Hi GPJA subscribers,
Today I am publishing a "Today in History" page for January 1 that may be of interest.
I have been preparing these pages for a few years.
I have 365 days covered which is currently in an open office doc of 2300 pages.
That is of course mad and I nearly lost the whole document on a couple of occasions.
But the work has been done and it seems a waste not to publish it somehow.
One option is to put it on Wikipedia. I am not familiar with that process, however, and if someone can help that me the best option.
The other option is for it to be placed on the GPJA website somehow and made accessible to anyone by checking out a particular day.
It would be best if people could subscribe to a daily newsletter of "Today in History" if they wanted to receive it separately from the usual GPJA newsletter.
January 1 (below) is the longest by far for what should be obvious reasons.
Today in History
January 1
AOTEAROA/NZ
1859: New Zealand’s first lighthouse lit. Pencarrow Head lighthouse, at the entrance to Wellington Harbour, was lit for the first time amid great celebration. Read more…
1909: Miners refuse mandatory medical examination and a defacto strike occurs across NZ until governement backs down.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/1883492.pdf
1949: Tokelau (Union) Islands declared part of New Zealand
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokelau
1951: Legislative Council abolished. The Legislative Council was New Zealand’s Upper House, to which members were appointed, not elected. It ceased to exist on New Year’s Day 1951. Read more…
1962: Western Samoa gains independence from New Zealand. Susuga Malietoa Tanumafili II becomes co-chief of Western Samoa
1973: Australian Open Men’s Tennis: Home favourite John Newcombe beats Onny Parun of New Zealand 6-3, 6-7, 7-5, 6-1 for his first Australian title
1974: With effect from this date the New Zealand government terminates all tariff preferences previously granted to South Africa
2000: Gisbourne, New Zealand population 32,754 is first city in the world to welcome in the new millennium
2014: New Zealand cricket batsman Corey Anderson smashes a record century off just 36 balls in the Black Caps’ 159 run ODI win over the West Indies in Queenstown; finishes on 131 not out off 47 balls
Famous Birthdays
1833: Robert Lawson, New Zealand architect (d. 1902)
1991: Peter Burling, New Zealand sailor (Olympic gold 49er class 2016; helmsman America’s Cup 2017; ISAF World Sailor of the Year 2015, 17), born in Tauranga, New Zealand
Famous deaths
2020: Dick Sott. Historial and journalist
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Scott_(historian)
WORLD
1: Religion – Origin of the Christian Era
45 BC: Science – Julian calendar takes effect for the first time by edict of Roman dictator Julius Caesar
404: Italy – Last gladiator competition in Rome
630: Saudi Arabia – Prophet Muhammad sets out with his army towards Mecca, capturing it bloodlessly
1502: Portugal – Portuguese navigators “discover” Rio de Janeiro
1515: Austria – Jews are expelled from Laibach
1660: UK – Thomas Fairfax’s New Model Army occupies York
1724: UK – Glassblower Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit proposes system for making thermometers and the Fahrenheit temperature scale in a paper to the Royal Society of London and is elected a fellow on its basis
1758: Science – The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature establish the "starting point" for standardized species names across the animal kingdom, based on the binomial nomenclature by Carolus Linnaeus 10th edition of Systema Naturae
1781: US – 1,500 soldiers of the 6th Pennsylvania Regiment under General Anthony Wayne’s command rebel against the Continental Army’s winter camp in Morristown, New Jersey as part of the Pennsylvania (Continentals; Regiment) Mutiny of 1781.
1785: UK – "Daily Universal Register" (Times of London) publishes 1st issue
1801: Ireland – The Irish Parliament votes to join the Kingdom of Great Britain, forming the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
1804: Haiti – Became a free republic after a revolution, declaring independence for ALL people from France (National Day), making it the only state ever founded by former slaves and without slavery
https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/haitian-independence/
https://unherd.com/2020/12/the-first-black-superhero-of-the-modern-age/
https://socialistproject.ca/2021/07/haiti-neo-colonialism-to-neoliberal-brutality/#more
1808: US – African Benevolent Society (education) forms
1808: US – US Congress prohibits importation of slaves
1808: Sierra Leone – Becomes a British colony
1818: UK – Mary Shelley’s "Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus" is published anonymously by the small London publishing house of Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones
1827: Indonesia – Dutch Trade Company NHM gets opium monopoly on Java
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2697852
https://theconversation.com/exploitation-brutality-and-misery-how-the-opium-trade-shaped-the-modern-world-227356
1831: US – The first issue of "The Liberator," William Lloyd Garrison’s abolitionist paper was printed on this date.
