December 31
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

December 31 is the 365th day of the year (366th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, as 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).
• 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 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 Great 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.
• 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.
• 1991 - The Soviet Union officially dissolves.
• 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

• 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, actress (d. 1987)
• 1905 - Jule Styne, composer (d. 1994)
• 1908 - Simon Wiesenthal, concentration camp survivor, activist
• 1920 - Rex Allen, actor, singer (d. 1999)
• 1930 - Odetta, singer
• 1932 - Mildred Scheel, physician, founder of Deutsche Krebsliga (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")
• 1948 - Donna Summer, singer
• 1951 - George Thorogood, musician
• 1959 - Val Kilmer, actor
• 1960 - John Allen Muhammad, convicted Beltway sniper
• 1980 - Fernando Courmanian, football player, economist and sport businessman

Deaths

• 192 - Commodus, Roman Emperor (b. 161)
• 1384 - John Wyclif, theologian (b. 1328)
• 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 - José Greco, dancer
• 2000 - Alan Cranston, U.S politician

Holidays and observances

• The seventh day of Christmas in Western Christianity.
• The evening is called New Year's Eve. In the Netherlands the traditional food is oil-dumpling. 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

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See also

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

January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December

The original article can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_31.
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