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.

December
Su	Mo	Tu	We	Th	Fr	Sa
				1	2	3
4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17
18	19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30	31
2005 calendar

Contents

1 Events 2 Births 3 Deaths 4 Holidays and observances

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
• 1568 - Shimazu Tadayoshi, Japanese daimyo (b. 1493)
• 1384 - John Wyclif, theologian (b. 1328)
• 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

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

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