TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is January 1, 2020. On this day in history:

45 BC The Julian calendar takes effect for the first time

69 Roman garrison of Mainz uprising

89 Governor Lucius Antonius Saturninus of Germany becomes emperor of Rome

404 Last gladiator competition in Rome

630 Prophet Muhammad sets out with his army towards Mecca, capturing it bloodlessly

722 Hofmeier Charles Martel flees from bishop Willibrord

990 Russia adopts Julian calendar

1259 Michael VIII Palaiologos is proclaimed co-emperor of the Empire of Nicaea with his ward John IV Laskaris

1430 Jews of Sicily are no longer required to attend conversionist services

1438 Albrecht II von Habsburg becomes King of Hungary

1494 Juw Dekama elected potentate of Frisia

1502 Portuguese navigators discover Rio de Janeiro 1504 King Louis XII loses last bulwark in Naples, Caeta

1515 Jews are expelled from Laibach Austria

1527 Croatian nobles elect Ferdinand I of Austria as king of Croatia in the Parliament on Cetin

1573 Geuzen sets fire to Woudrichem

1600 Scotland begins its numbered year on January 1 instead of 25 March.

1622 Papal Chancery adopts Jan 1 as beginning of the year (was Mar 25)

1651 Charles II Stuart crowned king of Scotland

1660 General Moncks army battles with the Tweed on way to London

1660 Thomas Fairfax’s New Model Army occupies York

1660 Academia de Bellas Artes is founded in Seville with painter Bartolomé Esteban Murillo its first president

1672 Jean Racine’s “Bajazet,” premieres in Paris

1673 Regular mail delivery begins between NY & Boston

1675 Don Carlos de Gurrea/ Aragon becomes Spanish land guardian of S Neth

1689 Pro-James II-earl of Danby occupies York

1700 Protestant Western Europe (except England) begins using the Gregorian calendar

1700 Russia begins using the Anno Domini era and no longer uses the Anno Mundi era of the Byzantine Empire