1832: US – The first meeting of the New England Anti-Slavery Society occurred on this date.
1833: Argentina – British government demands Falkland islands
1860: Netherlands – Slavery ends of in Dutch East Indies
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_slavery_in_the_Netherlands
1863: US – President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation freeing the slaves in all rebel states, but by no means granting equality under the law: "I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races; that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to inter-marry with white people . . . and I am as much as any other man in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race."
https://calendar.eji.org/racial-injustice/jan/1
https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/emancipation-proclamation/
https://libcom.org/history/lincoln-emancipation-howard-zinn
https://jacobin.com/2023/02/slave-strike-emancipation-american-civil-war-union-army
1867: US – Sharecropper contract signed between landowner Isham Bailey and freedmen
1875: US – Women weavers form union in Fall River, Massachusetts and lead a strike after their wages are cut. The men quickly join.
1877: India – Queen Victoria proclaimed Empress of India
1880: Panama – Building of Panama Canal begins. By the time France abandoned the project in 1888, accidents and disease had claimed the lives of a staggering 20,000 laborers,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Panama_Canal
https://www.history.com/news/panama-canal-construction-dangers
1881: France – Paris Commune leader Louis-Auguste Blanqui (1805-1881) died on this date in Paris.
1881: UK – Dr John Watson is first introduced to Sherlock Holmes in story written by Arthur Conan Doyle
1890: Eritrea – Consolidated into a colony by the Italian government.
1891: Sudan – French troops occupy Nioro, West-Sudan, 3000 killed
1892: US – Ellis Island opens. TDILH Essay
1895: US – The Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act came into force, which was to have huge influence over unions for the next 80 years. In simple terms, if a union registered under the act, and could not settle an argument with an employer, the Arbitration Court ruled on the matter. This worked well, so long as the ruling was in favour of the workers. That was not always the fact, of course, and the downside was that no strike action was allowed in those circumstances.
1896: Science – German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen announces his discovery of x-rays
1897: Argentina – Virginia Bolten edited the final issue of Argentinian anarchist feminist newspaper "La Voz de la Mujer". Bolten became a militant early in life, helped organise several worker and tenants strikes & was arrested and deported
1899: Cuba – Liberated from Spanish rule by the US, American occupation continues till 1902
1900: Netherlands – Compulsory education goes into effect
1900: Nigeria – British protectorates of Northern and Southern Nigeria are established.
1901: Australia – The Commonwealth of Australia is formed when the British (Imperial) Parliament Act, the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act 1900, comes into effect
1902: Science – Nathan Stubblefield makes 1st public demonstration of radio, Pennsylvania
1903: India – In Delhi, a great durbar, or formal reception, marks the coronation of King Edward VII as Emperor of India; the British release some 16,000 prisoners in honor of the occasion
1906: US – The International Typographical Union successfully strikes for an 8-hour day.
1906: SA – The poll tax of £1 per head on all adult male inhabitants of Natal, South Africa, except indentured Indians and married Blacks, imposed by the Natal parliament in 1905, becomes payable.
1907: US – New York the 2500 striking Wobblies return to work without winning their demands.
1911: Belgium – Belgian Mining law introduces 9½ hour work day
1911: US – Boot and Shoe Workers Strike in New York. Paul F. Brissenden, The I.W.W.: A Study of American Syndicalism, 368
1911: US – Strike at Tunnel of Tacoma Power Plant.
