On this day in History - Dec. 31

• 0192 - Lucius Aurelius Commodus dies murdered (b. 0161). Roman Emperor.
• 0335 - Pope Silvester I, o 33rd pope.
• 0406 - Vandals, Alans and Suebians cross the Rhine, beginning an invasion of Gallia.
• 0535 - Byzantine General Belisarius completes the conquest of Sicily, defeating the Ostrogothic garrison of Syracuse, and ending his consulship for the year.
• 0695 - Muhammad bin Qasim was born (d. 0715). Syrian general.
• 1164 - Margrave Ottokar III of Styria dies (b. 1124).
• 1194 - Leopold V of Austria dies killed at a tournament in Graz.
• 1229 - James I of Aragon the Conqueror enters Medina Mayurqa (nowadays Palma de Mallorca, Spain) thus consuming the Christian conquest of the island of Mallorca.
• 1297 - Humphrey de Bohun, 3rd Earl of Hereford dies (b. 1249). English soldier.
• 1302 - Frederick III, Duke of Lorraine dies (b. 1238).
• 1378 - Pope Callixtus III was born (d. 1458).
• 1384 - John Wycliffe dies. English philosopher, theologian and religious reformator.
• 1424 - Thomas Beaufort, 1st Duke of Exeter dies. English military leader.
• 1460 - Edmund, Earl of Rutland dies executed (b. 1443). Brother of Kings Edward IV of England and Richard III of England.
• 1460 - Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury dies (b. 1400). English politician.
• 1491 - Jacques Cartier was born (d. 1557). French explorer.
• 1492 - Jews are expelled from Sicily.
• 1510 - Bianca Maria Sforza dies (b. 1472). Wife of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor.
• 1514 - Andreas Vesalius was born (d. 1564). Flemish anatomist who, as a university teacher insisted on conducting detailed dissections on human cadavers personally ( "De humani corporis fabrica") .
• 1535 - William Skeffington dies (b. 1465). Lord Deputy of Ireland.
• 1553 - Pedro de Valdivia funda en Chile los fuertes de Arauco, Puren, Tucapel y la ciudad de Los Confines o Angol.
• 1568 - Shimazu Tadayoshi dies (b. 1493). Japanese daimyo.
• 1572 - Emperor Go-Yozei of Japan was born (d. 1617).
• 1575 - Pierino Belli dies (b. 1502). Italian soldier and jurist.
• 1583 - Thomas Erastus dies (b. 1524). Swiss theologian.
• 1588 - Fray Luis de Granad dies in Lisbon. Spanish ascetic writer.
• 1599 - British East India Company is chartered.
• 1610 - Ludolph van Ceulen dies (b. 1540). German mathematician.
• 1650 - Dorgon dies (b. 1612). Chinese emperor.
• 1660 - James II of England became Duke of Normandy by King Louis XIV.
• 1668 - Herman Boerhaave was born (d. 1738). Dutch humanist and physician.
• 1673 - Oliver St John dies. English statesman and judge.
• 1679 - Giovanni Alfonso Borelli dies (b. 1608). Italian physiologist who was the first to explain muscular movement and other body functions according to the laws of statics and dynamics. ["De motu animalium (Rome, 1680)].
• 1687 - The first Huguenots set sail from France to the Cape of Good Hope.
• 1691 - Dudley North dies (b. 1641). English economist.
• 1695 - A window tax is imposed in England, causing many shopkeepers to brick up their windows to avoid the tax.
• 1719 - John Flamsteed dies (b. 1646). English astronomer who established the Greenwich Observatory, as one of a group of scientists who convinced King Charles II to build a national observatory.
• 1720 - Charles Edward Stuart was born (d. 1788). Pretender to the British throne.
• 1738 - Charles Cornwallis was born (d. 1805). 1st Marquess Cornwallis, British general.
• 1741 - Isabella Maria of Parma was born (d. 1763). Empress of Germany.
