45 – BC The Julian calendar takes effect for the first time. 630 – Prophet Muhammad sets out with his army towards Mecca, capturing it bloodlessly. 1758 – 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 SystemaNaturae. 1804 – Haiti declared its independence from France. 1863 – Emancipation Proclamation issued by Abraham Lincoln to free slaves in US confederate states. 1892 – Ellis Island opens as a US immigration inspection station – it would go on to be the gateway to the US for more than 12 million people. 1896 – German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen announces his discovery of x-rays. 1958 – European Economic Community, better known as the European Common Market starts operation. 1959 – Dictator Fulgencio Batista fled Cuba after his regime was toppled by rebel forces led by Fidel Castro. 1994 – The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) went into effect, eliminating most tariffs and other trade barriers on products and services passing between the United States, Canada, and Mexico. 2002 – On this day in 2002 the euro, the monetary unit of the European Union, was introduced with the issuance of both currency and coins, and by March 2002 it was the sole legal tender of participating member states. 2011 – The Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) debuted on television.
Births & Deaths: 1449 – Florentine statesman, ruler, and patron of arts and letters Lorenzo de’ Medici was born. 1735 – Paul Revere, the horseback-riding folk hero of the American Revolution, was born. 1895 – U.S. government official J. Edgar Hoover—who, as director of the FBI (1924–72), built the agency into a highly effective, if occasionally controversial, arm of federal law enforcement—was born. 1909 – Barry M. Goldwater, U.S. senator from Arizona (1953–64, 1969–87) who was the Republican presidential candidate in 1964, was born.
Music: 1960 – Johnny Cash plays first of many free concerts behind bars.
TV & Film: 1953 – The first TV detector van, used to track down users of unlicensed television sets, begins operation in the UK.
