Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 78, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 December 1917 — Many Historic Events Have Happened on New Year's Day [ARTICLE]

Many Historic Events Have Happened on New Year's Day

By RENE BACH

EVENTS of utmost historic importance, many of them tragic in character, are associated with New Year’s day. It was on the first day of January, 1513, that Juan Diaz de Solis, the explorer, coasting in a sailing vessel along the eastern shore of South America, discovered and entered the mouth of a mighty river, lie called it (by reason of the date) the January ilyer, or Rio de Janeiro, the name it bears and which is also borne by the city at its mouth, the capital of Brazil at the present time. The tragedy, in this instance, came later. Three years afterward the same adventurous explorer again entered the river mouth. The natives were suspicious of his intentions, and when he landed they captured and killed him, and within sight of his ship roasted his body over a fire and ate it. Thus perished a man who, in his day, was reputed the ablest of living navigators. Bartholomew Esteban Murillo, greatest of the Spanish painters, was born on the first day of January, 1618. For many years his services were employed by the churches and convents of Seville, which were enriched by his incomparable masterpieces. He earned by his art a considerable fortune. When at the height of his fame he was invited to Cadiz, arid there executed his magnificent picture of St. Catherine, the mother of Jesus. Just as the work was on the point of completion he fell from a scaffold and was killed. It seems rather odd that history should take the trouble to record the death, on January 1, 1630, of so unimportant a person as Thomas Hobson, a carrier of Cambridge, England. He made a business of hiring out horses. Hobson was merciful to his beasts, and enforced a rule that required for each one of them a certain measure of rest. Those which had not had their proper time of rest he would not allow to go out. “This or none,” he would say, indicating the horse that was available for hire. Whence came the familiar term, “Hobson’s choice, this or none.” On the first day of January, 1776, the town of Norfolk, Va., was burned, not by the British, who were threatening the place, but by its American inhabitants. Lord Dunmore, the royal governor of the colony, having abandoned the town and sought safety on board of a ship (one of a- number of vessels that were under his command in the harbor), found himself in distress for provisions. The frigate Liverpool, on arriving, threatened to turn her guns loose upon Norfolk, because the people refused to furnish food supplies, but in response the inhabitants set fire to their houses and even wiped out the plantations for a long distance back from the water, in order that nothing in the way of subsistence might be obtainable by enemy. Exactly five years later, on January 1, 1781, an incident very alarming to the < ;.use of the American colonists occurred at Morristown, N. J. It was nothing less than a revolt of troops of the Pennsylvania line, who had enlisted for three years’ service. The term having expired, they demanded their discharge. The incipient rebellion was promptly suppressed, however. On the first day of January, 1801, the astronomer Piazzl, at Palermo, discovered Ceres, the first of the minor planets, or so-called “asteroids,” revealed by the telescope. It is less than 500 miles in diafneter. Since then a great many of these baby sisters of the earth have been “spotted” by enterprising star-gazers, though none of them is so big as Ceres. One of them, Eros, is twins, two little globes revolving about each other. Up to date, 822 of these minor planets have been discovered.

The first day of January, 1810, was made memorable in East Haddam, Conn., by a happening that was in its way wholly extraordinary. There were in the town nine unmarried young women, and it had been decided that husbands must be found for them. Accordingly, in the spirit of an enlightened public enterprise, nine men agreed to marry them, and on the above-mentioned date all of them became wives, an elaborate ceremony and much rejoicing signalizing the event. On New Year’s day, 1914, Londoa experienced a. most remarkable fog. The city was immersed in a sea of suspended moisture that extended for a distance of 70 miles beyond its outskirts. Business was at a standstill and many people lost their lives by falling into the Thames river and into canals. Four years later, on the first of January, 1818, the White House (which had been burned by the British troops in August, 1814) was for the first time thrown open to the public after that tragic event, at a New Year’s reception given by President Monroe. Even then, however, the building was still undergoing repairs, which were not completed for more than a twelvemonth. It had newly received its first coat of white paint, to conceal the marks of fire that marred the brownish stone of which it was built. The cost of reconstruction was $246,490. On the first day of January, 1825, Great Britain recognized the inde-

fence of the South American republics. Paul Revere, hero of the famous ride, was born January 1, 1735, Mason and Slidell, the Confederate •o-inniissioners. left Fort Warren for England January 1, 1862. President Lincoln issued his proclamation emancipating the slaves January 1, 1563. These are only a few of the many notable events that have marked New Year’s day in history. To give anything like a comprehensive list of them here could not be attempted. Some of the most important happenings of ancient times, in Rome, in Greece and elsewhere, are also associated with the first day of the year.