Today is Wednesday, Jan. 1, the first day of 2025. There are 364 days left in the year. This is New Year’s Day.
Today in history
On Jan. 1, 1863, U.S. 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.”
Also on this date
In 1804, Haiti declared itself independent from France, becoming the world’s first Black-majority republic.
In 1808, the federal law prohibiting the importation of enslaved people to the United States took effect.
In 1818, Mary Shelley’s novel “Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus” was first published in London, when Shelley was 20 years old.
In 1892, the Ellis Island Immigration Station in New York formally opened, processing nearly 700 immigrants on its first day; nearly 12 million immigrants would ultimately pass through the station before its closure in 1954.
In 1959, Fulgencio Batista resigned as Cuban president and fled the country, marking victory for Fidel Castro’s rebel troops and the end of the Cuban Revolution.
In 2000, an anxious world held its breath as computers silently switched to the year 2000, but the dreaded “Y2K bug” caused few serious issues.
Fun facts
The tradition of dropping a ball to mark the passing of time started in 1833 in England. The ball drop in Times Square began in 1907 after city leaders banned fireworks.
The confetti in Times Square has thousands of people’s wishes written on them. In 2015 “wishfetti” became a part of the tradition. People write their wishes for the new year and submit them to the Wish Wall in Times Square (or online) and those wishes are turned into the confetti that falls over the crowd at midnight.
Most New Year’s resolutions aren’t taken too seriously. Nearly 80% of resolutions made at the beginning of the year are forgotten by February. So no worries if you need to restart.
You can thank a pope for making our new year start on Jan. 1.
The Gregorian calendar was introduced in October of 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII as a revised version of the Julian calendar. It took almost 350 years for the world to get on board. Turkey didn’t make the switch until 1927.
Today’s birthdays
Filmmaker Frederick Wiseman is 95. Actor Frank Langella is 87. Musician Country Joe McDonald is 83. Actor-comedian Don Novello is 82. DJ Grandmaster Flash is 67. Actor Morris Chestnut is 56. Rapper Ice Spice is 25.
The Edge is compiled by Katie Clohessy. She can be contacted at kclohessy@lmtribune.com.
