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.
*
406 -
Vandals,
Alans and
Suebians cross the
Rhine, beginning an invasion of
Gallia.
*
1229 -
James I of Aragon the Conqueror enters Medina Mayurqa (nowadays
Palma de Mallorca,
Spain) thus consuming the
Christian conquest of the island of
Mallorca.
*
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:
Battle of Quebec British forces repulse an attack by
Continental Army generals
Richard Montgomery and
Benedict Arnold.
*
1831 -
Gramercy Park is deeded to
New York City.
*
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).
* 1862 -
American Civil War: The
Battle of Stones River is fought near
Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
*
1879 -
Thomas Edison demonstrates
incandescent lighting to the public for the first time.
*
1891 - A new immigration depot is opened on
Ellis Island,
New York.
*
1904 - The first
New Year's Eve celebration is held in
Times Square, then known as Longacre Square, in
New York, New York.
*
1909 -
Manhattan Bridge opens.
*
1916 - The
Hampton Terrace Hotel in
North Augusta, South Carolina, one of the largest and most luxurious hotels in the
United States at the time, burns to the ground.
*
1923 - The chimes of
Big Ben are broadcast on radio for the first time by the
BBC.
*
1929 -
Guy Lombardo performs
Auld Lang Syne at the
Roosevelt Hotel in
New York City for the first time.
*
1944 -
World War II:
Hungary declares war on
Germany.
*
1946 - President
Harry Truman officially proclaims the end of hostilities in
World War II.
*
1955 -
General Motors becomes the first
U.S. corporation to make over
USD $1 billion in a year.
*
1960 - The
farthing coin ceases to be
legal tender in the
United Kingdom.
*
1961 - The
Marshall Plan expires after distributing more than
USD $12 billion in
foreign aid to rebuild
Europe.
*
1963 -
The Central African Federation officially collapses and splits into
Zambia,
Malawi and
Rhodesia.
*
1968 -
Marien Ngouabi assumed the presidency of the
Republic of the Congo.
*
1983 - The
AT&T Bell System is 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 -
Garry Kasparov holds his title by winning the
World Chess Championship match against his countryman
Anatoly Karpov.
*
1991 - The
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is officially dissolved.
* 1991 - The civil war in
El Salvador ends.
*
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.
*
1994 - This date is skipped altogether in
Kiribati, as the
Phoenix Islands and
Line Islands changed time zones from
UTC-11 to
UTC+13 and
UTC-10 to
UTC+14, respectively.
*
1995 - The last strip of the popular comic
Calvin and Hobbes is published.
*
1997 -
Quaker Oats settles a lawsuit involving the immoral use of child subjects in radioactivity experiments circa 1945-56.
*
1999 -
Boris Yeltsin resigns as
President of Russia, leaving
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as the acting President.
* 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 - At noon, according to the
Torrijos-Carter Treaties, the
United States Government handed
Panama Canal control over to
Panama. The
Panama Canal Authority, the Panamanian Government Agency created to run the Canal, takes over.
*
2004 - The official opening of
Taipei 101, the current
tallest skyscraper in the world, standing at a height of 509
metres (1,670
feet).
*
2005 -
AT&T and
SBC Communications merge, SBC name is dropped. A new
AT&T is formed.
*
2005 -
Habbo Hotel Hobba System is terminated by
Sulake all around the world.
*
1378 -
Pope Callixtus III (d.
1458)
*
1491 -
Jacques Cartier, French explorer (d.
1557)
*
1514 -
Vesalius, Flemish anatomist (d.
1564)
*
1572 -
Emperor Go-Yozei of Japan, (d.
1617)
*
1668 -
Herman Boerhaave, Dutch humanist and physician (d.
1738)
*
1720 -
Charles Edward Stuart, pretender to the British throne (d.
1788)
*
1738 -
Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis, British general (d.
1805)
*
1763 -
Pierre-Charles Villeneuve, French admiral (d.
1806)
*
1830 -
Isma'il Pasha, Governor of Egypt (d.
1895)
*
1869 -
Henri Matisse, French painter (d.
1954)
*
1880 -
George C. Marshall,
United States Secretary of State,
Nobel Laureate (d.
1959)
* 1880 -
Fred Beebe, Baseball player (d.
1957)
*
1881 -
Max Pechstein, German painter (d.
1955)
*
1882 -
Martin O'Meara, Australian soldier (d.
1935)
*
1884 -
Bobby Byrne, Baseball player
*
1894 -
Pola Negri, Polish actress (d.
1987)
*
1903 -
Nathan Milstein, Ukrainian violinist (d.
1992)
*
1905 -
Jule Styne, English-born composer (d.
1994)
*
1908 -
Simon Wiesenthal, Austrian Holocaust survivor (d.
2005)
*
1910 -
Carl Dudley, American film director (died
1973)
*
1919 -
Tommy Byrne, baseball player
*
1920 -
Rex Allen, American actor and singer (d.
1999)
*
1928 -
Siné, French cartoonist
*
1930 -
Odetta, American singer
*
1931 -
Bob Shaw, Irish writer (d.
1996)
*
1934 -
Akram Awan, Islamic scholar, Sufi
*
1937 -
Avram Hershko, Israeli biologist,
Nobel laureate* 1937 -
Anthony Hopkins, Welsh actor
*
1938 -
Rosalind Cash, American actress (d.
1995)
*
1941 -
Alex Ferguson, Scottish footballer
*
1942 -
Andy Summers, British musician (
The Police)
*
1943 -
John Denver, American musician (d.
