TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is Wednesday, Jan. 1.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

On Jan. 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring that slaves in rebel states shall be “forever free.”

ON THIS DATE

In 1785, The Daily Universal Register — which later became the Times of London — published its first issue. In 1892, the Ellis Island Immigrant Station in New York formally opened.

In 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.

In 1959, Fidel Castro and his revolutionaries overthrew Cuban leader Fulgencio Batista, who fled to the Dominican Republic.

In 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 (Mardian’s conviction for conspiracy was later overturned on appeal).

In 1979, the United States and China held celebrations in Washington and Beijing to mark the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

In 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.

In 1993, Czechoslovakia peacefully split into two new countries, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. In 1995, the World Trade Organization (WTO) came into being, replacing the General Agreement on

Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Sweden, Finland and Austria joined the European Union.

In 2005, desperate, homeless villagers on the tsunami-ravaged island of Sumatra mobbed American helicopters carrying aid as the U.S. military launched its largest operation in the region since the Vietnam War. Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman elected to the U.S. Congress, died near Daytona Beach, Florida, at age 80.

In 2009, an Israeli warplane dropped a 2,000-pound bomb on the home of one of Hamas’ top five decision-makers, instantly killing him and 18 others. The U.S. formally transferred control of the Green Zone to Iraqi authorities in a pair of ceremonies that also handed back Saddam Hussein’s former palace.

In 2014, the nation’s first legal recreational pot shops opened in Colorado at 8 a.m. Mountain time.

Ten years ago: A suicide bomber detonated a truckload of explosives on a volleyball field in northwest Pakistan, killing at least 97 people. Five years ago: Mario Cuomo, 82, a leading liberal voice who served three terms as governor of New York, died just hours after his son Andrew began his second term as the state’s chief executive.

One year ago: U.S. authorities fired tear gas across the border into Mexico during the early hours of the new year to repel about 150 migrants who tried to breach the border fence in Tijuana.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

“If you asked me for my New Year Resolution, it would be to find out who I am.” — Cyril Cusack, Irish actor (19101993).