Emancipation Proclamation (1863) : United States.  On this date Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing all slaves in territories of the Confederacy. (See entry for Lincoln's Birthday.)

 Independence Day : Haiti.  This day commemorates Haiti’s gaining independence from France in 1804 as a result of the only successful slave revolt in history.

 New Year's Day : International.  New Year's Day is the only secular holiday that the entire world observes regardless of race or religious beliefs. It is based on the solar calendar established by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 and adopted by most countries. However, many Orthodox Eastern churches continue to use the earlier Julian calendar with the New Year falling on January 14. Some cultural groups, including Jews, Chinese, Hindus, and Muslims, use a lunar calendar or some combination of a lunar and solar calendar. The date of the Chinese New Year may fall on any date between January 21 and February 19. For 2010, the Chinese New Year occurs on February 14 and the first day of the Jewish New Year begins on the first day of the month of Tishri, or sundown on September 8. Different cultures also count years from different starting points. For example, January 1 is year 2010 according to the Gregorian calendar, but falls in year 5770 according to the Jewish calendar and in year 1431 according to the Islamic calendar.

January | Alpha Index | Subject Index | Public Holidays by Country | Home

 John Hope Franklin (1915-2009) : African American.  Historian, educator, author. John Hope Franklin was a historian, scholar, and author who in his best-known work, From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans (1947), challenged the idea of a separate African American history apart from American history. Born in Oklahoma, Franklin attended the segregated Booker T. Washington High School in Tulsa and then went to all-Black Fisk University. After earning his Ph.D. in History at Harvard in 1941, he returned to Fisk to teach, then taught at Howard University. In the early 1950s, Franklin served on the NAACP Legal Defense Fund team led by Thurgood Marshall that worked on the case for Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka (1954), which overturned the “separate but equal” doctrine of Plessey vs. Ferguson (1896) and ended legal segregation in public schools. In 1956 Franklin became chair of the history department at Brooklyn College, the first African American department head at a predominantly White university. In 1964 he joined the faculty at the University of Chicago and served as chair of the history department from 1967 to 1970. Franklin marched alongside Martin Luther King Jr. in the historic Selma to Montgomery march of 1965. He was appointed the James B. Duke Professor of History at Duke University in 1983 and later was Professor of Legal History at the Duke University Law School. In 2000 Duke University established the John Hope Franklin Center for Interdisciplinary and International Studies in his honor. In 1995 President William J. Clinton awarded Franklin the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.

 Berchtold's Day : Switzerland.  This day honors Duke Berchtold V, who founded Bern, the capital of Switzerland, in the twelfth century. According to legend, the Duke left on a hunting trip declaring that he would name the city for the first animal he killed, which was a bear, or Bär in German. The city was named Bärn, which later became Bern.

January | Alpha Index | Subject Index | Public Holidays by Country | Home

 Louis Braille (1809–1852) : French, People with Disabilities.  Educator. Blinded in an accident at the age of three, Braille attended the Institution Nationale des Jeunes Aveugles (National Institute for Blind Youth) in Paris on a scholarship and began teaching there in 1826. While still a student he became interested in a form of writing that used raised dots to encode a message. He developed this idea into a complete writing system that bears his name, a series of arrangements of six dots. Braille's writing system, published in 1829, has become the most widely used form of writing for the blind.

 Elizabeth Ann B. Seton Feast Day : Roman Catholic.  This feast honors the first American-born saint and founder of the American Sisters of Charity, the first American order of Roman Catholic nuns.

January | Alpha Index | Subject Index | Public Holidays by Country | Home

 George Washington Carver (1864–1943) : African American.  Scientist. This day marks the anniversary of Carver's death. As director of the department of agricultural research at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama from 1896, Carver developed hundreds of new uses for common agricultural products, including the peanut, sweet potato, and soybean. His research provided the foundation for the change in the economy of the South from dependence on a single crop (cotton) to a more diversified base.

Guru Gobind Singh Ji's Birthday : Sikh.

