Today is Tuesday, Jan. 1, the first day of 2019 with 364 days to follow.
This is New Year's Day.
The moon is waning. Morning stars are Jupiter, Mercury, Uranus and Venus. Evening stars are Mars, Neptune and Uranus.
Those born on this date are under the sign of Capricorn. They include American patriot Paul Revere in 1735; Betsy Ross, who, legend has it, made the first American flag, in 1752; modern Olympic movement founder Pierre de Coubertin in 1863; photography pioneer Alfred Stieglitz in 1864; English novelist E.M. Forster in 1879; FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover in 1895; baseball Hall of Fame member Hank Greenberg in 1911; novelist J.D. Salinger in 1919; actor Frank Langella in 1938 (age 81); football Hall of Fame member Doak Walker in 1927; businessman Ron Perelman in 1943 (age 76); writer Shelby Steele in 1946 (age 73); former New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine in 1947 (age 72); actor Verne Troyer in 1969; actor Morris Chestnut in 1969 (age 50); model Elin Nordegren in 1980 (age 39); actor Colin Morgan in 1986 (age 33); Olympic gold medal ice dancer Meryl Davis in 1987 (age 32).
On this date in history:
In 45 B.C., New Year's Day was celebrated on Jan. 1 for the first time as the Julian calendar took effect.
In 1801, Ceres, classified as a dwarf planet, was discovered by Giuseppe Piazzi.
In 1803, two months after his defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte's colonial forces, Jean-Jacques Dessalines proclaimed the independence of Saint-Domingue, renaming it Haiti after its original Arawak name.
In 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation, introduced the previous September by Abraham Lincoln, took effect. It declared freedom for slaves in all areas of the Confederacy that were still in rebellion against the Union.
In 1890, the first Tournament of Roses parade took place in Pasadena, Calif.
In 1892, Ellis Island opened in New York Harbor.
In 1902, the University of Michigan beat Stanford, 49-0, in the inaugural Rose Bowl game in Pasadena, Calif.
In 1951, the Zenith Radio Corp. of Chicago demonstrated the first pay-per-view television system, offering three movies, April Showers, Welcome Stranger and Homecoming.
In 1953, influential country singer Hank Williams, 29, died of a heart attack while in a limousine on the way to a show in Canton, Ohio.
In 1959, Fidel Castro declared victory in the Cuban revolution as dictator Fulgencio Batista fled the island.
In 1975, a jury convicted former U.S. Attorney General John Mitchell and former White House aides John Ehrlichman and H.R. Haldeman on all counts in the Watergate coverup case.
In 1978, an Air India Boeing 747 carrying 213 people on a flight to Dubai disintegrated in the air shortly after takeoff from a Bombay airport, killing all aboard.
In 1993, the country of Czechoslovakia dissolved with the New Year, replaced by separate Czech Republic and Slovak states.
In 1994, the North American Free Trade Agreement between Canada, Mexico and the United States, took effect. Former President H.W. Bush signed the NAFTA agreement in 1992 before he left office.
In 1999, 12 European countries turned in their own currency and adopted a common one, the euro. It was the biggest currency change in history.
In 2009, police said a fire killed at least 52 people and injured about 100 at the two-story Santika Club in Bangkok. The fire erupted shortly after approximately 1,000 revelers rang in the New Year.
In 2010, a suicide bomber killed nearly 90 people, including children, during a New Year's Day volleyball game in Lakki Marwat in northhwest Pakistan.
In 2013, Ivory Coast authorities said at least 60 people were killed in a stampede as crowds left a New Year's fireworks show at a stadium in Abidjan.
In 2014, Colorado became the first state where specialty shops began legally selling small amounts of recreational marijuana.
In 2017, Portugal's Antonio Guterres succeeded Ban Ki-moon of South Korea as secretary-general of the United Nations.
In 2018, California becomes the largest state to allow legal recreational marijuana.
A thought for the day: "Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right." -- Oprah Winfrey
