Today's 31 December Major Events in History

Photo for the article Today's 31 December Major Events

Commodus Poisoned Then Strangled

192 Roman Emperor Commodus survives poisoning attempt by his mistress only to be strangled in the bath in assassination plot

406 "The Great Invasion" sees a vast horde of Vandals, Alans, and Suebi cross the Rhine at Mainz, beginning the invasion of Gaul
535 Byzantine General Belisarius completes the conquest of Sicily, defeating Ostrogothic garrison of Syracuse, and ending his consulship for the year
765 Coffin of Ho-tse Shen-hui interred in a stupa built in China
870 Skirmish at Englefield: Ethelred of Wessex beats a section of the Viking Great Heathen Army, camped at Reading
1229 James I of Aragon the Conqueror enters Medina Mayurqa (Palma) consummating Christian conquest of the island of Majorca
1492 100,000 Jews expelled from Sicily
1502 Cesare Borgia (son of pope Alexander VI) occupies Urbino

Freedom of Religious Conscience

1564 William I of Orange demands freedom of religious conscience for his subjects in dramatic speech to the Council of State

East India Company

1600 British East India Company receives its royal charter from Elizabeth I to explore trade routes in the East Indies

1604 Dutch East India Company Admiral Steven van der Haghen's fleet reaches Bantam, Indonesia

Treaty of Mikulov

1621 Hungarian King Bethlen Gabor and Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II sign the Treaty of Mikulov, ending war between them

Duke of Normandy

1660 James II of England is named Duke of Normandy by Louis XIV of France.

1669 France and Brandenburg sign a secret treaty
1670 France and England conclude the formal Treaty of Dover, omitting any mention of religion
1680 De Italiaanse Opera (The Italian Opera) theater opens on the Leidsegracht in Amsterdam with "La Fatiche d'Ercole per Deianira" by PA Ziani
1687 First Huguenots depart France for the Cape of Good Hope
1695 A window tax is imposed in England, prompting many homeowners and shopkeepers to brick up their windows to avoid paying it

1700 Frisia and Groningen adopt Gregorian calendar, tomorrow is 1/12/1701

1703 Genroku earthquake off the coast of Japan near Edo (modern-day Tokyo) kills thousands and triggers a large tsunami that kills thousands more

English Army Commander Fired

1711 John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, fired as English army commander

Earth's Wobble Discovery

1744 English astronomer James Bradley announces the discovery of Earth's nutation, or wobble

1756 Russia joins the Alliance of Versailles
1758 British expeditionary army occupies Goree (Dakar) Senegal

1775 Battle of Quebec: American Continental Army led by Richard Montgomery is defeated trying to take the British stronghold of Quebec City in the American Revolutionary War, General Montgomery is killed and Benedict Arnold is wounded

1776 Rhode Island establishes wage & price controls to curb inflation: Limit is 70 cents a day for carpenters, 42 cents for tailors
1779 British fleet beat Dutch Merchant vessels
1781 Bank of North America, 1st US bank opens
1795 The Dutch East Indies Company is formally dissolved, taken over by the Batavian Republic [1]
1805 End of French Republican calendar; France returns to Gregorianism
1841 Alabama becomes 1st state to license dental surgeons

1859 Dutch colony in Dutch Indies counts 4,800 slaves
1861 A world record 22,990 mm of rain falls in a single year in Cherrapunji, Assam, India
1862 -Jan 20th) Battle of Stone's River (Battle of Murfreesboro), Tennessee in US Civil War

West Virginia Admitted to Union

1862 President Abraham Lincoln signs act admitting West Virginia to the Union

1862 Skirmish at Parker Cross Roads, Tennessee
1862 Union ironclad ship "Monitor" sank off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina
1870 J D Schneiter patents rocket mail in France, (not done)
1879 Cornerstone laid for Honolulu's Iolani Palace (only royal palace in US)
1879 Edison gives 1st public demonstration of his incandescent lamp
1897 Brooklyn's last day as a city, it incorporates into NYC (1/1/1898)
1901 In the first election under their new constitution, Cuba elects a Congress and their first president, Tomas Estrada Palma
1904 First New Year's Eve celebration is held in Times Square, New York City
1906 French, British and Italian treaty concerning rights on Abyssinia
1907 For 1st time, a ball drops at Times Square to signal the New Year

