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Today is Wednesday, January 1, the first day of 2025. There are 364 days left in the year. This is New Year’s Day.
Today in history:
On January 1, 1863, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation during the Civil War, declaring that all enslaved people in rebellious states “are free, and henceforth shall be free.”
Also on this date:
In 1804, Haiti declared its independence from France, becoming the world’s first black-majority republic.
In 1808, the federal law banning the importation of enslaved people into the United States went into effect.
In 1818, Mary Shelley’s novel “Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus” was first published in London when Shelley was twenty years old.
In 1892, the Ellis Island Immigration Station in New York was formally opened, processing nearly 700 immigrants on its first day; nearly 12 million immigrants would eventually pass through the station before it closed in 1954.
In 1959, Fulgencio Batista resigned as Cuban president and fled the country, marking victory for Fidel Castro’s rebel forces and the end of the Cuban revolution.
In 2000, an anxious world held its breath as computers quietly switched to the year 2000, but the dreaded “Y2K bug” caused few serious problems.
Today’s Birthdays:
- Filmmaker Frederick Wiseman is 95.
- Actor Frank Langella is 87.
- Country musician 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.