1911: US – Miners Strike at La Grande, Washington. Strike in response to wage cuts. Paul F. Brissenden, The I.W.W.: A Study of American Syndicalism, 368
1912: China – Sun Yat-sen forms the Republic of China
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_China_(1912%E2%80%931949)
1912: US – A government-mandated reduction of the workweek goes into effect in Lawrence, Massachusetts, resulting in pay cuts at textile mills. In response to the decrease in wages, textile workers go out on strike. Soon after, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) arrives to organize and lead the strike, and the mayor orders that a local militia patrol the streets. Local officers turn fire hoses on the workers. After two months, mill owners settle the strike, granting substantial pay increases.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1912_Lawrence_textile_strike
1913: US – Cannery Workers Strike. San Francisco, California,. Strike in response to wage cuts. (Paul F. Brissenden, The I.W.W.: A Study of American Syndicalism, 369)
https://depts.washington.edu/iww/strikes.shtml
1913: US – Stone and Webster Construction Strike at Big Creek, California. Strike was for better wages, hours and working conditions. (Paul F. Brissenden, The I.W.W.: A Study of American Syndicalism)
1913: US – Post office begins parcel post deliveries
1914: Netherlands – Klaas ter Laan becomes 1st socialist mayor (Zaandam)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kornelis_ter_Laan
1914: Nigeria – Northern & Southern Nigeria united in British colony of Nigeria
1915: Austria – Jews of Laibach Austria expelled
1916: US – 1st issue of "Journal of Negro History" published
1916: Science – 1st first blood transfusion using stored and cooled blood is performed
1917: Arabia – T. E. Lawrence joins the forces of the Arabian sheik Feisal al Husayn, beginning his adventures that will lead him to Damascus by October, 1918
1917: US – Frank Keeney and Fred Mooney assume official duties as executive officers of UMWA District 17 in Charleston, West Virginia. Keeney began working in the mines as a child but was inspired by Mother Jones to educate himself and become a labor leader. He becomes one of the key leaders of the miners throughout the Mine Wars
https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/major-labor-figures-of-the-west-virginia-mine-wars.htm
1919: Belarus – Belorussian SSR established
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_Soviet_Republic_of_Byelorussia
1919: US – Edsel Ford succeeds his father, Henry Ford, as president of the Ford Motor Company
1920: Belarus- The Belorussian Communist Organisation is founded as a separate party.
1920: US – John L. Lewis is elected president of the United Mine Workers. Fifteen years later he is to be a leader in the formation of what was to become the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO).
1920: US – America’s first "Red Scare" began with the arrest of 2,700 people without charge. A. Mitchell Palmer, Wilson’s Attorney General, ultimately arrested nearly 6,000 people on suspicion of "communism." Those who were not U.S. citizens were deported as "undesirable aliens."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Red_Scare
1921: Scotland – Scottish suffragist and worker organiser Mary Macarthur died aged just 40. She organised strikes, opposed World War I and supported universal women’s suffrage, not just for the wealthy
https://www.wcml.org.uk/our-collections/activists/mary-macarthur /
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Macarthur
1923: US – The Rosewood Massacre was the white supremacist destruction of a Black town and the murder of many of its residents.
https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/rosewood-massacre/
1924: Canada – IWW Lumber Workers IU120 struck the British Columbia lumber owners, calling for an 8 hour day with blankets supplied, minimum wage of $4 per day, release of all class war prisoners, no discrimination against IWW members & no censuring of IWW literature. (From the Daily Bleed and Morgan Miller, A Brief History of the IWW outside the US (1905-1999)1932: With the Great Depression in full force, the year 1932 opens with 14 million unemployed, national income down by 50 percent, breadlines that include former shopkeepers, businessmen and middle-class housewives. Charity is overwhelmed: only one-quarter of America’s unemployed are receiving any help at all.
https://www.iww.org/history/library/misc/FNBrill1999
https://libcom.org/library/iww-canada-g-jewell
1927: Indonesia – Communist uprising in West Java
https://ecommons.cornell.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/82df2449-7ab5-4cbb-b5a5-0ded2207169b/content
1934 : US – Alcatraz officially becomes a federal prison
1934: US – Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (US bank guarantor) effective
1934: Germany – Nazi Germany passes the "Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring". which forcibly sterilised more than 400,000 disabled people. Later they began murdering them, killing 250,000. Their rhetoric about disabled and ill people being a burden on workers is still widespread today.
1935: Turkey – President Mustapha Kemal Pasha names himself "Ataturk: Father of Turkey"
1935: US – Carl Mackley Homes, housing development created by the Hosiery Workers’ Union, opens in Philadelphia TDILH Essay
1937: US – Workers begin to acquire credits toward Social Security pension benefits. Employers and employees became subject to a tax of one percent of wages on up to $3,000 a year.
1937: Nicaragua – Somoza took office as President and also the role of director of the National Guard, combining the roles. The military dictatorship was established and a U.S.-backed dynasty under the Somoza family that would last four decades.
1939: US – Adolph Strasser, head of the Cigar Maker’s Union and one of the founders of the AFL in 1886, died on this day in Forest Park, Ill.
