Are you a history buff? Then we have you covered.

Starting today (January 1, 2025), Firstpost Explainers will rewind the clock and go back in time to take you through the biggest events that unfolded in history and shaped the world.

On this day, January 1, back in 1865, Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation through which it was declared “that all persons held as slaves” within the rebellious states “are, and henceforward shall be free.”

This day in 1818 also saw the release of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein or, The Modern Prometheus, which is frequently called the world’s first science fiction novel.

In 1999, the euro, the monetary unit of the European Union, was introduced across Europe and by 2002, it was issued in coins and notes.

Here’s a look back.

US President Abraham Lincoln signs Emancipation Proclamation

On January 1, 1863,
US President Abraham Lincoln changed the course of history by signing the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed the enslaved people of the Confederate states in rebellion against the Union. Historically speaking, the Emancipation Proclamation played a significant part in the end of slavery in the United States.

During the 1800s, the Northern and Southern states of America were divided on the issue of enslavement. The Northern states’ economy was based largely on manufacturing and paid agriculture, in contrast to the Southern states, whose economy was largely based on cotton plantations that relied on enslaved labour. Neither side wanted the other’s values to spread to the newer states. The South feared that if the North were successful in stopping enslavement in the new states, then it might abolish it altogether.

Then in 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected as the president of the United States for the Republican Party, which was against the enslavement of others. This upset many of the Southern states, who decided to secede from the US and form their own government with Jefferson Davis as the president. They called themselves the Confederates. The states that decided to remain with Abraham Lincoln were called the Union.

The first reading of the Emancipation Proclamation. Image Courtesy: Library of Congress

In 1861, conflict broke out between the two sides, and a series of battles were fought. Then in 1862, the Confederates marched north into Maryland, one of the border states, with the intention of taking Washington DC.

By the end of 1862, things were not looking good for the Union and hence, on January 1, 1863, Lincoln signed the proclamation, owing to which he was then remembered as “The Great Emancipator.”

Later, President Lincoln said that he considered the Emancipation Proclamation to be the most important aspect of his legacy. “I never, in my life, felt more certain that I was doing right, than I do in signing this paper,” he declared. “If my name ever goes into history it will be for this act, and my whole soul is in it.”

The Euro makes its debut

On this day, January 1, in 1999, Europe introduced a new currency called the Euro, marking a defining moment in the continent’s history.

The euro was born out of the 1991 Maastricht Treaty, in which the 12 original member countries of the European Community (now the European Union) created an economic and monetary union and a corresponding common unit of exchange.

The new currency, the euro, was officially issued on January 1, 1999. Initially, its use was restricted to financial markets and certain businesses, making it an ‘invisible’ currency.

A man holds euro currency in Mundolsheim near Strasbourg. File image/Reuters

However, three years later, in 2002, on the same day — January 1 — the new currency began circulating amongst countries and today, 20 out of 27 EU member countries use it as its official currency.

It is the world’s second-most traded currency and over 341 million people use it daily across the world.

This day, that year

Besides these events, here are some other history-making incidents that took place on January 1.

>> In 1995, the World Trade Organization was formally established
>> Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was published in 1818
>> American author JD Salinger, who wrote The Catcher in the Rye, was born in 1919