January | Alpha Index | Subject Index | Public Holidays by Country | Home

 Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960) : African American.  Author and folklorist. Hurston spent years collecting folklore among the Black people of the rural South and celebrated their culture in her stories and novels. Her best known work is the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. Born in the all-Black town of Eatonville, Florida, she left Eatonville in 1917 to attend Morgan Academy in Baltimore, where she completed high school. She then attended Howard Prep School and Howard University and earned an associate's degree. She completed her undergraduate education at Barnard College and studied under the well-known anthropologist Franz Boas. While in New York, Hurston became a part of the Harlem Renaissance literary circle that included Langston Hughes, Wallace Thurman, and Jessie Fauset. She became well known not only for her writing, but also for her outspokenness, her distinctive way of dress, and her refusal to be ashamed of her culture. Hurston was a pioneer in the study of African American folklore. For her folklore writings, she traveled "down South," to the Caribbean and Latin America. Her most active years were the 1930s and early 1940s. During that time she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, joined the Federal Writers Project in Florida, published four novels and an autobiography, and worked as a story consultant for Paramount Pictures. Since 1989, there has been an annual festival in her honor in Eatonville. For more information, contact The Association to Preserve the Eatonville Community, Inc., 227 East Kennedy Blvd., Eatonville, FL 32751.

 Danny Thomas (born Amos Alphonsus Muzyad Yaqoob) (1912–1991) : Lebanese American.  Actor, comedian, and television producer. Born in Deerfield, Michigan, Danny Thomas was a comedian and actor, and one of the best known Lebanese Americans. He starred in the television show Make Room for Daddy, and in the 1953 remake of the movie, The Jazz Singer, later becoming a successful television producer. In the 1950s, Thomas protected two black-listed writers who continued to write for his television series under assumed names. Known as a philanthropist, Thomas founded the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee in 1962, for which he was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.

 Christmas : Armenian Apostolic Church.  The Armenian Apostolic Church, also known as the Armenian Orthodox Church, has one of the oldest traditions in the Christian world. In the early fourth century, Armenia became the first country to accept Christianity as a state religion. In A.D. 506, the Armenian Apostolic Church broke from the Eastern Orthodox Churches, becoming one of the original Oriental Orthodox Churches. In 1923 the Armenian Orthodox Church adopted the Gregorian calendar with one significant difference: the Church celebrates the birth of Jesus on Epiphany rather than on December 25. In the original Christian tradition, the feast of Epiphany celebrated three events that revealed God to mankind: the nativity, the visit of the three Magi, and the baptism of Christ. However, in the fourth century, the Roman Church adopted December 25 as the new date to celebrate the nativity. The Armenian Apostolic Church is the only Christian church that still celebrates the nativity on Epiphany, its original date of celebration. In Jerusalem, the Church continues to follow the Orthodox Old Calendar and celebrates Christmas on the Julian date for Epiphany, or January 19.

 Epiphany : Christian.  Twelve days after Christmas the three kings arrived in Bethlehem with gifts for the baby Jesus. Called Twelfth Night in English, it was once celebrated throughout Europe with feasts and frolics. In England today old traditions are reviving in Twelfth Night parties marking the end to the Christmas season. In Spain, Mexico, and other Hispanic countries of the Americas the holiday, called Día de los Tres Magos, or simply Tres Reyes, was never abandoned. Like Jesus, children receive gifts on this day rather than Christmas Day, and families celebrate with big meals, often with specialties such as roast sucking pig. Many countries follow the ancient tradition of baking a cake or bread that conceals a trinket. The person who is served the piece with the trinket is treated as King or Queen for the day.

