December 31

<<December 2008 >>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 3031 MMVIII

December 31 in recent years 2008 (Wednesday)2007 (Monday)2006 (Sunday)2005 (Saturday)2004 (Friday)2003 (Wednesday)2002 (Tuesday)2001 (Monday)2000 (Sunday)

December 31 is the 365th day of the year (366th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining until the end of the year.

It is the final day of the Gregorian year. The day following is January 1 of the next year.

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

Events

406 – Vandals, Alans and Suebians cross the Rhine, beginning an invasion of Gallia.
535 – Byzantine General Belisarius completes the conquest of Sicily, defeating the Ostrogothic garrison of Syracuse, and ending his consulship for the year.
1229 – James I of Aragon the Conqueror enters Medina Mayurqa (now known as Palma de Mallorca, Spain) thus consummating the Christian conquest of the island of Mallorca.
1599 – British East India Company is chartered.
1660 – James II of England is named Duke of Normandy by Louis XIV of France.
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: Battle of Quebec British forces repulse an attack by Continental Army generals Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold.
1831 – Gramercy Park is deeded to New York City.
1857 – Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom 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.
1862 – American Civil War: The Battle of Stones River is fought near Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
1879 – Thomas Edison demonstrates incandescent lighting to the public for the first time.
1891 – A new immigration depot was opened on Ellis Island, New York.
1904 – The first New Year's Eve celebration is held in Times Square, then known as Longacre Square, in New York, New York.
1909 – Manhattan Bridge opens.
1923 – The chimes of Big Ben are broadcast on radio for the first time by the BBC.
1944 – World War II: Hungary declares war on Germany.
1946 – President Harry Truman officially proclaims the end of hostilities in World War II.
1955 – The General Motors Corporation becomes the first U.S. corporation to make over $1 billion USD in a year.
1960 – The farthing coin ceases to be legal tender in the United Kingdom.
1961 – The Marshall Plan expires after distributing more than $12 billion USD in foreign aid to rebuild Europe.
1963 – The Central African Federation officially collapses and splits into Zambia, Malawi and Rhodesia.
1981 – Coup d'état in Ghana removes President Hilla Limann's PNP government and replaces it with the Provisional National Defence Council led by Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings.
1983 – The AT&T Bell System is broken up by the United States Government.
1987 – Robert Mugabe assumes office as President of Zimbabwe.
1986 – A fire at the Dupont Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, kills 97 and injures 140.
1991 – The Soviet Union is officially dissolved.
1994 – This date is skipped altogether in Kiribati as the Phoenix Islands and Line Islands change time zones from UTC-11 to UTC+13 and UTC-10 to UTC+14, respectively.
1998 – Exchange rates between the euro and legacy currencies in the Eurozone become fixed.
1999 – Boris Yeltsin resigns as President of Russia, leaving Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as the acting President.
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 United States Government hands Panama Canal control over to Panama as well all the adjacent land to the canal known as the Panama Canal Zone. This act complied with the signing of the 1977 Torrijos-Carter Treaties.
2004 – The official opening of Taipei 101, the current tallest skyscraper in the world, standing at a height of 509 metres (1,670 feet).
2007 – December 2007 Bocaue Fire. Seven people injured when a fire razed several fireworks stores in the Municipality of Bocaue, Bulacan, Philippines.
2007 – The Massive Big Dig construction project in Boston, Massachusetts ends.

