Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/January 1

Please note that the events listed on the Main Page are chosen based more on relative article quality and to maintain a mix of topics, not based solely on how important or significant their subjects are. Only four to five events are posted at a time and thus not everything that is "most important and significant" can be listed. In addition, an event is generally not posted this year if it is also the subject of the scheduled featured articleorpicture of the day.

To report an error when this appears on the Main Page, see Main Page errors. Please remember that this list defers to the supporting articles, so it is best to achieve consensus and make any necessary changes there first.

Use only ONE image at a time

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  Giuseppe Piazzi
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  St. Patrick's Cross
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  The original Union Flag in 1606
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  Abolitionist poster against slavery
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  Mary Shelley
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  Lachlan Macquarie
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  Fulgencio Batista
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  Che Guevara and Fidel Castro

• 1068 – Having been pardoned by the regent Eudokia Makrembolitissa for attempting to usurp the throne, Romanos IV Diogenes married her to become Byzantine emperor.
• 1739 – Bouvet Island in the South Atlantic Ocean, the most remote island in the world, was discovered by French explorer Jean-Baptiste Charles Bouvet de Lozier.
• 1776 – American Revolutionary War: The town of Norfolk, Virginia, was destroyed by the combined actions of British and Whig forces.
• 1785 – The Times, the first newspaper of that name, began publication in London as The Daily Universal Register.
• 1800 – Quasi-War: An American convoy of four merchant vessels escorted by a schooner was attacked by a squadron of armed barges manned by Haitians.
• 1810 – Lachlan Macquarie became Governor of New South Wales, eventually playing a major role in the shaping of the social, economic and architectural development of the colony in Australia.
• 1818 – Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, a novel by Mary Shelley, was first published in London.
• 1892 – The immigration station on Ellis IslandinNew York Harbor opened, and would, over the course of its existence, process twelve million immigrants to the United States.
• 1945 – Second World War: The Luftwaffe launched Operation Bodenplatte in an attempt to cripple Allied air forces in the Low Countries.
• 2007 – Adam Air Flight 574 disappeared near Polewali, Indonesia, when the pilots inadvertently disconnected the autopilot.
• 2009 – A nightclub fireinBangkok, Thailand, killed 66 patrons celebrating the new year.
• 2011 – A bomb exploded at a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria, Egypt, killing 23 people.

• MV Senopati Nusantara appears on December 30, so Adam Air Flight 574 should not appear in the same year.

January 1: New Year's Day (Gregorian calendar); Independence DayinBrunei (1984) and Samoa (1962)

Ceres

• 1773 – The hymn "Amazing Grace" was probably first used in a prayer meeting in Olney, England, without the music familiar to modern listeners.
• 1801 – Italian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi discovered the dwarf planet Ceres (pictured), naming it after the Roman goddess of growing plants and of motherly love.
• 1928 – Personal secretary to Joseph Stalin, Boris Bazhanov, crossed the border to Iran to defect from the Soviet Union.
• 1959 – Cuban President Fulgencio Batista fled to the Dominican Republic as forces under Fidel Castro took control of Havana, marking the end of the Cuban Revolution.
• 2010 – A suicide bomber killed 105 spectators at a volleyball game in the Lakki Marwat District of Pakistan.