Mahler Conducts Met Opera

1907 Gustav Mahler conducts the Metropolitan Opera, in New York City

1910 US tobacco industry produced 9 billion cigarettes in 1910

Nobel Prize in Chemistry

1911 Marie Curie receives her second Nobel Prize, this time in Chemistry, for her work with radioactivity

1917 Dutch Social-democratic trade union NVV counts 159,450 members
1920 Victorian all-rounder Roy Park makes Test cricket debut for Australia v England in 2nd Test in Melbourne; bowled by Harry Howell for a first ball 'golden duck' in his first and only Test innings
1921 Last San Francisco firehorses retired
1923 1st transatlantic radio broadcast of a voice, Pittsburgh-Manchester
1923 BBC begins using Big Ben's chimes as an interval signal
1923 Harry Tierney and Joseph McCarthy's musical "Kid Boots," premieres in New York City

Mussolini Suppresses Newspapers

1924 Italian Fascist Mussolini orders the suppression of opposition newspapers

1925 14th congress of CPSU decides to accelerate industry
1927 Ponsford scores 336 against SA, giving him 1146 for month

The Divine Teacher

1929 Pope Pius XI publishes the encyclical Divini illius magistri (The Divine Teacher)

1930 Pontifical encyclical Casti connubii against mixed marriages
1930 US tobacco industry produced 123 billion cigarettes in 1930
1931 City of Paris accepts donation of the writings gathered by feminist publisher Marguerite Durand and establishes a library (Bibliothèque Marguerite Durand) for the collection
1932 John P O'Brien sworn-in as mayor of NYC
1934 Helen Richey becomes 1st woman to pilot an airmail transport
1935 Charles Darrow patents the board game Monopoly and becomes the first millionaire game designer
1935 CPH becomes Dutch Communist Party
1938 Daniel Sternefeld conducts premiere of his ballet "Pierlala" at the Royal Flemish Opera of Antwerp; choreographer Wladimir Karnetzky also danced the title role
1938 Dr R N Harger's "drunkometer", 1st breath test, introduced in Indiana
1938 Dutch national debt hits ƒ3,986,629,805.70
1939 Dutch national debt hits ƒ4,218,553,180.99
1941 Young Park (2) in the Bronx named in honor of Samuel Young
1942 Battle of the Barents Sea between British Navy and German Kriegsmarine off North Cape, Norway
1944 48 people die in a train accident in Ogden, Utah
1944 Japanese army evacuates harbor city Akyab
1944 World War II: Hungary declares war on Germany.

1945 Ratification of United Nations Charter completed

1946 French troops leave Lebanon

Proclamation 2714

1946 US President Harry Truman officially proclaims the end of World War II in Proclamation 2714

1948 Dutch police actions up Java gone on strike
1949 18 countries recognize Republic Indonesia
1950 American thoroughbred jockeys Bill Shoemaker and Joe Culmone end the year tied, leading the nation with record 388 wins
1951 1st battery to convert radioactive energy to electricity announced
1952 Danny Nardico stops former world middleweight champion Jake LaMotta in 7 rounds in a light heavyweight non-title bout in Coral Gables, Florida; LaMotta is knocked down for the only time in his career, his corner stopping fight after the round

Shoemaker Shatters Record

1953 American jockey Bill Shoemaker shatters record, riding 485 winners in a year

1953 Hulan Jack sworn in as Manhattan Borough president
1953 WFBC (now WYFF) TV channel 4 in G'ville-Spartanburg, SC (NBC) begins

1957 Amateur Athletic Union awards American sprinter Bobby Morrow the James E. Sullivan Award
1958 Bill Shoemaker 1st jockey to win national riding championship 4 times

