December 31

December 31 is the 365th day of the year (366th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. It is the final day of the Gregorian year.

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Events

• 406 – Vandals, Alans and Suebians cross the Rhine, beginning an invasion of Gallia
• 1600 – British East India Company is chartered
• 1687 – The first Huguenots set sail from France to the Cape of Good Hope.
• 1695 – A window tax is imposed in England, causing many shopkeepers to brick up their windows to avoid the tax.
• 1775 – American Revolutionary War: British forces repulse an attack by Continental Army generals Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold at the Battle of Quebec.
• 1857 – Queen Victoria chooses Ottawa, Ontario, as the capital of Canada
• 1862 – American Civil War: Abraham Lincoln signs an act that admits West Virginia to the Union (thus dividing Virginia in two); meanwhile, the Battle of Stones River is fought near Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
• 1879 – Thomas Edison demonstrates incandescent lighting to the public for the first time (Menlo Park, New Jersey).
• 1904 – The first New Year's Eve celebration is held in Times Square, then known as Longacre Square, in New York, New York.
• 1916 – The Hampton Terrace Hotel in North Augusta, South Carolina, one of the largest and most luxurious hotels in the USA at the time, burns to the ground.
• 1929 – Guy Lombardo plays Auld Lang Syne for the first time
• 1944 – World War II: Hungary declares war on Germany
• 1946 – President Harry Truman officially proclaims an end of hostilities in World War II.
• 1955 – General Motors becomes the first American corporation to make over USD $1 billion in a year.
• 1960 – The farthing coin, used in Britain since the 13th century, ceases to be legal tender.
• 1961 – The Marshall Plan expires after distributing more than USD $12 billion in foreign aid to rebuild Europe.
• 1963 – Central African Federation officially collapsed, and eventually became Zambia, Malawi and Rhodesia.
• 1968 – Marien Ngouabi assumed the presidency of the Republic of the Congo.
• 1972 – Roberto Clemente died in a plane crash en route to deliver aid to earthquake victims in Nicaragua.
• 1983 – The last day that the AT&T Bell System exists before being broken up by the United States Government.
• 1986 – A fire at the Dupont Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, kills 97 and injures 140.
• 1990 – Russian Garry Kasparov holds his title by winning the World Chess Championship match against his countryman Anatoly Karpov.
• 1991 – The Soviet Union officially dissolves.
• 1992 – In the last of the great ITV franchise renewals, Thames Television, Television South West and Television South cease broadcasting, replaced by Carlton Television, Westcountry Television and Meridian Television respectively.
• 1995 – The publication of the last new Calvin and Hobbes cartoon strip.
• 1999 – Boris Yeltsin resigns as President of Russia, to be replaced by Vladimir Putin
• 1999  – Five hijackers, who had been holding 155 hostages on an Indian Airlines plane, leave the plane with two Islamic clerics that they had demanded be freed.
• 1999  – The Panama Canal comes completely under Panama's jurisdiction.

Births

• 1378 – Pope Callixtus III (d. 1458)
• 1491 – Jacques Cartier, French explorer (d. 1557)
• 1514 – Andreas Vesal, physician (d. 1564)
• 1790 – Antoine Adamberger, actress (d. 1867)
• 1869 – Henri Matisse, painter and graphic artist (d. 1954)
• 1880 – George Marshall, recipient of Nobel Prize in Peace 1953 for the Marshall Plan (d. 1959)
• 1881 – Max Pechstein, painter and graphic artist (d. 1955)
• 1894 – Pola Negri, Polish actress (d. 1987)
• 1903 – Nathan Milstein, Ukrainian violinist (d. 1992)
• 1905 – Jule Styne, composer (d. 1994)
• 1908 – Simon Wiesenthal, concentration camp survivor, activist
• 1910 – Carl Dudley, American movie director (died 1973)
• 1919 – Tommy Byrne, Major League Baseball player
• 1920 – Rex Allen, actor, singer (d. 1999)
• 1930 – Odetta, singer
• 1932 – Mildred Scheel, physician, founder of Deutsche Krebshilfe (d. 1985)
• 1932 – George Schlatter, television producer
• 1937 – Avram Hershko, Israeli biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
• 1937 – Anthony Hopkins, actor
• 1938 – Rosalind Cash
• 1941 – Alex Ferguson, football player and manager
• 1943 – John Denver, country/pop musician (d. 1997)
• 1943 – Ben Kingsley, actor
• 1945 – Taylor Hackford, producer, director
• 1945 – Diane von Fürstenberg, fashion designer
• 1947 – Burton Cummings, musician ("The Guess Who")
• 1947  – Tim Matheson, actor
• 1948 – Donna Summer, singer
• 1951 – George Thorogood, musician
• 1953 – James Remar, actor
• 1958 – Bebe Neuwirth, actress
• 1959 – Val Kilmer, actor
• 1960 – John Allen Muhammad, convicted Beltway sniper
• 1963 – Scott Ian, lead singer of Anthrax
• 1971 – Brent Barry, NBA basketball player

Deaths

• 192 – Commodus, Roman Emperor (b. 161)
• 1164 – Margrave Ottokar III of Styria
• 1194 – Leopold V of Austria (killed at a tournament) (b. 1157)
• 1384 – John Wyclif, English theologian (b. 1328)
• 1510 – Bianca Maria Sforza, daughter of Duke Galeazzo Maria Sforza of Milan and wife of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor
• 1568 – Shimazu Tadayoshi, Japanese daimyo (b. 1493)
• 1877 – Gustave Courbet, French painter (b. 1819)
• 1888 – Samson Raphael Hirsch, rabbi (b. 1888)
• 1936 – Miguel de Unamuno, Spanish writer, philosopher
• 1948 – Malcolm Campbell, Grand Prix race car driver (b. 1885)
• 1969 – George Lewis, jazz musician (b. 1900)
• 1972 – Roberto Clemente, Baseball Hall of Famer (b. 1934)
• 1980 – Marshall McLuhan, Canadian writer (b. 1911)
• 1980  – Raoul Walsh, film director
• 1985 – Rick Nelson, singer (b. 1940)
• 1990 – Vasili Lazarev, cosmonaut (b. 1928)
• 1993 – Zviad Gamsakhurdia, scientist and writer, first President of the Republic of Georgia (b. 1939)
• 1993  – Brandon Teena, murder victim (b. 1972)
• 1997 – Floyd Cramer, musician
• 1997  – Michael Kennedy, son of Robert F. Kennedy, killed in a skiing accident on Aspen Mountain in Colorado.
• 1999 – Sarah Knauss, dies at the age of 119 years – at death, the world's oldest person alive. (b. 1880).
• 1999  – Elliot Richardson, U.S. politician (b. 1920)
• 2000 – Alan Cranston, U.S. politician
• 2000  – José Greco, Spanish Flamenco dancer
• 2003 – Arthur R. von Hippel German-born American scientist and professor at MIT

Holidays and observances

• The sixth day of Christmas in Western Christianity.
• The evening is called New Year's Eve. At 24:00 the beginning of the new year is celebrated, see January 1.
• The day and evening are called Hogmanay in Scotland.
• Bahá'í Faith – Feast of Sharaf (Honor) – First day of the 16th month of the Bahá'í Calendar

External links

• BBC: On This Day

December 30 – January 1 – November 30 – January 31 — listing of all days