1939: US – Hewlett-Packard is founded by Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard in a garage in Palo Alto, California "the birthplace of Silicon Valley"
1941: Netherlands – Begins taxing wages
https://www.persee.fr/doc/rbph_0035-0818_1997_num_75_4_4218
1941: Russia – General Georgy Zhukov appointed chief of general staff
https://www.prlib.ru/en/history/619773
1943: Sport – Negro Baseball League star Josh Gibson suffers a nervous breakdown; admitted to hospital for rest and treatment; released in time for pre-season training
https://ghostsofdc.org/2012/08/07/josh-gibson-mental-problems/
1946: Japan – Emperor Hirohito announces he is not a god
1946: Hungary – National Assembly proclaims Hungary a republic
1947: UK – Britain nationalizes its coal industry
https://www.jstor.org/stable/20694683
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_Industry_Nationalisation_Act_1946
1948: World – General Agreement on Tariffs & Trade effective
1948: UK – Transport Act of 1947 comes into force, nationalizing the British rail system under the name British Railways
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_Act_1947
1948: India – After partition, India declines to pay the agreed share of Rs.550 million in cash balances to Pakistan.
1948: Italy – The Constitution of Italy comes into force
1948: Film – 1st color newsreel filmed (Pasadena, California)
1948: Australia – The 40-hour, five day working week began
https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/eight-hour-day
1949: Sport – Arguably cricket’s greatest ever batsman, ex-Australian captain Don Bradman is knighted; first time a cricketer is bestowed with the honour solely for his contribution to the game
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Bradman
1950: Vietnam – Ho Chi Minh begins offensive against French troops in Indo China
1950: Science – A new age dawned on the science of determining the age of objects. The chemists and physicists who had only recently discovered that radio-carbon dating might be used to measure the age of things announced they had refined the technique so it could be used to give accurate results. Given a sample of anything – plant or animal – that had once been alive, radio-carbon dating could measure how old it was.
https://www.radiocarbon.com/carbon-dating-bomb-carbon.htm
1951: Korea- Massive Chinese/North Korean assault on UN-lines
1952: Film – Norman McLaren’s anti-war film "Neighbours" is released (Academy Award Best Documentary Short Subj
https://www.nfb.ca/playlist/mclaren/
1952: Music – Dmitri Shostakovich completes his 5th string quartet – premieres Leningrad 1953
1953: SA – The Bantu Education Act (later renamed the Black Education Act) commenced, providing the legal underpinning of several aspects of the apartheid system, most importantly in education
1954: Yugoslavia – Parliament chairman and Vice President Milovan Djilas criticizes communism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milovan_%C4%90ilas
https://spartacus-educational.com/COLDdjilas.htm
1956: Sudan – (Anglo-Egyptian Sudan) declares independence from Egypt & UK
1957: Germany – Saar returned by France to becomes the 10th state of German Federal Rep
1957: Ireland – An Irish Republican Army (IRA) unit attacks Brookeborough RUC barracks in one of the most famous incidents of the IRA’s Operation Harvest. Fergal O’Hanlon, Irish Republican Army volunteer, killed during the Brookeborough Raid, at 20
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-47199036
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fergal_O%27Hanlon
1959: Cuba – Dictator Fulgencio Batista flees Cuba by plane to the Dominican Republic following the victory of the forces of the July 26 Movement in the Battle of Santa Clara, clearing the way for the revolutionary capture of power across the island
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Revolution
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Fulgencio-Batista
https://newcoldwar.org/january-1-and-fidels-lesson-for-humanity-turning-setbacks-into-victory/
1959: Chad – Becomes autonomous republic in French Community
1960: Cameroon – (French Cameroon) gains independence from France
1960: SA – A photograph of a 13-year-old South African boy in a torn vest is published in the Daily Herald; it was illegal to employ a ‘native’ under 18 in the mines under the Native Labour Regulation Act
1960: US – Greenville Airport Protest. South Carolina NAACP held Greenville Airport Protest in support of Jackie Robinson.
https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/greenville-airport-protest/
1960: Music – Johnny Cash plays the first of many free concerts behind bars at San Quentin Prison, California, with Merle Haggard among the inmates in the audience
https://folsomcasharttrail.com/the-trail/blog/why-did-johnny-cash-play-at-folsom-prison
1962: Rwanda – Granted internal self-government by Belgium
1962: Western Samoa – Gains independence from New Zealand Susuga Malietoa Tanumafili II becomes co-chief of Western Samoa
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malietoa_Tanumafili_II
1963: Film – "Astro Boy", the first popular animated Japanese television series, based on the manga series by Osamu Tezuka, premieres on Fuji TV in Japan
1963: Vietnam – Former president Dwight Eisenhower’s memoir, Mandate for Change, was published, including this eye-opening passage: "I have never talked or corresponded with a person knowledgeable in Indochinese affairs who did not agree that had elections been held as of the time of the fighting [in 1954], possibly 80 per cent of the population would have voted for the Communist Ho Chi Minh as their leader rather than [South Vietnamese] Chief of State Bao Dai."