Cakes differ regionally. In Spain the cake is roscon des reyes, literally, "big doughnut of the kings" because the large cake, flavored with orange-flower water and decorated with sugar and fruits, is shaped like a doughnut. In Portugal, a similar cake is called bolo do rey, King Cake. Southern France has a crown-shaped cake decorated with jewel-colored crystallized fruit. In Paris, however, they make Galette des Rois, a puff pastry tart filled with almond frangipan. It is brought to the table decorated with a paper crown. As each piece is cut, a child hidden under the table calls the name of the guest to whom it should be served, so there can be no favoritism about who gets the trinket. The person who receives it also gets the crown, and as King or Queen, the right to be indulged for the rest of the day. In the United States these traditions thrive in the King Cake of Louisiana, a cinnamon-flavored oval braid that appears around January 6th and plays a starring role at parties during the pre-Mardi Gras season. Indeed, most office workers bring in a King Cake every Friday. The person who gets the trinket, traditionally a bean or pecan, now a plastic baby, has to provide the King Cake for the next party. Traditionally King Cake was simply decorated with sugar in the Mardi Gras colors of purple, signifying justice, green for faith and gold for power. Now, bakeries offer toppings such as blueberry, lemon and German chocolate so the colored sugar is often less dominant.

Three Kings Day (Día de los Tres Magos) : Puerto Rico.

January | Alpha Index | Subject Index | Public Holidays by Country | Home

 Christmas : Coptic Orthodox Christian, Eastern Orthodox Christian, Rastafarian.  Christmas is celebrated on this date, set according to the Julian calendar, by the Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt and several Eastern Orthodox Christian communities (e.g., Russian, Serb, and Ukrainian Orthodox Christians). Christmas is also observed on this day by Rastafarians, who follow the Ethiopian calendar, which has its roots in the Coptic Orthodox tradition. In Gregorian leap years, Coptic Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas on January 8. (See discussion under Days of Religious Observance.)

January | Alpha Index | Subject Index | Public Holidays by Country | Home

 Martyrs' Day : Panama.  This marks the January 9, 1964 riots over sovereignty of the Panama Canal Zone. After three days of fighting, about 22 Panamanians and four U.S. citizens were killed. The incident is considered to be a significant factor in the U.S. decision to transfer control of the Canal Zone to Panama through the 1977 Torrijos-Carter Treaties.

January | Alpha Index | Subject Index | Public Holidays by Country | Home

 Prithvi Narayan Shah (1723-1775) : Nepalese. King Prithvi Narayan Shah conquered the three Malla kingdoms of Kathmandu, Patan, and Bhadgaon and unified them to found the modern state of Nepal.

Coming of Age Day (Seijin No Hi) : Japan.

 Eugenio María de Hostos' Birthday : Puerto Rico.  This public holiday commemorates the birth of Eugenio María de Hostos (1839–1903), patriot, distinguished scholar, and writer of works ranging from treatises on law to children’s stories. Eugenio María de Hostos spent most of his life in exile, working as a university teacher and leading educational reform efforts in the Dominican Republic and Chile. He traveled widely to promote cooperation among Latin American countries and advocate freedom for Puerto Rico and Cuba. (m)

 Independence Manifesto Day : Morocco.  This day celebrates the declaration of independence from France in 1944.

January | Alpha Index | Subject Index | Public Holidays by Country | Home

 Helen Haje (1929?–1998) : Lebanese American.  Public relations activist. Sometimes referred to as the "mother of Arab American organizations in the United States," this daughter of Lebanese immigrants grew up in Altoona, Pennsylvania. The mother of three children, Haje left Altoona in the early 1940s after her husband died and moved to Washington, D.C., to work for Catholic Charities. Becoming increasingly concerned about the negative image of Arabs among the American public, in 1972 she joined the National Association of Arab Americans, the first political Arab American organization, as its first executive secretary. She continued her work to champion Arab American interests in the United States until her death.

 Mordecai Johnson (1890–1976) : African American.  University president. In 1926 this 36-year-old Baptist minister became the first African American president of Howard University in Washington, D.C. The 30 years of his presidency saw the transformation of the institution to a distinguished university with a faculty tripled in size, a law school distinguished for its leadership in the field of civil rights, and a multimillion dollar campus. Johnson also served on numerous government commissions and advisory boards.

