Jan. 1
1808: The federal law prohibiting the importation of enslaved people to the United States took effect.
1818: Mary Shelley’s novel “Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus” was first published in London, when Shelley was 20 years old.
1863: President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation during the Civil War, declaring that all enslaved people in rebellious states “are, and henceforward shall be free.”
1892: The Ellis Island Immigration Station in New York formally opened, processing nearly 700 immigrants on its first day.
Jan. 2
1890: President Benjamin Harrison appointed Alice Sanger as the first female White House staffer amid a growing movement for women’s rights.
1942: The Philippine capital of Manila was captured by Japanese forces during World War II.
1959: The Soviet spacecraft Luna 1 launched, becoming the first spacecraft to escape Earth’s gravity.
Jan. 3
1777: Gen. George Washington’s army routed British troops at the Battle of Princeton in New Jersey, a key turning point in the Revolutionary War.
1920: Boston Red Sox owner Harry Frazee sold the contract of Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees, beginning a championship era for the Yankees and decades of heartache for Red Sox fans. (The Red Sox ultimately broke the “curse” in 2004, winning their first World Series in 86 years.)
1959: Alaska was officially admitted as the 49th U.S. state.
Jan. 4
1853: New Yorker Solomon Northup regained his freedom after being kidnapped in Washington, D.C. and forced into slavery in 1841; he later told his story in his memoir, “Twelve Years a Slave.”
1948: Burma, now known as Myanmar, marked its independence from Great Britain.
1965: President Lyndon B. Johnson delivered his State of the Union address outlining the goals of his “Great Society” initiative.
Jan. 5
1925: Democrat Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming took office as the nation’s first female governor.
1953: Samuel Beckett’s two-act tragicomedy “Waiting for Godot,” considered a classic of the Theater of the Absurd, premiered in Paris.
1957: President Dwight D. Eisenhower proposed assistance to countries to help them resist communist aggression in what became known as the Eisenhower Doctrine.
Jan. 6
1919: Former President Theodore Roosevelt died in Oyster Bay, New York, at age 60.
1941: President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in his State of the Union address, outlined the “Four Freedoms”: freedom of speech and expression, freedom to worship God in one’s own way, freedom from want and freedom from fear.
1994: Figure skater Nancy Kerrigan was attacked at Detroit’s Cobo Arena; four men, including the ex-husband of rival Tonya Harding, were imprisoned for their roles.
Jan. 7
1610: Astronomer Galileo Galilei observed three of Jupiter’s moons for the first time and a fourth days later.
1979: Vietnamese forces captured the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, overthrowing the communist Khmer Rouge government blamed for the deaths of about 1.7 million people.
1999: President Bill Clinton’s Senate impeachment trial began on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice; he was acquitted the following month.
