December 31 is the 365th day of the year (366th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 0 days remaining.
- 406 - Vandals, Alans and Suebians crossed 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 bricked 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 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).
- 1879 - Thomas Edison demonstrates incandescent lighting to the public for the first time (Menlo Park, New Jersey[?].
- 1916 - The Hampton Terrace Hotel[?] in North Augusta, South Carolina, one of the largest and most luxurious hotels in the nation 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 one billion dollars in a year.
- 1960 - The farthing coin[?], used in Great Britain since the 13th century, ceases to be legal tender[?].
- 1961 - The Marshall Plan expires after distributing greater than $12 billion in foreign aid[?] to rebuild Europe.
- 1986 - A fire at the Dupont Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, kills 97 and injures 140.
- 1990 - Russian Gary Kasparov holds his title by winning the World Chess Championship match against his countryman Anatoly Karpov.
- 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.
- 1514 - Andreas Vesal[?], physician (+ 1564)
- 1790 - Antoine Adamberger[?], actress (+ 1867)
- 1869 - Henri Matisse, painter and graphic artist (+ 1954)
- 1880 - George Marshall, recipient of Nobel Prize in Peace 1953 for the Marshall Plan (+ 1959)
- 1881 - Max Pechstein[?], painter and graphic artist (+ 1955)
- 1894 - Pola Negri[?], actress (+ 1987)
- 1905 - Jule Styne, composer (+ 1994)
- 1908 - Simon Wiesenthal, concentration camp survivor, activist
- 1920 - Rex Allen[?], actor, singer (+ 1999)
- 1930 - Odetta[?], singer
- 1932 - Mildred Scheel[?], physician, founder of Deutsche Krebsliga[?] (+ 1985)
- 1932 - George Schlatter[?], television producer
- 1937 - Anthony Hopkins, actor
- 1941 - Alex Ferguson, football player and manager
- 1943 - John Denver, country/pop musician (+ 1997)
- 1943 - Ben Kingsley, actor
- 1945 - Taylor Hackford[?], producer, director
- 1945 - Diane von Fürstenberg[?], fashion designer
- 1947 - Burton Cummings[?], musician ("The Guess Who[?]")
- 1948 - Donna Summer, singer
- 1951 - George Thorogood, musician
- 1959 - Val Kilmer, actor
- 192 - Commodus, Roman Emperor
- 1384 - John Wyclif, theologian
- 1972 - Roberto Clemente, Baseball Hall of Famer
- 1980 - Marshall McLuhan, one of the founders of media studies
- 1980 - Raoul Walsh[?], film director
- 1985 - Rick Nelson, singer
- 1993 - Brandon Teena, murder victim
- 1997 - Floyd Cramer[?], musician
- 1997 - Michael Kennedy[?], son of Robert F. Kennedy, is killed in a skiing accident on Aspen Mountain[?] in Colorado.
- 1999 - Sarah Knauss, dies at the age of 119 years. She had been the world's oldest person alive. (born September 24, 1880).
- 1999 - Elliot Richardson[?], United States politician
- 2000 - José Greco[?], dancer
- 2000 - Alan Cranston[?], United States politician
Holidays and observances:
The evening is called New Year's Eve. In the Netherlands the traditional food is oil-dumbling[?]. At 24:00 the beginning of the new year is celebrated, see January 1.
December 30 - January 1 - November 30 - January 31 -- listing of all days
January, February, March, April, May, June, July,
August, September, October, November, December
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