 José Limón (1908–1972) : Mexican American.  Dancer and choreographer. Soon after his debut as a performer with Doris Humphrey's modern dance troupe, Limón began creating his own dances, many of them drawing on the traditional dances he had seen as a boy in Mexico. His greatest works, including The Moor's Pavane, based on Shakespeare's tragedy Othello, are distinguished for their combination of emotional expressiveness and formal elegance. Limón's dance troupe was the first to be sent abroad on a tour sponsored by the U.S. Department of State's cultural exchange program.

January | Alpha Index | Subject Index | Public Holidays by Country | Home

 Ernestine Potowski-Rose (1810–1892) : Polish American.  Orator and political activist. After immigrating to the United States in 1836, Potowski-Rose gave her energies to the economic emancipation of women, the abolition of slavery, and the improvement of conditions for working people. Her first political success was her leadership of the 12-year campaign to secure property rights for married women in New York State. Her efforts led to the state legislature's passage in 1848 of the Married Women's Property Act, the first law in the United States to give married women the right to control their own property and share legal guardianship of their children.

 Charlotte Ray (1850–1911) : African American.  Lawyer. While working as a teacher in the teacher-training program at Howard University, Charlotte Ray began studying in that university's law department. Soon after her graduation in 1872 she was admitted to the District of Columbia bar, becoming the first African American woman lawyer in the United States and the first woman to practice in the District of Columbia. Although she was admired by colleagues, she had to give up active practice when the prevailing prejudices of the day made it impossible for her to obtain sufficient legal business.

January | Alpha Index | Subject Index | Public Holidays by Country | Home

 John Dos Passos (1898–1976) : Portuguese American.  Writer. An important novelist of the period between the two world wars, Dos Passos is best known for his trilogy U.S.A. (1930–1936), a set of three novels in which he depicted the United States as "two nations," one of the privileged and one of the powerless.

 Carlos P. Romulo (1899–1985) : Filipino.  Diplomat, author, and educator. After an early career in journalism, Romulo received a commission in the U.S. Army when the United States entered World War II. He spent the war working on the staff of General Douglas MacArthur and in the Philippine government in exile in Washington, and participated in the liberation of Manila in early 1945. For the remainder of his career he served in diplomatic positions: as representative to the United Nations, ambassador to the United States, secretary of foreign affairs, minister of education, and president of the University of the Philippines. He also wrote a number of books on history and public affairs.

 Makar Sankranti : Hindu. (m)

 New Year : Eastern Orthodox Christian.  This date marks the observance of New Year's Day according to the Julian calendar by several Eastern Orthodox Christian Churches (e.g., Russian, Serb, and Ukrainian Orthodox Churches).

January | Alpha Index | Subject Index | Public Holidays by Country | Home

 Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968) : African American.  Civil rights leader. The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gained national prominence during the Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott of 1955–1956 and soon became the acknowledged national leader of the growing movement to obtain civil rights for African Americans. (See entry for Rosa Parks Day.) His commitment to nonviolence, his courage, and the moral power of his vision, eloquently expressed in masterful oratory and writings, won him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. Toward the end of his life King became convinced of the interrelatedness of all forms of social, economic, and military oppression, and broadened the sphere of his activism. He spoke out against U.S. involvement in the war in Vietnam and was preparing to lead a massive Poor People's March on Washington when he was assassinated in Memphis on April 4, 1968, while helping to organize the city’s sanitation workers. His birthday is celebrated on January 18 as a federal holiday.

 Pongal : Hindu. (m)

January | Alpha Index | Subject Index | Public Holidays by Country | Home

 Ruhiyyih Rabbani (1910–2000) : Baha'i.  Religious leader. Ruhiyyih Rabbani became a prominent leader of the Baha’i faith after the death of her husband, Shoghi Effendi Rabbani, the last official leader of the faith. Since his death, the Baha’is have been governed by a legislature. Rabbani was a member of the “nine hands” who oversaw the affairs of the Baha’i community and interpreted matters of faith. This is the day of her death.

