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The history of the Australian Capital Territory began on January 1, 1911, when it was created in law as the site for Australia's capital city Canberra. The region has a long prior history of human habitation before the Territory's creation, however, with evidence of Indigenous Australian settlement dating back at least 21,000 years. Following the colonisation of Australia by the British, the 19th century saw the initial European exploration and settlement of the area and their encounters with the local indigenous peoples, beginning in 1820 and shortly followed by settlements in 1824. In 1908, the region was selected as the site of the nation's future capital city. The territory officially came under government control as the Federal Capital Territory on 1 January 1911. The planning and construction of Canberra followed, with the Parliament of Australia finally moving there in 1927. (more...)

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• A bomb explodes outside a Coptic church (Coptic cross pictured) in Alexandria, Egypt, killing at least 21 people and wounding 70 others.
• Colombia, Germany, India, Portugal, and South Africa begin two-year terms as non-permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.
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January 1: New Year's Day in the Gregorian calendar, Feast of the Circumcision of Christ (Eastern Orthodox Church)

• 45 BC – The Roman Republic adopted the Julian calendar.
• 1739 – Bouvet Island in the South Atlantic Ocean, the most remote island in the world, was discovered by French explorer Jean-Baptiste Charles Bouvet de Lozier.
• 1801 – Italian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi discovered the dwarf planet Ceres (pictured), naming it after the Roman goddess of growing plants and of motherly love.
• 1892 – The immigration station on Ellis Island in New York Harbor opened, and would, over the course of its existence, process twelve million immigrants to the United States.
• 1994 – The revolutionary leftist Zapatista Army of National Liberation initiated twelve days of armed conflict in the Mexican state of Chiapas.

More anniversaries: December 31 – January 1 – January 2