December 31

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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.

Template:DecemberCalendar2010

1 Events
2 Births
3 Deaths
4 Holidays and observances
5 External links

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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 the 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 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 delivering aid to earthquake victims in Nicaragua.
1983 - The AT&T Bell System is 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.
1988 - Mario Lemieux of the Pittsburgh Penguins becomes the first player in National Hockey League history to score one goal of each type in a single hockey game: a even-strength goal, a power-play goal, a short-handed goal, a penalty shot, and an empty-net goal.
1990 - Russian Garry Kasparov holds his title by winning the World Chess Championship match against his countryman Anatoly Karpov.
1991 - The Soviet Union is officially dissolved.
1992 - In the last of the great ITV franchise renewals, Thames Television, Television South West and Television South cease broadcasting, replaced by Carlton Television, Westcountry Television and Meridian Television respectively.
1995 - The publication of the last new Calvin and Hobbes cartoon strip.
1997 - After 26 years in operation, Opryland USA theme park in Nashville, Tennessee closes permanently.
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.
2005 (coming) - various sections of the USA PATRIOT Act are set to expire

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Births

1378 - Pope Callixtus III (d. 1458)
1491 - Jacques Cartier, French explorer (d. 1557)
1514 - Vesalius, Flemish anatomist (d. 1564)
1572 - Emperor Go-Yozei of Japan, (b. 1617)
1668 - Herman Boerhaave, Dutch humanist and physician (d. 1738)
1720 - Charles Edward Stuart, pretender to the British throne (d. 1788)
1738 - Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis, British general (d. 1805)
1763 - Pierre-Charles Villeneuve, French admiral (d. 1806)
1869 - Henri Matisse, French painter and graphic artist (d. 1954)
1880 - George Marshall, United States Secretary of State, recipient of Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1959)
1881 - Max Pechstein, German painter and graphic artist (d. 1955)
1894 - Pola Negri, Polish actress (d. 1987)
1903 - Nathan Milstein, Ukrainian violinist (d. 1992)
1905 - Jule Styne, English-born composer (d. 1994)
1908 - Simon Wiesenthal, Austrian Holocaust survivor and activist (d. 2005)
1910 - Carl Dudley, American film director (died 1973)
1919 - Tommy Byrne, baseball player
1920 - Rex Allen, American actor and singer (d. 1999)
1930 - Odetta, American singer
1936 - Aga Khan IV, Shia Imam
1937 - Avram Hershko, Israeli biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
1937 - Anthony Hopkins, Welsh actor
1938 - Rosalind Cash, American actress (d. 1995)
1941 - Alex Ferguson, Scottish football player and manager
1943 - John Denver, American musician (d. 1997)
1943 - Ben Kingsley, English actor
1945 - Taylor Hackford, American film producer and director
1945 - Diane von Fürstenberg, fashion designer
1947 - Burton Cummings, Canadian musician (The Guess Who)
1947 - Tim Matheson, American actor
1948 - Roy Partridge, American aviator, author, inventor, scholar, and military leader
1948 - Donna Summer, American singer
1951 - George Thorogood, American musician
1953 - James Remar, American actor
1953 - Jane Badler, American actress
1958 - Bebe Neuwirth, American actress
1959 - Val Kilmer, American actor
1959 - Phill Kline, American politician
1960 - John Allen Muhammad, American serial killer
1963 - Scott Ian, American singer (Anthrax)
1964 - Allen D'Nulderf, American stuntman
1971 - Brent Barry, American basketball player
1979 - Bob Bryar, American drummer (My Chemical Romance)
1980 - Richie McCaw, New Zealand rugby player

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Deaths

192 - Commodus, Roman Emperor (b. 161)
1164 - Margrave Ottokar III of Styria (b. 1124)
1194 - Duke Leopold V of Austria (killed at a tournament) (b. 1157)
1297 - Humphrey de Bohun, 3rd Earl of Hereford, English soldier (b. 1249)
1302 - Frederick III, Duke of Lorraine (b. 1238)
1384 - John Wycliffe, English theologian and Bible translator
1424 - Thomas Beaufort, 1st Duke of Exeter, English military leader
1460 - Edmund, Earl of Rutland, brother of Kings Edward IV of England and Richard III of England (executed) (b. 1443)
1460 - Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury, English politician (b. 1400)
1510 - Bianca Maria Sforza, wife of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1472)
1535 - William Skeffington, Lord Deputy of Ireland (b. 1465)
1568 - Shimazu Tadayoshi, Japanese warlord (b. 1493)
1575 - Pierino Belli, Italian soldier and jurist (b. 1502)
1583 - Thomas Erastus, Swiss theologian (b. 1524)
1610 - Ludolph van Ceulen, German mathematician (b. 1540)
1650 - Dorgon, Chinese emperor (b. 1612)
1673 - Oliver St John, English statesman and judge
1679 - Giovanni Alfonso Borelli, Italian physiologist and physicist (b. 1608)
1691 - Dudley North, English economist (b. 1641)
1719 - John Flamsteed, English astonomer (b. 1646)
1742 - Karl III Philip, Elector Palatine (b. 1661)
1799 - Jean-François Marmontel, French historian and writer (b. 1723)
1872 - Aleksis Kivi, Finnish author (b. 1834)
1877 - Gustave Courbet, French painter (b. 1819)
1888 - Samson Raphael Hirsch, German rabbi (b. 1808)
1889 - Ion Creangă, Romanian writer (b. 1837 or 1839)
1921 - Boies Penrose, United States Senator from Pennsylvania (b. 1860)
1936 - Miguel de Unamuno, Spanish writer and philosopher (b. 1864)
1948 - Malcolm Campbell, English race car driver (b. 1885)
1969 - George Lewis, American musician (b. 1900)
1972 - Roberto Clemente, baseball player (b. 1934)
1980 - Marshall McLuhan, Canadian writer (b. 1911)
1980 - Raoul Walsh, American film director (b. 1887)
1985 - Rick Nelson, American singer (b. 1940)
1990 - Vasili Lazarev, cosmonaut (b. 1928)
1993 - Zviad Gamsakhurdia, first President of Georgia (b. 1939)
1997 - Floyd Cramer, American musician (b. 1933)
1999 - Elliot Richardson, American politician (b. 1920)
2000 - Alan Cranston, American politician (b. 1914)
2003 - Arthur R. von Hippel German-born physicist (b. 1898)
2004 - Gerard Debreu, French-born economist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1921)

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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.
"Last Day of the Year", Special holiday in the Philippines
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