Today in History, January 1st
On January 1, 1863, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Plus Haiti's independence, Ellis Island's opening and the euro's debut.
Published · Last updated
January 1 is best known for 1863, when President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. The date also marks Haiti’s declaration of independence in 1804, the opening of Ellis Island in 1892 and the launch of the euro in 1999.
The big story: Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation (1863)
Lincoln had given the South fair warning. Shortly after the Battle of Antietam in September 1862, he announced that enslaved people in any state still in rebellion at the start of the new year would be declared free. No Confederate state came back. So on January 1, 1863, he signed the final proclamation, declaring that people held as slaves in the rebel areas were free from then on. Its reach was narrower than its fame. It did not touch the loyal border states or Southern areas already under Union control, and in practice it could only take hold where Union armies advanced. But it changed what the war was about, making the fight to save the Union a fight for freedom too. It also opened the Army and Navy to Black men, and by the war’s end nearly 200,000 had served. Slavery itself was abolished nationwide by the 13th Amendment, ratified in December 1865.
More events on January 1
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1804 | Jean-Jacques Dessalines proclaimed the independence of the French colony of Saint-Domingue and renamed it Haiti, the second independent nation in the Americas. |
| 1818 | Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus was published. She was 20, and the book is often called the first science fiction novel. |
| 1863 | Nebraska farmer Daniel Freeman filed the first claim under the Homestead Act, for land near Beatrice. |
| 1892 | Ellis Island opened as a federal immigration station. Its first arrival was Annie Moore, a teenager from Ireland traveling with her two younger brothers. |
| 1942 | Twenty-six Allied nations signed the Declaration by United Nations, pledging a joint war effort and introducing the “United Nations” name. |
| 1959 | Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista fled the country as Fidel Castro’s rebel movement took power. |
| 1994 | The North American Free Trade Agreement took effect, removing most trade barriers among the U.S., Canada and Mexico. |
| 1995 | The World Trade Organization was established, an outcome of the Uruguay Round of trade talks. |
| 1999 | The euro debuted as the shared currency of 11 European nations. Euro notes and coins followed on January 1, 2002. |
| 2007 | Bulgaria and Romania joined the European Union, bringing it to 27 member states. |
Born on January 1
- 1735: Paul Revere, Boston silversmith and Revolutionary messenger (New Style; December 21, 1734, Old Style).
- 1895: J. Edgar Hoover, longtime director of the FBI, born in Washington, D.C.
- 1919: J.D. Salinger, author of The Catcher in the Rye, born in New York City.
Keep reading
Sources
- The Emancipation Proclamation, National Archives
- Emancipation Proclamation, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- This Day in History: January 1, History.com
- Haitian independence proclaimed, History.com
- Ellis Island opens, History.com
- Who we are, World Trade Organization
- History of the EU: 2000–09, European Union
- Paul Revere Biography, Paul Revere House
- J. Edgar Hoover, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- J.D. Salinger, Encyclopaedia Britannica