• 1742 - Karl III Philip, Elector Palatine dies (b. 1661)
• 1744 - James Bradley announced the discovery of Earth's motion of nutation, or wobbling.
• 1753 - Alexandre de Gusmão dies in Lisbon (b. in Santos, São Paulo, Brazil in 1695). Diplomat and politician.
• 1763 - Pierre-Charles Villeneuve was born (d. 1806). French admiral.
• 1769 - Silvestre Pinheiro Ferreira was born (d. 1846). Portuguese philosopher.
• 1775 - American Revolutionary War: British forces repulse an attack by Continental Army generals Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold at the Battle of Quebec.
• 1784 - Para reforzar la lucha contra los piratas, Carlos III establece la pena de galeras en España.
• 1799 - Jean-François Marmontel dies (b. 1723). French historian and writer.
• 1805 - Marie de Flavigny best known for Daniel Stern was born. French writer.
• 1815 - George G. Meade was born (d. 1872). American Civil War general.
• 1816 - Sir William Withey Gull was born (d. 1890); A leading English physician of his time, lecturer and physician at Guy's Hospital, London, and an outstanding clinical teacher.
• 1830 - Alexander Smith was born (d. 1867). Scottish poet.
• 1830 - José Elias Garcia was born (d. 1891). Portuguese politician. President of the Municipal Chamber of Lisbon.
• 1830 - Isma'il Pasha was born (d. 1895). Governor of Egypt.
• 1831 - Gramercy Park is deeded to New York City.
• 1832 - Junqueira Freire was born in Salvador, Bahia (d. 24 Jun 1855). Brazilian poet.
• 1838 - D. Luís I was born in Lisbon (d. 19 Oct 1889). King of Portugal.
• 1846 - Portugal: Os miguelistas são completamente derrotados em Braga, tendo o seu comandante, Macdonell sido preso e morto em 30 de Janeiro de 1847 (O liberalismo em Portugal).
• 1857 - Queen Victoria chooses Ottawa, Ontario, as the capital of Canada.
• 1857 - King Kelly was born (d. 1894). American baseball player.
• 1860 - Joseph S. Cullinan was born. American oil industrialist, founder of Texaco.
• 1860 - Manuel Lopes Rodrigues was born (d. 1917). Brazilian painter.
• 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.
• 1862 - American Civil War: The Battle of Stones River is fought near Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
• 1864 - Robert Grant Aitken was born (d.1951). American astronomer who specialized in the study of double stars, of which he discovered more than 3,000.
• 1868 - É ocupada Assunção, a capital do Paraguai, por uma coluna brasileira sob o comando do Coronel Hermes Ernesto da Fonseca.
• 1869 - Henri Matisse was born (d. 1954). French painter and graphic artist. Along with Picasso, Matisse is considered one of the two foremost artists of the modern period. His contribution to 20th-century art is inestimable.
• 1872 - Aleksis Kivi dies (b. 1834). Finnish author.
• 1877 - Lawrence Beesley was born (d. 1967). English journalist and author.
• 1877 - Gustave Courbet dies (b. 1819). French painter.
• 1878 - Elizabeth Arden was born in Woodbridge, Ontario, Canada (d. 1966). Beautician, business executive.
• 1878 - Horacio Silvestre Quiroga was born in Salto. Uruguayan writer
• 1879 - Thomas Edison gave the first public demonstration of an electric incandescent lamp.
• 1880 - George C. Marshall was born (d. 1959) General and cabinet member, recipient of Nobel Prize in Peace 1953 for the Marshall Plan.
• 1880 - Fred Beebe was born (d. 1957). American baseball player.
• 1881 - Max Pechstein was born (d. 1955). German painter and graphic artist.
• 1882 - Martin O'Meara was born (d. 1935). Australian soldier.
• 1884 - Bobby Byrne was born (d. 1964). American baseball player.
• 1885 - Princess Victoria Adelaide of Schleswig-Holstein was born (d. 1970).