Batista Flees Cuba

1958 Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista informs his cabinet that he is fleeing the country

1958 International Geophysical Year scientific project ends after 18 months
1961 Failed coup by Syrian group in Lebanon
1961 Marshall Plan expires after distributing more than $12 billion
1961 The Beach Boys play their debut gig under that name
1962 "Match Game" debuts on NBC with host Gene Rayburn
1962 American Basketball League announces suspension of operation
1962 Dutch leave New Guinea
1962 Katanga becomes part of Democratic Republic of Congo
1962 Ohio ends suit against Reds when they agree to stay in Cin for 10 yrs
1963 Dear Abby show premieres on CBS radio (runs 11 years)

Garcia and Weir First Play Together

1963 Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir of The Grateful Dead play music together for the first time at Dana Morgan's Music Store in Palo Alto, California

1964 Donald Campbell (UK) sets world water speed record (276.33 mph)
1964 Indonesia proclaims expelled from the UN
1966 Pirate Radio 390 (Radio Invicata) off England, resumes transmitting
1966 Test Cricket debut of Bishen Singh Bedi, India v WI Calcutta, 2-92

I'm a Believer

1966 The Monkees single "I'm a Believer", written by Neil Diamond, hits #1 and stays there for 7 weeks

1966 Toboggan Chutes begin operation in Cleveland Metroparks
1967 1st NBA game at Great Western Forum, LA Lakers beat Houston 147-118

Raiders Beat Oilers

1967 AFL Championship, Alameda County Coliseum, Oakland: Oakland Raiders beat Houston Oilers 40-7; George Blanda 4 field goals for Raiders in club's 1st AFL Championship

Evel Knievel Fails Jump

1967 Evel Knievel fails in his attempt to jump the Caesar's Palace Fountain, Las Vegas, breaking his pelvis, femur, wrist, hip and both ankles

1968 New York Jets win AFL championship
1968 Record high barometric pressure (1083.8 mb, 32 inches) recorded at Agata in Siberia, Soviet Union; eclipsed in December 2001
1968 Soviet TU-144 makes its maiden flight, the first by a commercial supersonic airliner
1969 Congo-Brazzaville becomes People's republic, under major Ngouabi

McCartney Files Beatles Lawsuit

1970 Paul McCartney files a lawsuit to dissolve The Beatles in a dispute over Allen Klein's management of the group

1970 President Allende nationalizes Chilean coal mines

Eisenhower Dollar Coin

1970 US Congress authorizes the Eisenhower dollar coin

1970 Would have been start of Aust/Eng Test Cricket at MCG, washed out
1971 Edmund Compton, then Northern Ireland Ombudsman, is replaced by John Benn
1971 KAID TV channel 4 in Boise, ID (PBS) begins broadcasting
1971 Lt Gen Robert E Cushman, Jr, USMC, ends term as deputy director of CIA
1972 DDT, first of the modern insecticides used against malaria and typhus, is banned by the US Environmental Protection Agency after evidence of adverse environmental side effects [1]
1972 Leap second day; also in 1973-79, 1987

Martin McGuinness Arrested

1972 Martin McGuinness is arrested and held under the new Republic of Ireland legislation

1974 Ballon d'Or: Ajax forward Johan Cruyff wins back-to-back awards, and his 3rd overall, for best European football player ahead of Bayern Munich defender Franz Beckenbauer and Legia Warsaw midfielder Kazimierz Deyna

1974 Gold legal in US, Franklin Mint strikes Panama's Gold 100 balboa coin
1974 New York Yankees sign Cy Young Award winner Jim "Catfish" Hunter for 5 years for a record $3.75 million from the Oakland A's
1974 Popular Electronics displays Altair 8800 computer