https://archive.org/details/bestbrightest00halb_0/
1964: Ghana – Kwame Nkrumah, the first President of independent Ghana escapes 5th assassination attempt
1964: Music -"Top of the Pops", British pop music television program premieres; acts performing include Dusty Springfield; The Rolling Stones; Dave Clark Five: The Hollies; Swinging Blue; and The Beatles
1964: Zimbabwe – Federation of Rhodesia & Nyasaland dissolved
1965: Palestine – Al-Fatah organization forms
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatah
1965: Afghanistan – The People’s Democratic Party is founded in Kabul.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Democratic_Party_of_Afghanistan
1966: US – Cigarette packs have to carry "Caution Cigarette smoking may be hazardous to your health"
1966: US – 35,000 Members of the Transport Workers Union and Amalgamated Transit Union working for the New York transit system begin what is to be a successful 12-day strike. Fiery TWU leader Mike Quill, jailed for several days during the strike, then hospitalized, died three days after his release from the hospital. Strikers will win a 15% pay rise, and other benefits, after 12 days. For more information
The 1966 Transit Strike That Paralyzed NYC For Almost Two Weeks
https://laborhistoryin2.podbean.com/e/january-1-transit-workers-push-back/
1966: Central African Republic – Military coup by Col. Jean-Bédel Bokassa leads to his dictatorship
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint-Sylvestre_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat
1967: Tonga – Tonga revises constitution
1967: US – Undercover police raided LGBT+ bar the Black Cat Tavern in Los Angeles after patrons dared to kiss to celebrate the new year, arresting 14 and charging 6 with lewd conduct, and leading to a protest outside on Feb 11.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Cat_Tavern
1968: Science – Renowned surgeon, Dr Chris Barnard, performed his second heart transplant operation at Groote Schuur Hospital a month after his first transplant.
1969: Ireland – People’s Democracy (PD) begin a march from Belfast to Derry, inspired by ML King’s Selma to Montgomery march in the US
https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/events/pdmarch/chron.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Democracy_(Ireland)
1970: Ireland – The Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR), an infantry regiment of the British Army, comes into existence
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulster_Defence_Regiment
1970: US – The North American Free Trade Agreement went into effect. NAFTA intended to bring down trade barriers between Canada, the United States, and Mexico. After a long fight against NAFTA’s passage by labor, environmental groups, Mexican farmers, and many other constituencies, the support of President Bill Clinton clinched its success. Clinton promised that “NAFTA means jobs. American jobs, and good-paying American jobs. If I didn’t believe that, I wouldn’t support this agreement.”
https://lawyersgunsmon.wpengine.com/2012/01/this-day-in-labor-history-january-1-1994
1970: China – The first issue of The 70’s Biweekly was published. A radical magazine that shaped the Hong Kong left, The 70’s Biweekly was a collaborative DIY publication filled with political essays, reporting and art. Its impact survives to this day
1971: Hawai’i – 60-day bus driver strike, after HRT announces a wage and benefit cut from January 1 to March 1.
1973: Europe – Britain, Ireland & Denmark become 7th-9th members of Common Market
1974: UK – Govt implemented the 3-day week to save electricity, which had been restricted by overtime ban by coalminers. The miners ended up bringing down the government and winning their pay increase
https://libcom.org/history/uk-coalminers%E2%80%99-dispute-1973-4
1975: US – H. R. Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Mitchell and Mardian convicted of Watergate crimes
1975: UN – International Women’s Year begins
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Women%27s_Year
1976: Venezuela – Nationalizes oil fields
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Venezuelan_oil_industry
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDVSA
1977: Czechoslovakia – Intellects begin Human Rights Group Chapter 77
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charter_77
1978: SA – News editor Donald Woods finally arrives in London after escaping the apartheid regime in South Africa
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Woods
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/1/newsid_2459000/2459845.stm
1979: China – US & China (Peoples Republic) begin diplomatic relations
1981: UN – International Year for the Disabled begins
1981: Palau – (Trust Territory of Pacific Is) becomes self-governing
https://www.refworld.org/reference/annualreport/freehou/1999/en/95242
1984: Brunei – Becomes independent of UK
1986: Lesotho – South African Government closes its borders with Lesotho, cutting off important food and fuel supplies, after Lesotho refuses to sign a non-aggression pact
https://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/south-africa-closes-its-borders-lesotho
1986: Puerto Rico – Workers at the Dupont Plaza hotel in Puerto Rico voted to strike from midnight. Three workers set small fires to scare off tourists but health and safety breaches by bosses meant they burned out of control and killed at least 96 people.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dupont_Plaza_Hotel_arson
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-02-03-mn-27261-story.html
1987: UN – International Year of Shelter for Homeless begins
1990: Australia – Melbourne Victorian ALP Government turned off electricity to end worker controlled free public transport run from occupied depots. The tram workers fought to the end but were eventually defeated in their dispute.
