History for January 1

History for January 1 - On-This-Day.com:
Lorenzo de' Medici 1449 - Italian politician, diplomat, known as Lorenzo the Magnificent (Lorenzo il Magnifico), heir to Medici banking empire, Paul Revere 1735, Betsy Ross (Elizabeth Griscom) 1752


George Washington Carver 1860, E.M. Forster 1879, J. Edgar Hoover (U.S.) 1895


0404 - The last gladiator competition was held in Rome.


1808 - The U.S. prohibited import of slaves from Africa.


1863 - U.S. President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared that all slaves in the rebel states were free.


1895 - In Battle Creek, MI, C.W. Post created his first usable batch of Monks Brew (later called Postum). It was a cereal-based substitute for caffeinated drinks.


1934 - Alcatraz Island officially became a Federal Prison.


1959 - Fidel Castro overthrew the government of Fulgencio Batista, and seized power in Cuba.


1993 - Czechoslovakia split into two separate states, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The peaceful division had been engineered in 1992.


1999 - The euro became currency for 11 Member States of the European Union. Coins and notes were not available until January 1, 2002.