MAPS OF HISTORY · ON THIS DAY · January 1

THE DAY IN HISTORY · JANUARY 1

January 1 in history

1804 — Independence at Gonaïves

1 Jan 1804 — Dessalines proclaims the free state of Haiti — the Taíno name, chosen deliberately — in the square of Gonaïves. The age’s only revolution of the enslaved is complete.

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1863 — The Emancipation Proclamation

1 Jan 1863 — Enslaved people in rebel-held territory are declared “thenceforward, and forever free.” The Union army becomes a liberating force wherever it marches, Black enlistment opens, and Europe can no longer pretend the war is not about slavery.

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1942

Twenty-six Allied nations sign the Declaration by United Nations in Washington — the first official use of the name that will outlive the war.

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1956 — Khartoum — Sudan’s dawn

1 Jan 1956 — Sudan raises its own flag over the Anglo-Egyptian condominium, choosing self-rule over union with Egypt — a Nile-valley precedent watched from Cairo to Kampala.

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