On This Day In History (1 & 2 January)

On This Date, 1 January 1895, J. Edgar Hoover, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation from 1924-1972, was born. Following his death on May 2, 1972, his obituary appeared in The Times. Go to obituary

• 1808 - A law prohibiting the importation of slaves into the United States went into effect.
• 1892 - The Ellis Island Immigrant Station in New York opened.
• 1898 - New York City was consolidated into five buroughs.
• 1901 - The Commonwealth of Australia was proclaimed.
• 1958 - Treaties establishing the European Economic Community went into effect.
• 1979 - The United States and China established diplomatic relations.
• 1993 - Czechoslovakia peacefully split into two new countries, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

• 1492 - The leader of the last Arab stronghold in Spain surrendered to Spanish forces loyal to King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella I.
• 1788 - Georgia became the fourth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
• 1900 - Secretary of State John Hay announced the Open Door Policy to prompt trade with China.
• 1935 - Bruno Hauptmann went on trial in Flemington, N.J., on charges of kidnapping and murdering the infant son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh. (He was found guilty and executed.

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