1975 US 1st class postage stamp rate rises from 10 cents to 13 cents
1976 The Cars played their 1st gig
1976 TV soap "Somerset" ends 6 year run
1977 Amir Sheikh Jabir al-Ahmad al-Jabir Al Sabah becomes leader of Kuwait
1977 Cambodia drops diplomatic relations with Vietnam
1977 Donald Woods, a banned anti-Apartheid white editor flees South Africa
1977 Kenyan writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o is imprisoned for co-writing a play critical of the Kenyan government

1977 WFAT (Brooklyn New York pirate radio station) begins broadcasting on 1620 AM
1978 CIA director, Admiral Stansfield Turner retires from the Navy
1978 Iran shah names Shapour Bakhtiar as Prime Minister
1978 Taiwan's final day of diplomatic relations with US
1978 The Runaways' band's last ever concert at the Cow Palace in Daly City, California
1978 Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco, California closes after 556 concerts; Final show is the Grateful Dead, New Riders of the Purple Sage, and The Blues Brothers; program lasts for over 8 hours, with the Grateful Dead playing for nearly 6 hours; concert broadcast on local PBS TV station KQED, and simulcast by radio station KSAN-FM, after the show, the crowd was treated to a hot, buffet-style breakfast.
1980 A Jewish owned hotel in Nairobi Kenya is bombed killing 18
1980 After being struck by an orange thrown from the crowd West Indian fast bowler Sylvester Clarke knocks out a spectator with a brick during 4th Test against Pakistan in Multan

Springteen's River Tour

1980 Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band's "The River Tour" concert at Nassau Coliseum (Uniondale, New York) clocks in at almost 4 hours

1980 NY Islanders greatest shutout margin (9-0) vs Chicago Black Hawks
1980 Senegal president Leopold Senghor resigns
1981 CNN Headline News cable TV channel debuts in US
1981 Lt Jerry Rawlings becomes head of Ghana, suspends constitution
1981 Netherlands unemployment stands at record 475,000
1982 CBS Mystery Theater final episode on radio after 8 years
1982 NBC radio cancels almost all of its network daily features
1982 TV soap "Doctors" ends 19 year run

1st African American NY Police Commissioner

1983 Benjamin Ward is appointed the first African American New York City Police Commissioner by Mayor Ed Koch

1983 Brunei gains complete independence from Britain
1983 Jose Happart installed as mayor of Voeren, Belgium
1983 Nigeria's National Assembly dissolves after military coup

Nigeria's Shagari Overthrown

1983 President Shagari of Nigeria is overthrown in a military coup and Major General Muhammadu Buhari is installed as Head of State

1984 Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen loses his arm in a car crash
1984 NYC subway gunman Bernhard Goetz surrenders to police in NH
1984 The United States withdraws from UNESCO, citing perceived politicization, anti-Western bias, and management and budget issues
1986 Dupont Plaza Hotel fire in San Juan, Puerto Rico kills 97
1986 WIS-AM in Columbia, South Carolina changes call letters to WVOC (now WOMG)

1988 A heavy, dense fog rolls over Soldier Field in Chicago during the second quarter of the Bears vs. Eagles NFC Divisional Playoff game, cutting visibility to 15 to 20 yards in a game known as "The Fog Bowl" (Bears win 20-12)

Lemieux's Famous Five

1988 Pittsburgh NHL center Mario Lemieux accounts for all his team's goals in Penguins 8-6 win over the NJ Devils; famously scores five goals, each in a different way: even strength, power play, shorthanded, penalty shot and empty net; also three assists

Desormeaux's Sets Record

1989 Jockey Kent Desormeaux sets a record with 598 wins in a single year

1990 Iraq begins a military draft of 17-year-olds
1990 Sci-Fi Channel on cable TV begins transmitting
1990 United Somali Congress seizes Presidential Palace
1991 CPN, Communist Party of Netherland - last day of existence
1991 Daniel R. McCarthy elected NY Yankee managing general partner
1991 Dow Jones Industrial Average closes at record high 3168.83
1991 J. Donald Crump resigns as CFL Commissioner

Streisand's 1st Concert in 20 Years

1993 Barbra Streisand performs her 1st public concert in 20 years before a sell-out crows of over 25,000 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada

