Template:On this day - January 1

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo

• 45 a. C. – The Julian calendar, introduced by Julius Caesar, comes into force.
• 1000 – Because of the prediction that the world would end on this date, there are disturbances throughout Europe, and many ordinary people even make pilgrimages to Jerusalem so as to die in the Holy Land.
• 1387 – Death of Charles II, King of Navarre from 1350 to 1387 (b. 1332).
• 1432 – In the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada (present-day Spain), Yusuf IV is proclaimed Sultan after a popular uprising that dethrones Muhammad IX.
• 1504 – In Italy, the Spanish army enters Gaeta after the Battle of the Garigliano, thus ending the war between France and Spain over Naples.
• 1540 – From the Governorate of New Toledo, Pedro de Valdivia sets out on his expedition to Chile, together with Inés de Suárez and a small group of Spaniards and natives.
• 1567 – In Granada (Spain), Philip II issues a Pragmatic Sanction banning all the distinctive customs of the Moriscos, which sets off the Rebellion of the Alpujarras.
• 1574 – In the Viceroyalty of Peru (present-day Bolivia), Santiago Barba de Padilla founds the city of Oropesa, which from 1786 was called Cochabamba.
• 1606 – The first exhibition of Arts and Industries is held in Santiago de Chile, featuring pottery, tanning and hemp twisting.
• 1618 – Birth of Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, Spanish Baroque painter (d. 1682).
• 1722 – The Gaceta de México is published, one of the first newspapers in Hispanic America.
• 1820 – In Spain, Lieutenant Colonel Rafael de Riego rises up in Las Cabezas de San Juan against the absolutism of Ferdinand VII and proclaims the Constitution of 1812.
• 1833 – The United Kingdom proclaims its sovereignty over the Falkland Islands.
• 1850 – A new mail system with adhesive stamps is introduced in Spain.
• 1861 – Benito Juárez enters Mexico City after the Reform War.
• 1899 – The flag of Spain is lowered in Cuba, which becomes a colony of the United States despite the promises of independence.
• 1959 – Cuban President Fulgencio Batista flees to the Dominican Republic as the forces led by Fidel Castro take control of Havana, marking the end of the Cuban Revolution.
• 1901 – Official time based on the Greenwich Meridian comes into effect in Spain.
• 1903 – The first issue of the newspaper ABC appears in Spain.
• 1910 – For the first time, Spaniards begin the tradition of ending the year by eating the twelve grapes to the sound of the bells.
• 1939 – In Spain, one year of compulsory labor service becomes a duty for all young women under 25.
• 1986 – Spain and Portugal join the EEC, and VAT comes into force.
• 2002 – The euro comes into force in the European Union as the single currency of 12 states.
• 2008 – The bolívar fuerte (Bs. F.) is introduced as the new legal tender in Venezuela.
• 2016 – Death of Antonio Carrizo, Argentine presenter, announcer and journalist (b. 1926).
• 2023 – Death of Francisco Bozinovic, prominent Chilean biologist and academic (b. 1959).