https://libcom.org/library/melbourne-tram-dispute-lockout
1992: Russia – The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic is renamed the Russian Federation, becoming the successor state to the Soviet Union.
1993: Europe – 12 member European Economic Community set up vast free trade zone
1993: Czechoslovakia – Separates into Czech Republic (Bohemia) & Slovakia
1993: Film – "Farewell My Concubine" directed by Chen Kaige from novel by Lilian Lee starring Leslie Cheung, Zhang Fengyi and Gong Li premieres in Hong Kong (Cannes Palme d’Or 1993)
1994: US – NAFTA – the North American Free Trade Agreement went into effect, despite objections from labor. TDILH Essay
1994: Mexico -The previously unknown Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN), composed largely of indigenous Mayan peasant farmers, launches an uprising and captures seven large towns and cities in the Mexican state of Chiapas. “The dispossessed, we are millions, and we thereby call upon our brothers and sisters to join this struggle as the only path.” – EZLN
1995: Europe – Austria, Finland & Sweden act to join European Union
1995: World – WTO established
1998: Mongolia – Switches from a 46 hour to 40 hour work week
1998: Russia – Begins to circulate new rubles to stem inflation and promote confidence.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998_Russian_financial_crisis
1999: Europe – The Euro currency is introduced.
2002: Europe – The euro, the monetary unit of the European Union, was introduced with the issuance of both currency and coins, and by March 2002 it was the sole legal tender of participating member states.
2002: China – Taiwan officially joins the World Trade Organization, as Chinese Taipei.
2004: Pakistan – General Pervez Musharraf wins 658 out of 1,170 votes in the Electoral College and is "deemed to be elected" as President according to Pakistan Constitution (Article 41(8))
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Pakistani_confidence_vote
2007: Europe – Bulgaria and Romania officially join the European Union. Also, Bulgarian, Romanian, and Irish become official languages of the European Union, joining 20 other official languages.
2007: Slovenia – Officially adopts the Euro currency and becomes the thirteenth Eurozone country.
2008: US – A New Hampshire law legalizing civil unions for same-sex couples comes into effect.
2008: Europe – Malta and Cyprus officially adopt the Euro currency and become the fourteenth and fifteenth Eurozone countries.
2009: Slovakia – Officially adopts the Euro currency and becomes the sixteenth Eurozone country.
2009: US – Oscar Grant was fatally shot by BART Police in Oakland. The riots that followed were some of the largest the US had seen in decades. “Oscar Grant Murdered. The Whole Damn System is Guilty!” Placard from the Oscar Grant rebellion.
https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/oscar-grant-killed/
2010: China – Hong Kong – The New Year marches (Chinese: 元旦大遊行) are a fixture on the political calendar in Hong Kong. Thousands take to the streets demanding universal suffrage as part of the ongoing democratic development as well as to protest against further influence of mainland China in Hong Kong.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong_new_year_marches
2013: Colombia – 13 FARC members are killed by an airstrike by the military
2015: Lithuania – Adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas and becoming the 19th member of the Eurozone
2015: Eurasia – Eurasian Economic Union comes into effect, creating a political and economic union between Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan
2017: UN – Portuguese politician and diplomat António Guterres becomes United Nations Secretary General, replacing South Korean Ban Ki-Moon
2018: Iran – President Hassan Rouhani says recent unrest "is nothing" after 30 people killed in 5 days of anti government demonstrations
2018: US – California becomes largest state to legalise cannabis for recreational use
2018: US – Initiative of 300 Hollywood women called "Time’s Up" announced to fight sexual harassment
2018: Film – Javier Bardem becomes the ambassador of Greenpeace for the protection of Antarctica
2019: Austria – Same-sex marriage becomes legal.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same-sex_marriage_in_Austria
2019: Brazil – Jair Bolsonaro begins his 4 year term as President.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jair_Bolsonaro
2019: India – Millions of women create a 300 mile ‘Women’s Wall’ across state of Kerala in support of women’s access to temple of Sabarimala
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-46728521
2020: China – A huge New Year’s Day march in Hong Kong ended in mass arrests and street clashes as the anti-government movement – now in its eighth month – continued into 2020.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/01/new-years-day-rally-hong-kong
2021: Cuba – Cuba’s "day zero" unifies its two currencies by withdrawing the Cuban convertible peso (CUC), alongside steep increases in prices and salaries, effectively devaluing the remaining Cuban Peso for the first time since 1959
2021: India – Farmers call for nationwide protest
https://www.businesstoday.in/current/economy-politics/farmers-protest-agitating-farmers-call-for-nationwide-protest-on-jan-1/story/426200.htmlv
2021: Pakistan – Mineworkers’ unions estimate that at least 208 workers were killed on the job in 2020. This trend seems set to continue this year, with a fatal accident on New Years’ Day, and two fatal accidents and a terror attack on 3 January. So far this year, 14 mineworkers have been killed.
