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December 31 is the 365th day of the year (366th in leap years ) in the Gregorian Calendar , with 0 days remaining.
Events:
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.
Births:
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
Deaths:
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 .
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
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