December 31


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 Fźrstenberg, fashion designer
   * 1947 - Burton Cummings, musician ("The Guess Who")
   * 1948 - Donna Summer, singer
   * 1951 - George Thorogood, musician
   * 1959 - Val Kilmer, actor
   * 1980 - Fernando Courmanian, football player

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 - JosŽ 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.

   * Bah‡'’ Faith - Feast of Sharaf (Honor) - First day of the 16th month of
     the Bah‡'’ Calendar