http://www.industriall-union.org/2020-a-year-of-carnage-for-pakistans-mineworkers
2021: Palestine – When the world was celebrating the new year, 75 Palestinian workers at the Israeli settlement factory of Yamit Sinoun started an open strike demanding the company to respect their rights. The company produces water filtration systems for the global market and the striking workers demand human-like working conditions, better wages, paid sick leaves and holidays, and a pension fund that preserves their money. For seven days of strike in a row, the company refuses to meet these demands.
2022: India – Punjab government health workers strike over pay and allowances. Government health department workers, organised by six health unions, stopped work on January 1 and demonstrated outside their respective healthcare centres. They alleged that the state government is planning to withdraw 40 long-established allowances that have been paid during the past 25 years. Workers want special facilities and entitlements outlined in the long-awaited Sixth Pay Commission.
2022: SA – State Funeral in Cape Town, South Africa, for anti-apartheid leader Archbishop Desmond Tutu
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/01/01/africa/desmond-tutu-funeral-south-africa-intl/index.html
2022: Finland – The bitter dispute at the Finnish forestry, pulp and paper company UPM threatens to drag on as the strike, which began on 1 January, has been extended until 19 February. 2,200 workers at all UPM business units are on strike, with dockers and railway workers showing solidarity by refusing to handle the company’s goods. Strike victory after 112 days.
https://www.industriall-union.org/finnish-paper-strike-solid-as-upm-refuses-to-negotiate
https://www.industriall-union.org/finnish-paper-workers-end-historic-upm-strike-in-settlement
2023: Brazil – Luis Inácio Lula Da Silva, once and future president, will officially replace the nefarious Latin American Trump, Jair Bolsonaro. With only a few days ahead, the country is already beginning to prepare for this historic day.
https://resumen-english.org/2022/12/brazil-gets-ready-for-lulas-return/
2023: China – Close to 200 ground crew from Evergreen Airline Services at Taiwan’s Taoyuan International Airport stopped work for two days from January 1 in a dispute over year-end bonus pay. At least 35 inbound flights were impacted, along with 44 outbound flights
https://focustaiwan.tw/business/202301040022
2024: India – A strike across India involving bus, truck and tanker drivers was called off after two days following assurance from the government that new laws for hit-and-run accidents will not be implemented until further talks with union representatives.
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2024-01-03/india-transport-workers-call-off-protest-after-talks-with-govt
2024: Australia – Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) and Electrical Trade Union members who work at the Geelong Port went on strike for 24 hours over January 1–2.
https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/maritime-union-starts-year-strike-action-defend-conditions
2024: World – Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE become BRICS members
https://www.dailynewsegypt.com/2024/01/01/egypt-iran-saudi-arabia-uae-ethiopia-formally-join-brics/
2024: Ethiopia – Makes a controversial deal with Somaliland to lease part of its coastline, including becoming the first country to recognise it as a separate country from Somalia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_Ethiopia%E2%80%93Somaliland_memorandum_of_understanding
BORN
1735: US – Paul Revere, the horseback-riding folk hero of the American Revolution, was born.
1814: China – Hong Xiuquan, Wade-Giles romanization Hung Hsiu-ch’üan, original name Hong Renkun, literary name (hao) Xiuquan, (born Jan. 1, 1814, Huaxian [now Huadu], Guangdong province, China—died June 1, 1864, Nanjing), Chinese religious prophet and leader of the Taiping Rebellion (1850–64), during which he declared his own new dynasty, which centred on the captured (1853) city of Nanjing. This great upheaval, in which more than 20,000,000 people are said to have been killed, drastically altered the course of modern Chinese history.
