January 1 in Pop Culture History
4713 BC – Julian Calendar day #1, according to Joseph Justus Scaliger’s cycle of 7980 years.
46 BC – The Julian Calendar began, and was used widespread until 1582.
1622 – January 1st became the start of the “new Year” (it was March 25 for a long time prior)
1751 – The British Calendar Act of 1751 made January 1st the start of a New Year in English-speaking countries. Prior to that, it was on March 25, ~ The Vernal Equinox.
1788 – The Times of London newspaper began publication.
1801 – Great Britain, Scotland and Ireland unite, founding the “United Kingdom”
1818 – Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus was published (anonymously) in London. (500 copies were made)
1862 – U.S. income tax began, with 3% of incomes over $600, 5% of incomes over $10,000.
1863 – The ‘Emancipation Proclamation’ issued by Abraham Lincoln
1886 – 1st Tournament of Roses took place in Pasadena, California
1896 – German scientist Wilhelm Röntgen announced his discovery of X-rays.
1908 – 1st New Year’s ball drop at Times Square, NYC
1910 – The Hydrox “biscuit bonbon,” a chocolate sandwich cookie with creme filling, was introduced. Oreos came out in 1912.
1915 – Aspirin was made available for the first time in tablet form. The pills were manufactured by Bayer pharmaceuticals, and had been available in powder form before that.
1928 – The 21-story Milam Building was the first air-conditioned, high-rise office building in the United States (San Antonio, TX)
1925 – 1st Sugar Bowl and 1st Orange Bowl
1936 – The Herald Tribune of New York began microfilming the latest issues, becoming the first US newspaper to make a current record of its publication.
1946 – ENIAC, the first U.S. computer was completed. It was built at the Moore School of Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia,
1948 – The first motion picture ‘newsreel’ in color was taken at the Tournament of Roses and the Rose Bowl Game, Pasadena, California.
1954 – NBC broadcasted Pasadena’s Rose Bowl parade, for the first time in color.
1960 – US population: 179,245,000
1962 – The Rose Bowl game on NBC was the first coast-to-coast color television broadcast of a college football game in the US.
1964 – Tops of the Pops first aired on BBC
1966 – #1 Hit January 1, 1966 – January 7, 1966: Simon & Garfunkel – The Sound Of Silence
1966 – “Caution Cigarette smoking may be hazardous to your health” warning started appearing on cigarettes.
1971 – Cigarette television ads cease.
1979 – The Grateful Dead played the final concert at the iconic Winterland venue in San Francisco on New Years Eve 1978 which lasted over 8 hours. The guests were treated to a hot buffet breakfast at dawn when the show ended.
1983 – The Evil Dead was released in theaters in the UK (Oct 15, 1981 in the US)
1985 – VH1 debuted on US cable
1985 – The AT&T monopoly was broken up into seven companies: Ameritech, Bell Atlantic, BellSouth, NYNEX, Pacific Telesis, Southwestern Bell and US West.
1995- The History Channel was launched
1995 – The last syndicated Far Side by cartoonist Gary Larson appeared. (started in 1985)
1997 – U.S. television networks adopted a ratings system for programming similar to the one used for motion pictures.
1997 – The Emergency Broadcast System was replaced by the Emergency Alert System
1999- The Biography channel and DIY channels were introduced.
2000 – Fantasia 2000 was released in theaters.
2005 – #1 Hit January 1, 2005 – March 4, 2005: Mario – Let Me Love You
2008 – CourtTV was rebranded as TruTV
2011 – Discovery Health Channel became The Oprah Winfrey Network.
2014 -The manufacture and importing of the common 40-watt and 60-watt general service incandescent lamps was ended under the deadline set by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007.