The Emergency Broadcast System was replaced by the Emergency Alert System

1999- The Biography channel and DIY channels were introduced.

1999 – Euro currency was introduced in 11 member nations of the European Union.

2000 – Fantasia 2000 was released in theaters.

2005 – #1 Hit January 1, 2005 – March 4, 2005: Mario – Let Me Love You

2008 – CourtTV was rebranded as TruTV

2011 – Discovery Health Channel became The Oprah Winfrey Network.

2014 -The manufacture and importing of the common 40-watt and 60-watt general service incandescent lamps was ended under the deadline set by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007.

2015 – The Eurasian Economic Union came into effect, creating a political and economic union between Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan

“Redrum!” – Danny Torrance in The Shining #moviequotes

TV Quotes… “Nip it!” (Barney Fife) on “The Andy Griffith Show”

Hangovers cost an estimated $220 billion loss in productivity per year.

Women always have an ex-boyfriend who can fix cars. #moviecliches

“We’re in America, man .” #misunderstoodlyrics

2000-year-old graffiti was discovered in the ancient city of Pompeii, such as “On April 19th, I made bread.” and “If anyone does not believe in Venus, they should gaze at my girlfriend.”

“A boy’s best friend is his mother.” – Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) #moviequotes

An ore (like a gold or silver ore) is only called an ore if it’s economically feasible to mine the mineral.

The Capital of Zimbabwe is Harare

Almost all cattle are descended from only 80 aurochs tamed in northern Mesopotamia about 10,000 years ago.

The line between the two numbers in a fraction is called the vinculum 7/22.

St Francis of Assisi – Real Name: Giovanni De Bernardone

Notice the big letter on the face of the dollar bill? Each letter represents which Federal Reserve Bank printed it! “H” is for St. Louis

The seven sins according to Gandhi: “Wealth without work. Pleasure without conscience. Knowledge without character. Commerce without morality. Science without humanity. Religion without sacrifice. Politics without principle.”

In the average lifetime, a person will walk the equivalent of 5 times around the equator.

Bangkok’s real name is “Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Ayuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Piman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit”.

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