1879 – US – Ben Reitman was born on this day. Reitman was a comrade and one-time lover of Emma Goldman, a doctor to hobos and prostitutes, and an anarchist organizer.
1892: Philippines – Manuel Roxas, (born Jan. 1, 1892, Capiz, Phil.—died April 15, 1948, Clark Field, Pampanga), political leader and first president (1946–48) of the independent Republic of the Philippines.
1894: India – Satyendra Nath Bose, (born January 1, 1894, Calcutta [now
Kolkata], India—died February 4, 1974, Calcutta), Indian mathematician and physicist noted for his collaboration with Albert Einstein in developing a theory regarding the gaslike qualities of electromagnetic radiation (see Bose-Einstein statistics). Bose, a graduate of the University of Calcutta, taught at the University of Dacca (1921–45) and then at Calcutta (1945–56).
1895: US – Government official J. Edgar Hoover—who, as director of the FBI (1924–72), built the agency into a highly effective, if occasionally controversial, arm of federal law enforcement—was born.
1909: US – Barry M. Goldwater, U.S. senator from Arizona (1953–64, 1969–87) who was the Republican presidential candidate in 1964, was born.
1912: UK – Kim Philby, British spy and Soviet mole who was a member of the "Cambridge Five", born in Am:bala, Punjab, India (d. 1988)
1912: US – Victor Reuther, American labor leader, born in Wheeling, West Virginia
1915: US – John Henrik Clarke the future teacher, scholar, and Pan-Africanist intellectual leader was born in Alabama.
https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/john-henrik-clarke-born/
1919: US – American author J.D. Salinger—whose only novel, The Catcher in the Rye (1951), won wide critical acclaim—was born.
1927: India – the eminent Marx scholar Paresh Chattopadhyay born on 01 January 1927 in Rudrakar of undivided Bengal, now located in the Shariatpur district of Bangladesh, and died in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, on 14 January 2023.
https://www.academia.edu/keypass/M1UrMDRxei9zbXBmaDJQRlJ3NTZHdzRCTmZKSm0xWko0c0VQMkN4a1FXWT0tLU9EZlJ2TVlJK0NyQTltM1lwRWRNakE9PQ==–4684a388db01e6e12178b0dc8c6250ff60b78cae/t/vdEg-QYm8ge6-Uusd1/resource/work/98489534/Paresh_Chattopadhyay_and_his_time?email_work_card=view-paper
1928: Pakistan – Hassan Nasir (1 January 1928 – 13 November 1960)[1] was a Pakistani proletarian leader, Secretary General of the proscribed Communist Party of Pakistan (CPP) and Office Secretary in the National Awami Party.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hassan_Nasir
https://www.rt.com/india/581254-hassan-nasir-pakistan-india/
1939: Russia – Captain 3rd Rank Valery Mikhailovich Sablin (Russian: Вале́рий Миха́йлович Са́блин) (1 January 1939 – 3 August 1976) was a Soviet Navy officer and a member of the Communist Party. In November 1975, he noticed the rampant corruption and stagnation in Leonid Brezhnev’s Soviet Union, he then led a mutiny on the Soviet anti-submarine frigate, Storozhevoy (Russian: Сторожевой, tr. Storoževoj, meaning "Sentry") in the hope of starting a Leninist political revolution in the Soviet Union. His mutiny failed and he was executed for treason nine months later.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valery_Sablin
https://www.warhistoryonline.com/cold-war/truth-behind-movie-hunt-red-october.html
1944: Sudan – Omar al-Bashir, Sudanese politician and 7th President (1989-2019), born in Hosh Bannaga, Sudan
1954: Palestine – Mustafa Barghouti (Arabic: مصطفى البرغوثي; born 1 January 1954; Arabic pronunciation: [musˤ.tˤafa
ʔal.'bar.ɣuːθiː]) is a Palestinian physician, activist, and politician who serves as General Secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative (PNI), also known as al Mubadara. He has been a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council since 2006 and is also a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Central Council. In 2007, Barghouti was Minister of Information in the Palestinian unity government.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mustafa_Barghouti
1956: France – Christine Lagarde, French lawyer and politician, 1st female head of the IMF, born in Paris
1976: China – Chai Jing, Chinese broadcaster, author and documentary maker (Under the Dome), born in Linfen, Shanxi Province
GPJA 