December 31 - Definition and Overview

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.

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 - Thames Television ceases broadcasting. Carlton Television takes over its London weekday franchise.
• 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)
• 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 - Anthony Hopkins, actor
• 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
• 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 in Graz
• 1384 - John Wyclif, 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)
• 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, one of the founders of media studies (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 dance
• 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

December 30 - January 1 - November 30 - January 31 -- listing of all days