Births

1378 – Pope Callixtus III (d. 1458)
1491 – Jacques Cartier, French explorer (d. 1557)
1514 – Andreas Vesalius, Flemish anatomist (d. 1564)
1572 – Emperor Go-Yozei of Japan, (d. 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)
1741 – Isabella Maria of Parma, empress of Germany (d. 1763)
1763 – Pierre-Charles Villeneuve, French admiral (d. 1806)
1815 – George G. Meade, American Civil War general (d. 1872)
1830 – Isma'il Pasha, Governor of Egypt (d. 1895)
1857 – King Kelly, American baseball player (d. 1894)
1860 – Joseph S. Cullinan, American oil industrialist (d. 1937)
1869 – Henri Matisse, French painter (d. 1954)
1877 – Lawrence Beesley, English journalist and author (d. 1967)
1878 – Elizabeth Arden, Canadian businesswoman (d. 1966)
1878 – Horacio Quiroga, Uruguayan-Argentinian writer (d. 1937)
1880 – George C. Marshall, United States Secretary of State, Nobel Laureate (d. 1959)
1880 – Fred Beebe, American baseball player (d. 1957)
1881 – Max Pechstein, German painter (d. 1955)
1882 – Martin O'Meara, Australian soldier (d. 1935)
1884 – Bobby Byrne, American baseball player (d. 1964)
1885 – Princess Victoria Adelaide of Schleswig-Holstein (d. 1970)
1894 – Pola Negri, Polish actress (d. 1987)
1899 – Silvestre Revueltas, Mexican composer (d. 1940)
1902 – Lionel Daunais, Quebec singer and composer (d. 1982)
1903 – Nathan Milstein, Ukrainian violinist (d. 1992)
1904 - Umm Kulthum, Egyptian singer and actress (d. 1975)
1905 – Jule Styne, English-born composer (d. 1994)
1908 – Simon Wiesenthal, Austrian Holocaust survivor (d. 2005)
1909 – Jonah Jones, American jazz trumpeter (d. 2000)
1910 – Carl Dudley, American film director (d. 1973)
1912 – Maj-Gen John Frost, British para commander (d. 1993)
1919 – Tommy Byrne, American baseball player
1920 – Rex Allen, American actor, singer, and songwriter (d. 1999)
1924 – Taylor Mead, American actor
1928 – Siné, French cartoonist
1930 – Odetta, American singer
1931 – Bob Shaw, Irish writer (d. 1996)
1933 – Edward Bunker, American author and actor (d. 2005)
1934 – Akram Awan, Islamic scholar
1937 – Avram Hershko, Israeli biologist, Nobel laureate
1937 – Sir Anthony Hopkins, Welsh actor
1938 – Rosalind Cash, American actress (d. 1995)
1940 – Mani Neumeier, German musician (Guru Guru)
1941 – Sir Alex Ferguson, Scottish football manager
1941 – Sarah Miles, English actress
1942 – Andy Summers, British guitarist (The Police)
1943 – John Denver, American singer and songwriter (d. 1997)
1943 – Sir Ben Kingsley, English actor
1943 – Pete Quaife, English bassist (The Kinks)
1944 – Taylor Hackford, American producer and director
1945 – Diane von Fürstenberg, Belgian-born fashion designer
1945 – Barbara Carrera, Nicaraguan actress and model
1945 – Connie Willis, American writer
1946 – Pius Ncube, Zimbabwean human rights advocate
1947 – Burton Cummings, Canadian keyboardist (The Guess Who)
1947 – Tim Matheson, American actor
1947 – Rita Lee, Brazilian Rock Star
1948 – Donna Summer, American singer
1948 – René Robert, National Hockey League player
1949 – Ellen Datlow, American editor
1949 – Susan Shwartz, American writer
1951 – George Thorogood, American musician
1951 – Tom Hamilton, American bassist (Aerosmith)
1953 – James Remar, American actor
1953 – Jane Badler, American actress
1954 – Alex Salmond, Scottish politician
1954 – Hermann Tilke, German racing circuit architect
1955 – Dawood Ibrahim, Indian crime boss
1956 – Steve Rude, American comics artist
1958 – Bebe Neuwirth, American actress
1959 – Phill Kline, American politician
1959 – Val Kilmer, American actor
1959 – Paul Westerberg, American musician (The Replacements)
1959 - Alfie Anido, Filipino actor (d. 1981)
1960 – John Allen Muhammad, American serial killer
1960 – Steve Bruce, English football player & manager
1961 – Rick Aguilera, American baseball player
1961 – Nina Li Chi, Chinese actress
1962 – Heather McCartney, British activist
1963 – Scott Ian, American guitarist (Anthrax)
1963 – Konishiki, American sumo wrestler
1964 – Michael McDonald, American actor-comedian
1964 – Allen D'Nulderf, American stuntman
1964 – Lowri Turner, British TV presenter
1965 – Gong Li, Chinese actress
1965 – Nicholas Sparks, American author
1966 – Lisa Joyner, American entertainment reporter
1968 – Gerry Dee, Canadian comedian and actor
1969 – Kate Beahan, Australian actress
1969 – Dominik Diamond, Scittish presenter and newspaper columnist
1970 – Carlos Morales Quintana, husband of Princess Alexia of Greece and Denmark
1970 – Bryon Russell, American basketball player
1971 – Brent Barry, American basketball player
1971 – Esteban Loaiza, Mexican Major League Baseball player
1971 – Ricardo López Felipe, Spanish footballer
1972 – Joe McIntyre, American singer (New Kids on the Block)
1973 – Shandon Anderson, American basketball player
1973 – Malcolm Middleton, Scottish musician (Arab Strap)
1974 – Ryan Sakoda, Japanese American professional wrestler
1974 – Tony Kanaan, Brazilian racing driver
1975 – Toni Kuivasto, Finnish footballer
1977 – Wardy Alfaro, Costa Rican footballer
1977 – Donald Trump Jr., son of Donald Trump and Ivana Trump
1978 – Papoose, American rapper
1979 – Bob Bryar, American drummer (My Chemical Romance, Gerardolopoly)
1979 – Elaine Cassidy, Irish actress
1980 – Richie McCaw, New Zealand rugby player
1980 – Matt Cross, American professional wrestler
1981 – Jason Campbell, American football player
1981 – Matthew Pavlich, Australian football player
1982 – Julio DePaula, Dominican baseball player
1982 – Craig Gordon, Scottish footballer
1982 – Luke Schenscher, Australian basketball player
1987 – Javaris Crittenton, American basketball player
1987 – Émilie Le Pennec, French gymnast