On This Day January 1-a very Auspicious Day!

January 1, 1776 – General George Washington hoists Continental Union Flag for the first time.
January 1, 1780 – Located at Sperry Park on Riverside Drive in Cranford, a marker
commemorates the winter of 1779-80 cantonment of Continental Army troops during the
Revolutionary War along the river here, part of a 2,000 man front protecting George
Washington’s troops at Morristown. Here, Brigadier General William Irvine established
headquarters of the forward defense line on January 1, 1780. The front stretched in an arc from
Newark to Perth Amboy, with Crane’s Mills (Cranford) in the center. Several Continental Army
generals headquartered here. Alexander Hamilton visited the Crane’s Mills cantonment and
Hessian prisoners are known to have passed through here. The marker was placed by the
Crane’s Ford Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1977.
January 1, 1781 – 1,500 soldiers of the 6th Pennsylvania Regiment under General Anthony
Wayne’s command rebel against the Continental Army’s winter camp in Morristown, New Jersey
as part of the Pennsylvania (Continentals; Regiment) Mutiny of 1781.
January 1, 1863 – Emancipation Proclamation issued by Abraham Lincoln to free slaves in US
confederate states. Issued by President Abraham Lincoln during the third year of the US civil
war, the Emancipation Proclamation changed the moral tone of the war. It meant that “that all
persons held as slaves” within rebellious states “are, and henceforward shall be free.”
January 1, 1892 – Ellis Island opens as a US immigration inspection station – it would go on to
be the gateway to the US for more than 12 million people. Since 1998, the island has belonged
to both New York and New Jersey.