1994 Anti Apartheid Group of Netherlands (AABN) disbands
1994 Date is skipped in Kiribati as the Phoenix Islands and Line Islands change time zones from UTC-11 to UTC+13 and from UTC-10 to UTC+14, respectively
1994 First snowless December in Baltimore, Maryland

Largest Free Concert

1994 Largest free concert in the world occurs when Rod Stewart performs in front of an estimated 3.5 million people at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil [1]

1995 Cartoonist Bill Watterson ends his "Calvin & Hobbes" comic strip after 10 years, believing he had achieved all he could in the medium
1995 Matthew Elliott scores separate cricket century same day for Victoria
1997 72 year-old Marv Levy retires as coach of the NFL Buffalo Bills after 12 seasons, including 4 consecutive losing Super Bowl appearances
1997 Buffalo's Czech NHL goalie Dominik Hasek stops 36 shots for his 27th career shutout in Sabres' 3-0 win over Ottawa Senators; his 6th shutout in month of December; first since George Hainsworth in 1928-29 to achieve the feat

Intel Cuts Pentium Price

1997 Intel cuts price of Pentium II-233 MHz from $401 to $268

1997 Microsoft buys Hotmail email service for $400 million and re-launches it as MSN Hotmail
1997 More Swedes die than are born in 1997, for the first time since 1809
1997 Orlando Hernández, half-brother of pitcher Liván Hernández, defects from Cuba
1997 South African and US surgeons separate Zambian conjoined twins joined at the head
1998 Exchange rates between the euro and legacy currencies in the eurozone become fixed
1998 US movie box office hits record $6.24 billion for year

1999 Control of the Panama Canal reverts to Panama
2004 Official opening of Taipei 101, then the tallest skyscraper in the world, at a height of 509 metres (1,670 feet)

2006 The final contest at the old Lansdowne Road Stadium in Dublin is a rugby match with Leinster beating Ulster 20-12 in a Celtic League game
2007 Boston's Big Dig construction project ends
2007 Seven people are injured when a fire razes several fireworks stores in the municipality of Bocaue, Bulacan, Philippines
2014 36 die and 47 are wounded during a stampede of New Year revellers on Shanghai's Bund riverfront

Tunisia's 1st Elected President

2014 Beji Caid Essebsi is sworn in as Tunisia's 1st ever freely elected President

2015 82nd Orange Bowl: #1 Clemson beats #4 Oklahoma, 37-17
2015 US law enforcement kills 1,134 in 2015, young black men 9 times more likely to be victims
2016 Chris Ofili is appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to art
2017 Ban on ivory trade in China comes into effect
2017 Bus crash at Migaa near Molo, central Kenya, kills at least 30
2017 Cleveland Browns crash to a 28-24 loss to Pittsburgh Steelers at Heinz Field to become only the 2nd team in NFL history to finish season with 0-16 record

Rajinikanth Enters Politics

2017 Indian movie star Rajinikanth announces he is entering politics

2017 Singer Lorde called a bigot in ad in Washington Post after cancelling show in Israel
2018 Houston guard James Harden scores 43 points in Rockets' 113-101 win over Memphis Grizzlies; 4th straight NBA game with 40+ points and 8th straight with 35+; joins Oscar Robertson as only player with at least 35 points & 5 assists in 8 straight games

Sheikh Hasina Re-Elected

2018 Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina wins third term in Bangladesh elections with 17 people killed in violent clashes

2019 Iraqi militiamen and protesters breach the outer wall of the US embassy in Baghdad following US airstrikes against Kataib Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed Iraqi militia, on December 29
2020 WHO grants the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine emergency authorization, paving the way for worldwide distribution

Margrethe II Announces Abdication

2023 Queen Margrethe II of Denmark (83) announces her plan to abdicate the throne on her 52nd anniversary of ascension on January 14

2024 Trinidad and Tobago declare a state of emergency over gang violence, which has resulted in one of the highest homicide rates in Latin America [1]