Images in History

General Anthony Wayne (born January 1, 1745, died December 15, 1796), shown on horseback (left) during the American Revolutionary War and brandishing two pistols (right) on January 1, 1781, while heroically putting down the Pennsylvania Line Mutiny during that war, forcing the mutinous soldiers to return to ranks.

Although Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) (left), sixteenth President of the U.S., announced his Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862 (commemorated in the image shown at bottom left), the official edict that freed the slaves, such as depicted in the painting of a slave (right) by John Philip Simpson, did not go into effect until January 1, 1863,.

The Emancipation Proclamation was strengthened by the passing of the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution, granting rights to all Americans regardless of race, as commemorated in the image at bottom right.

American Middleweight boxer and former Middleweight Champion of Australia Eddie McGoorty (Edwin Van Dusart; 1889-1929). McGoorty wins the Middleweight Championship of Australia on January 1, 1914 by knocking out Dave Smith in one round. McGoorty finished his career with a record of 86 wins, 23 defeats, and 19 draws.

John Lindsey (John Vliet Lindsey; 1921- 2000), Republican politician, became Mayor of New York City on January 1, 1966, holding that office until December 31, 1973. Lindsey switched parties in 1971, becoming a Democrat. He subsequently made an unsuccessful bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1972, and was also unsuccessful as the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate in 1980.

Actor Dana Andrews
Born January 1, 1909
Died December 17, 1992

Actress Catherine McCormack
Born January 1, 1972

Actor Cesar Romero
Born February 15, 1907
Died January 1, 1994
Shown in 1935 with Jean Arthur in Diamond Jim

Actor Maurice Chevalier
Born September 12, 1888
Died January 1, 1972
With Claudette Colbert in The Smiling Lieutenant (1931)

Larry Fay (1882-1932) (top left), millionaire rumrunner and owner of many Manhattan, New York speakeasies, where fabulous hostess Texas Guinan (1884-1933) (top right), raucously greeted customers with the line "Hello, suckers!", was shot to death on January 1, 1932 by a disturbed employee. Fay, seeking to improve his social image, had purchased a huge estate in Great Neck, N.Y., and gave immense, lavish parties at his mansion, inviting the wealthy and the socially elite, who knew him vaguely as a high-society bootlegger; author F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940), below left, who then lived near Fay's sprawling mansion, attended several parties and studied the gangster. Fay seemed disinterested at his own fetes, strolling in his elegantly tailored suits through a phalanx of strangers, who did not know him; trailing behind Fay were always a number of silent, dark-complexioned men, his bodyguards, careful to make sure that everyone observed proper conduct and no one annoyed the boss. Fitzgerald would use Fay as his role model for the gangster-protagonist in his classic novel, The Great Gatsby, filmed three times (as in the advertisement for the 1949 production shown at right).