 Hiram Revels (1822–1901) : African American.  Legislator and university president. In 1870 Revels became the first African American elected to the United States Senate when he was chosen to fill the Mississippi seat vacated by Jefferson Davis. After serving his term in the Senate, he became president of Alcorn University in Mississippi. He died on this date.

January | Alpha Index | Subject Index | Public Holidays by Country | Home

 Martin Luther King Jr. Day : United States.  National observance of Dr. King's birthday. (m)

 Revolution Day : Tunisia.  Also known as Remembrance Day, this commemorates the nationalist movements that led to Tunisia’s gaining independence from France in 1956 and the abolishment of the monarchy in 1957.

January | Alpha Index | Subject Index | Public Holidays by Country | Home

 Epiphany : Coptic Orthodox Christian, Eastern Orthodox Christian.  This day commemorates the visit of the three kings, Magi, to the infant Jesus. Coptic Orthodox Christians and several Eastern Orthodox Churches celebrate Epiphany on this day based on the Julian calendar. In Gregorian leap years, Coptic Orthodox Christians celebrate Epiphany on January 20. The Armenian Orthodox Church celebrates Christmas on this day in Jerusalem, where Armenian Orthodox Christians still follow the Julian calendar. (See entry for Armenian Orthodox Christmas and discussion under Days of Religious Observance.)

 Timket (Feast of Epiphany) : Ethiopia.  

January | Alpha Index | Subject Index | Public Holidays by Country | Home

 Vasant Panchami : Hindu. (m)

January | Alpha Index | Subject Index | Public Holidays by Country | Home

 Our Lady of Altagracia : Dominican Republic.  Public holiday.

January | Alpha Index | Subject Index | Public Holidays by Country | Home

 Pilar Barbosa (189?–1997) : Puerto Rican.  Historian and political activist. Pilar Barbosa de Rosario, historian and mentor to generations of Puerto Rican politicians, scholars, and intellectuals, was widely regarded as the conscience of the New Progressive Party. She started her career as the first woman to teach at the University of Puerto Rico and later created the departments of history and social studies. She became an authority on Puerto Rican political history and was named the Commonwealth's official historian in 1993. Professor Barbosa led the movement to make the Progressive Party both the party of statehood and of social justice. She died on this day at the age of 99.

January | Alpha Index | Subject Index | Public Holidays by Country | Home

 Thomas A. Dorsey (1899–1993) : African American.  Gospel songwriter, blues singer, and pianist. The son of a Georgia revivalist preacher, Dorsey began his career as a pianist, composer, and arranger of blues pieces. When he turned to composing church music, he introduced elements of the blues into his work, thereby creating the sound of contemporary gospel music. In 1932, Dorsey became musical director of Chicago's Pilgrim Baptist Church, a position he held for more than 40 years. In the same year he cofounded the National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses. The most famous of Dorsey's more than 1,000 gospel songs is "Take My Hand, Precious Lord," written in 1932 after the death of his first wife and infant son.

January | Alpha Index | Subject Index | Public Holidays by Country | Home

 Arthur Alfonso Schomburg (1874–1938) : Puerto Rican.  Scholar and collector. Son of a Black laundress and a German-born merchant, Schomburg left Puerto Rico at age 17 to continue his education in New York City. His growing involvement in efforts to improve conditions for Black and Latino people led him to become fascinated with African American culture, and he began collecting books, pamphlets, manuscripts, and prints documenting the history of Black people in America. His personal collection, which he amassed as a hobby, became the finest of its kind in the nation and was purchased in 1926 by the New York Public Library. The Arthur A. Schomburg Collection of Negro Literature and Art opened to the public in 1934 with Schomburg as its curator, a position he held until his death.

