The 1st of January

[chenrezig]

January 1 became the official start of the year as follows:

1522 Republic of Venice
1544 Holy Roman Empire (Germany)
1556 Spain, Portugal
1559 Prussia, Sweden
1564 France
1576 Southern Netherlands
1579 Lorraine
1583 United Provinces of the Netherlands (northern)
1600 Scotland
1700 Russia
1721 Tuscany
1752 Great Britain (excluding Scotland) and its colonies

Events
1651 – Charles II is crowned King of Scotland.
1773 – The hymn that became known as "Amazing Grace", then titled "1 Chronicles 17:16–17" is first used to accompany a sermon led by John Newton in the town of Olney, England.
1788 – First edition of The Times of London, previously The Daily Universal Register, is published.
1801 – The legislative union of Kingdom of Great Britain and Kingdom of Ireland is completed to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
1877 – Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom is proclaimed Empress of India.
1894 – The Manchester Ship Canal, England, is officially opened to traffic.
1973 – Denmark, the United Kingdom, and Ireland are admitted into the European Economic Community.
1977 – Charter 77 published its first document.
1983 – The ARPANET officially changes to using the Internet Protocol, creating the Internet.
1985 – The first British mobile phone call is made by Ernie Wise to Vodafone.

Births
1879 – E. M. Forster, English author (d. 1970)
1912 – Kim Philby, British spy, Soviet double agent (d. 1988)
1938 – Frank Langella, American actor
1961 – Fiona Phillips, English journalist

Deaths
1944 – Edwin Lutyens, English architect, designed the Castle Drogo and Thiepval Memorial (b. 1869)
1972 – Maurice Chevalier, French actor (b. 1888)
1994 – Cesar Romero, American actor (b. 1907)
2001 – Ray Walston, American actor (b. 1914)
2012 – Bob Anderson, English fencer, stuntman, and choreographer (b. 1922) Darth Vader and Count Dooku double

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