1997)
* 1943 -
Ben Kingsley, English actor
*
1945 -
Taylor Hackford, American film producer and director
* 1945 -
Diane von Fürstenberg, fashion designer
* 1945 -
Connie Willis, American writer
*
1947 -
Burton Cummings, Canadian musician (
The Guess Who)
* 1947 -
Tim Matheson, American actor
*
1948 -
Donna Summer, American singer
*
1949 -
Ellen Datlow, American editor
* 1949 -
Susan Shwartz, American writer
*
1951 -
George Thorogood, American musician
* 1951 -
Tom Hamilton, American musician (
Aerosmith)
*
1953 -
James Remar, American actor
* 1953 -
Jane Badler, American actress
*
1958 -
Bebe Neuwirth, American actress
*
1959 -
Phill Kline, American politician
* 1959 -
Val Kilmer, American actor
* 1959 -
Paul Westerberg, American musician (
The Replacements)
*
1960 -
John Allen Muhammad, American serial killer
*
1962 -
Heather McCartney, British activist
*
1963 -
Scott Ian, American musician (
Anthrax)
*
1964 -
Allen D'Nulderf, American stuntman
*
1971 -
Brent Barry, American basketball player
* 1971 -
Esteban Loaiza, Baseball player
*
1977 -
Wardy Alfaro, Costa Rican footballer
*
1980 -
Richie McCaw, New Zealand rugby player
* 1980 -
Bob Bryar, American drummer (
My Chemical Romance)
* 1980 -
Matt Cross, professional wrestler better known as M Dogg 20
* 1981 -
Jason Campbell, American football player
* 1981 -
Matthew Pavlich, Australian AFL player
*
192 -
Commodus,
Roman Emperor (b.
161)
*
1164 - Margrave
Ottokar III of Styria (b.
1124)
*
1194 - Duke
Leopold V of Austria (killed at a tournament) (b.
1157)
*
1297 -
Humphrey de Bohun, 3rd Earl of Hereford, English soldier (b.
1249)
*
1302 -
Frederick III, Duke of Lorraine (b.
1238)
*
1384 -
John Wycliffe, English theologian and Bible translator
*
1424 -
Thomas Beaufort, 1st Duke of Exeter, English military leader
*
1460 -
Edmund, Earl of Rutland, brother of Kings
Edward IV of England and
Richard III of England (executed) (b.
1443)
* 1460 -
Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury, English politician (b.
1400)
*
1510 -
Bianca Maria Sforza, wife of
Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor (b.
1472)
*
1535 -
William Skeffington, Lord Deputy of Ireland (b.
1465)
*
1568 -
Shimazu Tadayoshi, Japanese warlord (b.
1493)
*
1575 -
Pierino Belli, Italian soldier and jurist (b.
1502)
*
1583 -
Thomas Erastus, Swiss theologian (b.
1524)
*
1610 -
Ludolph van Ceulen, German mathematician (b.
1540)
*
1650 -
Dorgon, Chinese emperor (b.
1612)
*
1673 -
Oliver St John, English statesman and judge
*
1679 -
Giovanni Alfonso Borelli, Italian physiologist and physicist (b.
1608)
*
1691 -
Dudley North, English economist (b.
1641)
*
1719 -
John Flamsteed, English astronomer (b.
1646)
*
1742 -
Karl III Philip, Elector Palatine (b.
1661)
*
1799 -
Jean-François Marmontel, French historian and writer (b.
1723)
*
1872 -
Aleksis Kivi, Finnish author (b.
1834)
*
1877 -
Gustave Courbet, French painter (b.
1819)
*
1888 -
Samson Raphael Hirsch, German rabbi (b.
1808)
*
1889 -
Ion Creangă, Romanian writer (b.
1837 or
1839)
*
1905 -
Alexander Popov, Russian physicist (b.
1859)
*
1921 -
Boies Penrose, U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania (b.
1860)
*
1936 -
Miguel de Unamuno, Spanish writer and philosopher (b.
1864)
*
1948 -
Malcolm Campbell, English race car driver (b.
1885)
*
1953 -
Albert Plesman, Dutch aviation pioneer (b.
1889)
*
1964 -
Ã"lafur Thors,
Prime Minister of Iceland (b.
1892)
* 1964 -
Bobby Byrne, Baseball player (b.
1884)
*
1969 -
George Lewis, American musician (b.
1900)
*
1971 -
Pete Duel American actor (b.
1940)
* 1971 -
Marin Sais, American actress (b.
1890)
* 1971 -
Vikram Sarabhai, Indian physicist (b.
1919)
*
1972 -
Roberto Clemente, baseball player (b.
1934)
*
1977 -
Sabah III Al-Salim Al-Sabah, ruler of Kuwait (b.
1924)
*
1980 -
Marshall McLuhan, Canadian writer (b.
1911)
* 1980 -
Raoul Walsh, American film director (b.
1887)
*
1985 -
Rick Nelson, American singer (b.
1940)
*
1990 -
Vasili Lazarev, cosmonaut (b.
1928)
*
1993 -
Zviad Gamsakhurdia, first
President of Georgia (b.
1939)
* 1993 -
Brandon Teena, transgender man, victim of hate crime (b.
1972)
*
1997 -
Floyd Cramer, American musician (b.
1933)
* 1997 -
Michael Kennedy, American politician (b.
1958)
*
1999 -
Elliot Richardson, American politician (b.
1920)
*
2000 -
Alan Cranston, American politician (b.
1914)
*
2003 -
Arthur R. von Hippel German-born physicist (b.
1898)
*
2004 -
Gerard Debreu, French-born economist,
Bank of Sweden Prize winner (b.
1921)
*
2005 -
Phillip Whitehead, British politician (b.
1937)
*
New Year's Eve on the
Gregorian Calendar.
*
BBC: On This Day*
Today in History: December 31December 30 -
January 1 -
November 30 -
January 31 â€"
listing of all days