January | Alpha Index | Subject Index | Public Holidays by Country | Home

 Robert Burns (1759–1796) : Scot.  Poet. Robert Burns, the national poet of Scotland, is known throughout the world for poems, including Comin Thro' the Rye and A Red, Red Rose. The celebration of Burns' birthday focuses around a Burns' Night Supper that features the procession into the dining area of the haggis, accompanied by playing of the bagpipes. The haggis is a sheep stomach filled with a mixture of chopped lamb and oatmeal cooked just below boiling point. It is eaten with bashed neeps, which are turnips. The preferred drink is well-aged scotch. This feast often features the reading of Burns' poem "To a Haggis." His birthday is celebrated throughout the world where there are Scottish communities, including Japan, other parts of Asia, and Russia. Although Robert Burns wrote in the Lowland Scots dialect of English, which differs markedly from standard English, readers throughout the world admire his work. Auld Lang Syne is sung at New Year on every continent, while My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose is a favorite love song.

January | Alpha Index | Subject Index | Public Holidays by Country | Home

 Australia Day : Australia.  In order to relieve the pressures of crowding in British prisons, the British government established a penal colony in Australia. The first prisoners arrived on this date in 1788. This has been celebrated as Foundation Day or Anniversary Day, and now as Australia Day, since 1817. The trend in Australia is to celebrate this day on the actual day of its occurrence rather than on the nearest Monday to that day. The exact day of celebration, however, is determined by each state or division within Australia rather than by the federal government and, therefore, may vary from one part of Australia to another.

Australian National Anthem: "Advance Australia Fair"

 Juan Pablo Duarte's Birthday : Dominican Republic.  This holiday marks the birthday of one of the founders of the republic.

 Republic Day : India.  This commemorates two events: the declaration in 1929 by the Indian National Congress to work toward independence from Great Britain and the day in 1950 when India became an independent republic.

January | Alpha Index | Subject Index | Public Holidays by Country | Home

 José Julian Martí (1853–1895) : Cuban.  Poet, essayist, and patriot. A distinguished writer as well as a political leader, Martí was the chief organizer of the Cuban movement for independence from Spain. Although he lived much of his adult life in exile, in April 1895 he helped to lead a revolutionary invasion of Cuba. He was killed in battle on May 19.

Recognizing the Festival/Holiday: In many large Cuban American communities, Martí’s birthday is often celebrated with speeches, community events, and parades.

January | Alpha Index | Subject Index | Public Holidays by Country | Home

 Martyrs' Day : Nepal.  This public holiday commemorates the deaths in 1942 of four Nepalese martyrs who spoke out against the ruling Rana family.

January | Alpha Index | Subject Index | Public Holidays by Country | Home

 Osceola (1800–1838) : American Indian (Seminole).  Military leader. Osceola organized the Seminoles to resist the U.S. government's takeover of their ancestral lands and led the guerrilla resistance to federal forces from 1835 until his imprisonment in 1837. He died in captivity on this date.

T'u B'Shvat (New Year of the Trees) : Jewish.

 King Abdullah’s Birthday : Jordan.  This day celebrates the birthday of His Majesty King Abdullah II bin Al Hussein (born 1962), the current King of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

January | Alpha Index | Subject Index | Public Holidays by Country | Home

 William Apess (1798–1840?) : American Indian (Pequot).  Writer, Methodist minister, and political activist. A traveling Methodist preacher, Apess published in 1829 his autobiography, A Son of the Forest—the first book written and published by a Native American. In this and subsequent writings, and in his public life as a spokesman for the Pequots, Apess challenged the racial assumptions of European Americans and asserted the rights of all people of color to be considered the equals of Whites.

 Ella Cara Deloria (1889–1971) : American Indian (Dakota Sioux).  Researcher and writer. Deloria worked as a teacher and health educator and did extensive work as a research specialist in American Indian languages and cultures. Her novel Waterlily is a fictional portrait of traditional Sioux life.

 Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson (1919–1972) : African American.  Athlete. An outstanding hitter and fielder known for his daring base runs, Robinson broke the color barrier in major league baseball when he signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947.

January | Alpha Index | Subject Index | Public Holidays by Country | Home