On this day: January 1
POSTED: 01:21 PM PST Dec 31, 2012
UPDATED: 11:00 PM PST Dec 31, 2012
Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation, Ellis Island opens, the Rose Bowl becomes the first college bowl game, Hank Williams dies, and the Y2K panic fizzles out, all on this day.
Public domain
1892: New York's new Immigration Depot opens at Ellis Island to provide improved facilities for the massive numbers of arrivals. The first immigrant to pass through Ellis was a "rosy-cheeked Irish girl," Annie Moore, age 15, from County Cork. She came with her two younger brothers to join their parents in New York City. That first day, three large ships were waiting to land, and 700 immigrants passed through Ellis Island. In the first year, nearly 450,000 immigrants passed through the island.
