January 1st

The Prophet Muhammad sets out toward Mecca with the army that captures it bloodlessly.

The Julian calendar takes effect for the first time.

Oprah Winfrey launched the OWN cable TV network.

Euro coins and notes went into circulation in twelve European nations.

The euro became the official currency of 11 European countries.

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) went into effect.

Czechoslovakia peacefully split into two new countries, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Russia is formed. The formation of the Russian Federation followed the disintegration of the Soviet Union.

David Dinkins was sworn in as New York City's first African-American mayor.

AT&T was divested of its 22 Bell System companies under terms of an antitrust agreement.

The United States and China established diplomatic relations.

John Mitchell, H. R. Haldeman, and John Ehrlichman were convicted of obstruction of justice in the Watergate affair.

Fidel Castro and his revolutionaries took over Cuba and toppled Fulgencio Batista's regime.

Treaties establishing the European Economic Community went into effect.

Country singer Hank Williams Sr., 29, died of a drug and alcohol overdose.

J.D. Salinger, author of "The Catcher in the Rye," was born in New York City.

The world's first airline, St. Petersburg Tampa Airboat Line, starts operation in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Republic of China is founded. It was succeeded by the People's Republic of China in 1949.

The ball signifying the New Year was dropped for the first time at Times Square in New York City.

The Commonwealth of Australia was proclaimed.

New York City was consolidated into five buroughs.

German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen announces his discovery of x-rays.

The Ellis Island Immigrant Station in New York opened.

Emancipation Proclamation issued by Abraham Lincoln to free slaves in US confederate states.

A law prohibiting the importation of slaves into the United States went into effect.

The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature establish the "starting point" for standardized species names across the animal kingdom, based on the binomial nomenclature by Carolus Linnaeus 10th edition of Systema Naturae.