Today is Saturday, Jan. 1, the first day of 2005. There are 364 days left in the year. On this date in 1863, President Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring that slaves in rebel

Today is Saturday, Jan. 1, the first day of 2005. There are 364 days left in the year. On this date in 1863, President Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring that slaves in rebel states are free.
In 1892, the Ellis Island Immigrant Station in New York formally opens. In 1898, Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island are consolidated into New York City. In 1953, country singer Hank Williams Sr., 29, dies of a drug and alcohol overdose while en route to a concert date in Canton, Ohio. In 1959, Fidel Castro leads Cuban revolutionaries to victory over Fulgencio Batista. In 1979, the United States and China hold celebrations in Washington and Beijing to mark the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries. In 1984, the break-up of AT & amp;T takes place as the telecommunications giant is divested of its 22 Bell System companies under terms of an antitrust agreement. In 1993, Czechoslovakia peacefully splits into two new countries, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. In 1994, the North American Free Trade Agreement goes into effect. In 1999, the euro, the new single currency of 11 European countries, officially comes into existence.
January 1, 1980: The Youngstown Hospital Association raises its room rates by $12 beginning with the new year, bringing the rate for a private room to $131 per day; semi-private, $120.50.
Construction in Warren was up by 20 percent in 1979, for a total of more than $20 million. Almost all of the construction was in commercial, hospital and industrial; only 12 new homes were built.
Jones & amp; Laughlin Steel has sold two annealing buildings with 160,000 square feet of interior space in the closed portions of the Campbell Works to R. Munroe and Sons Manufacturing Corp. of Pittsburgh.
January 1, 1965: Patrick Breen Shea is Youngstown's first baby of the new year, born in North Side Hospital at 2:27 a.m. He is the second of nine children of Mr. and Mrs. Jack Shea to be born on New Year's Day; his sister, Dorothy, was born four years earlier.
The record-breaking Youngstown newspaper strike in its 136th day, receives national attention on the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite. The longest previous newspaper strike was in Detroit.
January 1, 1955: Ohio State University's champion football team from the Big Ten hammers and punches Southern California into surrender, 20-7, in the Rose Bowl. The game was the wettest and muddiest in Pasadena in 21 years.
The first baby born in Youngstown in 1955 is Phyllis Nuzzie, born at North Side Hospital at 12:30 a.m.
January 1, 1930: Jackie Convoy, 8, drowns while trying to help two playmates who had fallen through the ice while playing hockey on Lake Glacier. The two other boys were saved by a passer-by, Wilbur Staff, 15.
All of Youngstown appeared to be on the downtown streets New Year's Eve, and 28 of them were arrested. The first man to be arrested in the new year was John Robb, 29, of Boardman Street, charged with shooting a firearm in the city limits.
Twin boys born at Youngstown Hospital to Mr. and Mrs. Charles Watson are believed to be the first children born in Youngstown in 1930. One was born at 12:01 a.m.; the other at 12:21.
Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.