This day in history

New Year's Day is celebrated on 1 January for the first time in 45 BC, when Roman dictator Julius Caesar establishes the Julian calendar.
 
On the advice of the astronomer Sosigenes, Caesar added 67 days to the year 46 BC in order to repair the damage done to the imperfect Roman calendar by the passage of time.
 
Celebration of New Year's Day in January fell out of practice during the Middle Ages, but after the adoption of the Gregorian - or modern - calendar in 1582, New Year's was again observed on the first day of January.
 
Since then, people around the world have gathered en masse in cities and towns to celebrate the arrival of the New Year.

Official launch of the new 'Euro' currency.

In England, notorious murderer and serial killer Frederick West commits suicide in prison aged 53.

British Prime Minister Edward Heath presides over Britain’s full entry into the European Economic Community.
 

President Abraham Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, which legally frees all of the African American slaves in Confederate states. Though the Proclamation affects few slaves immediately, it encourages others to escape.
 

Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein is published.