January 1
January 1 is the first day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 365 days remain (366 in leap years). It marks the start of the modern civic new year and falls in the heart of Northern-Hemisphere winter.
Day of year
1
Days remaining
365
ISO week
1
Zodiac
Capricorn
Season
Winter
Sun declination
-23.0°
External references
Curated jump-off points to the major almanacs, encyclopaedias and primary sources for this date.
Wikipedia: this day →Britannica: this day →LoC: Today in History →History.com: this day →On-This-Day.com →BBC: On This Day →NYT: this day →Time and Date →NASA APOD archive →U.S. Naval Observatory →Wolfram|Alpha →Wikidata →Google Books →JSTOR →Internet Archive →
— ad slot (replace with AdSense ins tag) —
Astronomy
Computed via Cooper's formula. Positive declination = Sun north of the celestial equator (Northern Hemisphere summer).
- Earth approaches its annual perihelion (closest point to the Sun, ≈147.1 million km), which occurs around January 3–4.
- Quadrantids meteor shower active (peaks January 3–4).
Position in the year
Holidays & observances
- New Year's Day (worldwide)
- Public Domain Day (works whose copyright has expired enter the public domain)
- Global Family Day (UN)
- Independence Day — Haiti (1804), Sudan (1956), Cameroon (1960), Brunei (1984)
- Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God (Roman Catholic)
Events
A selection of widely-documented historical events that took place on this date. Years marked BCE follow standard astronomical convention.
- 45 BCE — The Julian calendar took effect, the result of reforms ordered by Julius Caesar. ↗(2071 years ago)
- 1772 — The first traveller's cheques were issued by the London Credit Exchange Company. ↗(254 years ago)
- 1788 — The first edition of The Times of London was published (renamed from The Daily Universal Register). ↗(238 years ago)
- 1801 — The Act of Union joined Great Britain and Ireland to form the United Kingdom. ↗(225 years ago)
- 1801 — Italian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi discovered Ceres, the first known asteroid (and now-classified dwarf planet). ↗(225 years ago)
- 1863 — U.S. President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation took effect, declaring slaves in Confederate-held territory legally free. ↗(163 years ago)
- 1892 — Ellis Island opened as a U.S. immigrant inspection station; some 12 million immigrants would pass through over the next six decades. ↗(134 years ago)
- 1901 — The Commonwealth of Australia was federated from six self-governing colonies. ↗(125 years ago)
- 1959 — Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista fled the country; Fidel Castro's revolutionary forces took power. ↗(67 years ago)
- 1983 — ARPANET officially adopted the TCP/IP protocol suite — often called "the birthday of the modern Internet". ↗(43 years ago)
- 1993 — Czechoslovakia peacefully dissolved into the Czech Republic and Slovakia (the "Velvet Divorce"). ↗(33 years ago)
- 1999 — The euro was introduced as an electronic currency in 11 European Union member states. ↗(27 years ago)
- 2002 — Euro coins and banknotes entered circulation, replacing 12 national currencies overnight. ↗(24 years ago)
Notable births
- 1735 — Paul Revere, American silversmith and Patriot remembered for his 1775 'midnight ride'. ↗(291 years ago)
- 1879 — E. M. Forster, English novelist (A Passage to India, Howards End). ↗(147 years ago)
- 1895 — J. Edgar Hoover, first director of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation. ↗(131 years ago)
- 1919 — J. D. Salinger, American novelist (The Catcher in the Rye). ↗(107 years ago)
- 1942 — Country Joe McDonald, American singer-songwriter and Vietnam-era protest figure. ↗(84 years ago)
Notable deaths
Numerical & calendrical curiosities
| Day-of-year (1) | 1 · composite (no) |
|---|---|
| Days remaining (365) | 5 × 73 |
| Date code DDMMYYYY | 01012026 · no palindrome in next 200 years |
| Sun declination | -23.00° (Cooper approximation) |
| Distance from solstice | 12 days |