January 1
President Andrew Jackson achieves his goal of entirely paying off the United States’ national debt. It was the only time in U.S. history that the national debt stood at zero, and it precipitated one of the worst financial crises in American history. – 1835
Abraham Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation. Attempting to stitch together a nation mired in a bloody civil war, Abraham Lincoln made a last-ditch, but carefully calculated, decision regarding the institution of slavery in America. – 1863
Annie Moore, a teenage girl from Ireland, becomes the very first immigrant to be processed on America’s Ellis Island. Annie, along with her two younger brothers, kick off an immigration era that, over the next 62 years, brings more than 12 million immigrants through Ellis Island, in New York Harbor off the New Jersey coast. – 1892
White vigilante mobs begin their descent upon the predominantly Black community of Rosewood, Florida. In an attack that would last several days, they shoot and beat Black residents, set buildings aflame and raze the small, but prosperous mill town that was home to approximately 200 people. – 1923
With the Great Depression in full force, the year 1932 opens with 14 million unemployed, National income is down by 50% and breadlines include former shopkeepers, businessmen, and middle-class housewives. Charity is overwhelmed: Only one-quarter of America’s unemployed are receiving any help at all. – 1932.
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.
Facing a popular revolution spearheaded by Fidel Castro’s 26th of July Movement, Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista flees the island nation. Amid celebration and chaos in the Cuban capitol of Havana, the U.S. debated how best to deal with the radical Castro and the ominous rumblings of anti-Americanism in Cuba. – 1959.
The federal minimum wage increases to $2.65 per hour. – 1978.
January 2
Georgia votes to ratify the U.S. Constitution to become the fourth state in the modern United States, and was one of the original 13 colonies. – 1788.
Albert Fall, the secretary of the U.S. Department of Interior, resigns in response to public outrage over the Teapot Dome scandal. Fall’s resignation illuminated a deeply corrupt relationship between western developers and the federal government. – 1923.
An underground explosion at Sago Mine in Tallmansville, W. Va., traps 12 miners and cuts power to the mine. Eleven men die, mostly by asphyxiation. The mine had been cited 273 times for safety violations over the prior 23 months. – 2006.
January 3
In an event that heralds the birth of modern Japan, patriotic samurai from Japan’s outlying domains join with anti-shogunate nobles in restoring the emperor to power after 700 years. The young emperor, Meiji, and his ministers, move the royal court from Kyoto to Tokyo, dismantle feudalism, and enact widespread reforms along Western models. The newly-unified Japanese government sets off on a path of rapid industrialization and militarization, and builds Japan into a major world power by the early 20th Century. – 1867.
U.S. president Dwight Eisenhower signs a special proclamation to admit the territory of Alaska into the Union as the 49th and largest geographical state. – 1959.
January 4
Six years after Wilford Woodruff, president of the Mormon Church, issued his Manifesto reforming political, religious, and economic life in Utah, the territory is admitted into the Union as the 45th state. – 1896.
For the first time since Charlemagne’s reign in the 9th Century, Europe is united with a common currency when the “euro” makes its debut as a financial unit in corporate and investment markets. – 1999.
January 5
Ford Motor Company, led by Henry Ford, raises wages from $2.40 for a nine-hour day to $5 for an eight-hour day in effort to keep the unions out and give workers money to buy Ford products. – 1914.
U.S. president Richard Nixon signs a bill authorizing $5.5 million in funding to develop a space shuttle. – 1972.
January 6
Samuel Morse’s telegraph system is demonstrated for the first time at the Speedwell Iron Works in Morristown, N.J.. The telegraph, a device which used electric impulses to transmit encoded messages over a wire, eventually would revolutionize long-distance communication, and reach the height of its popularity in the 1920s and 1930s. – 1838.
New Mexico is admitted into the United States as the 47th state. – 1912.
Approximately 8,000 workers strike at Youngstown Sheet & Tube. The following day the strikers’ wives and other family members join in the protest. Company guards use tear gas bombs and fire into the crowd; three strikers are killed, 25 wounded. – 1916.
Snow begins to fall in Washington, D.C., and up the Eastern seaboard to begin a blizzard that kills 154 persons and causes more than $1 billion in damages before it ends. – 1996.
After a bitterly contested election, vice president Al Gore presides over a joint session of Congress January 6, 2001, that certifies George W. Bush as the winner of the 2000 election—an election Gore had lost. In one of the closest Presidential elections in U.S. history, George W. Bush was finally declared the winner more than five weeks after the election due to the disputed Florida ballots and the infamous “hanging chads.” – 2001
A group of president Donald Trump supporters formed outside the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.. The group entered the Capitol Complex and sought to halt and potentially overturn his defeat in the 2020 presidential election by disrupting the joint session of Congress assembled to count electoral votes that would formalize then president-elect Joe Biden’s victory. The Capitol Complex was locked down and lawmakers and staff members were evacuated, while rioters assaulted law enforcement officers, vandalized property, and occupied the building for several hours. Many were injured, including 138 police officers. – 2021
January 7
America’s first presidential election is held. Voters cast ballots to choose state electors; only white men who own property were allowed to vote. As expected, George Washington won the election and was sworn into office April 30, 1789. – 1789.
Figure skater Nancy Kerrigan is attacked and struck on the right knee just one day before the U.S. National Championships and one month before the Winter Olympics. Kerrigan recovered in time for the Olympics and won the Silver Medal. – 1994.
The impeachment trial of president Bill Clinton, formally charged with lying under oath and obstructing justice, begins in the Senate. As instructed in Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution, Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist was sworn in to preside, and the senators were sworn in as jurors. – 1999.