177 Commodus, son of Emperor Marcus Aurelius becomes consul for the first time, at 15 then youngest in Roman history. He is best known for his passion for the gladiatorial games, which he took so far as to take to the arena himself, dressed as a gladiator. His eccentric behaviour upsets many in Rome, and leads to his assassination.
404 Last gladiator competition in Rome.
1700 Russia begins using the Anno Domini era and no longer uses the Anno Mundi (year after creation) era of the Byzantine Empire.
1880 Building of Panama Canal, which opens in 1914, begins. The artificial 82km waterway connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
1905 A despised poll tax of £1 per head on all adult male inhabitants of Natal, except indentured Indians and married Blacks, becomes payable.
1928 The first US air-conditioned office building opens in San Antonio, Texas.
1939 Hewlett-Packard is founded by Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard in a garage in Palo Alto, “the birthplace of Silicon Valley”, California.
1939 Sydney, Australia, swelters in 45˚C heat.
1985 The Internet’s Domain Name System (DNS) is created.
1986 SA closes its borders with Lesotho, cutting off food and fuel supplies, after Lesotho refuses to sign a non-aggression pact.
1992 The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic is renamed the Russian Federation, becoming the successor to the Soviet Union.
2006 Sydney, Australia swelters through another of its hottest New Year days with the temperature peaking at 45ºC, equal to that of 1939, and sparking bushfires and power outages.
2015 The Eurasian Economic Union comes into effect, creating a political and economic union between Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
2017 Portuguese politician and diplomat António Guterres becomes UN Secretary General, replacing South Korean Ban Ki-moon.
2018 Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says recent unrest "is nothing" after 30 people killed in 5 days of anti government demonstrations.
2019 Qatar introduces a 100% tax on alcohol and other ‘health-damaging goods’, doubling the price of alcohol, tobacco, energy drinks and pork.
2022 State Funeral in Cape Town for anti-apartheid leader Archbishop Desmond Tutu. | The Historian