TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT Jan. 1, 1959

Fidel Castro and his revolutionaries overthrew Cuban leader Fulgencio Batista, who fled to the Dominican Republic. ALSO ON THIS DATE

1818

The first edition of the Gothic novel “Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus” by English author Mary Shelley, 20, was published anonymously in London.

1863

President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring that slaves in rebel states shall be “forever free.”

1892

The Ellis Island Immigrant Station in New York formally opened.

1953

Country singer Hank Williams Sr., 29, was discovered dead in the back seat of his car during a stop in Oak Hill, West Virginia, while he was being driven to a concert date in Canton, Ohio.

1954

NBC broadcast the first coast-to-coast color TV program as it presented live coverage of the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, California.

1975

A jury in Washington found Nixon administration officials John N. Mitchell, H.R. Haldeman, John D. Ehrlichman and Robert C. Mardian guilty of charges related to the Watergate cover-up.

1984

The breakup of AT&T took place as the telecommunications giant was divested of its 22 Bell System companies under terms of an antitrust agreement.

1985

The music cable channel VH-1 made its debut with a video of Marvin Gaye performing “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

1993

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

1994

The North American Free Trade Agreement went into effect.