Today in History: New Year's Day

Every day is flush with history. January 1^st is certainly no exception.

440 - Rome enjoys the last Gladiator competition

990 - Russia adopts the Julian calendar

1430 - No longer are Jews in Sicily forced to attend conversion services.

1502 - Rio de Janeiro is discovered by Portuguese explorers

1583 - In Holland and Flanders, the 1^st of January is the first day of the Gregorian calendar.

1660 - Samuel Pepys makes his first diary entry

1622 - The Papal Chancery notes this day as the beginning of the year, instead of March 25^th.

1673 - Regular mail delivery begins between Boston and New York

1701 - Great Britain and Ireland unite to form the United Kingdom

1764 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart played for the Royal Family in Versailles, France, and was allowed to stand behind the Queen at dinner. He was eight years old.

1788 - Slaves of Pennsylvania Quakers are freed

1797 - Albany takes the title of Capital of New York, replacing New York City

1808 - Congress forbids slaves being imported, and Sierra Leone becomes a British colony

1818 - The White House is officially reopened

1847 - Michigan is the first state to do away with capital punishment

1852 - The first public bath in the United States opens, in New York City

1853 - The United States' first practical fire engine begins service; it is horse drawn

1862 - The first income tax in the United States goes into effect. The rate is 3% of incomes greater than $600, and 5% of incomes greater than $10,000

1863 - Near Beatrice, Nebraska, the first homestead is claimed under the Homestead Act

1881 - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes meets Dr. John H. Watson

1892 - Ellis Island opened for the purpose of registering new immigrants into the United States. Over 20 million immigrants would pass through what is now a museum.

1898 - The five boroughs of New York, including The Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island merge to form New York City

1902 - The first Rose Bowl is played in Pasadena, California

1907 - President Theodore Roosevelt shakes 8,513 hands in one day, a record

1908 - For the first time, the ball that resembled the beginning of a new year was dropped in Times Square in New York