• 1888 - Samson Raphael Hirsch dies (b. 1808). German rabbi.
• 1889 - Ion Creangă dies. Romanian writer.
• 1890 - Francisca Carrasco Jiménez (Pancha) dies (b. 1816). "Defensora de lasLibertades Patrias" de Costa Rica.
• 1891 - A new immigration depot is opened on Ellis Island, New York.
• 1891 - Samuel Ajayi Crowther, a famous Nigerian missionary dies on this day.
• 1894 - Pola Negri was born (d. 1987). Polish actress.
• 1894 - Thomas Joannes Stieltjes dies (b. 1856). Dutch mathematician.
• 1898 - Sir John Eric Sidney Thompson was born (d. 1975). He was a leading English ethnographer of the Mayan people.
• 1899 - Silvestre Revueltas was born (d. 1940). Mexican composer.
• 1902 - Lionel Daunais was born (d. 1982). Quebec singer and composer.
• 1902 - Candido López dies in Baradero, Buenos Aires. Argentine painter.
• 1903 - Nathan Milstein was born (d. 1992). Ukrainian violinist.
• 1904 - The first New Year's Eve celebration is held in Times Square, then known as Longacre Square, in New York, New York.
• 1904 - Umm Kulthum was born (d. 1975). Egyptian singer and actress.
• 1905 - Jule Styne was born (d. 1994). English-born composer.
• 1905 - Alexander Popov dies (b. 1859). Russian physicist and electrical engineer acclaimed in Russia as the inventor of radio.
• 1905 - Jule Styne was born (d. 1994). English-born composer.
• 1905 - Waldemar Seyssel was born in Jaguariaiva, Paraná (d. 23 May 2005). Brazilian comedian and actor.
• 1908 - Simon Wiesenthal was born. Concentration camp survivor, activist.
• 1909 - Manhattan Bridge Opens.
• 1909 - Jonah Jones was born (d. 2000). American jazz trumpeter.
• 1910 - Carl Dudley was born (d. 1973). American film director.
• 1910 - John Moisant dies (b. 1868). American aviator.
• 1910 - Arch Hoxsey dies (b. 1884). American aviator.
• 1911 - Marie Curie receives her 2nd Nobel Prize.
• 1911 - Dal Stivens was born (d. 1997). Australian novelist.
• 1912 - Maj-Gen John Frost was born (d. 1993). British para commander.
• 1913 - Seth Carlo Chandler dies (b. 1846). American astronomer best known for his discovery (1884-85) of the Chandler Wobble, a complex movement in the Earth's axis of rotation (now refered to as polar motion) that causes latitude to vary with a period of 14 months.
• 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.
• 1917 - António José Saraiva was born (d. 17 Mar 1993). Portuguese essayst and Professor.
• 1919 - Tommy Byrne was born. American baseball player.
• 1920 - Rex Allen was born (d. 1999). American actor and singer.
• 1921 - Boies Penrose dies (b. 1860). American Senator from Pennsylvania.
• 1923 - The Sahara is traversed by an automobile for the first time.
• 1923 - The chimes of Big Ben are broadcast on radio for the first time by the BBC.
• 1923 - Se inauguran los servicios aéreos entre Buenos Aires y Montevideo.
• 1924 - Inicio de la Corrida de San Silvestre, celebrada anualmente Sao Paulo, Brasil.
• 1924 - Taylor Mead was born. American actor.
• 1926 - Tom Marvolo Riddle was born. English wizard.
• 1928 - Siné was born. French cartoonist.
• 1929 - Jeremy Bernstein was born; American physicist, educator, and writer widely known for the clarity of his writing for the lay reader on the major issues of modern physics.
• 1929 - Guy Lombardo plays Auld Lang Syne for the first time.
• 1930 - Odetta was born. American singer.
• 1931 - Bob Shaw was born (d. 1996). Irish writer.
• 1933 - Edward Bunker was born (d. 2005). American author, screenwriter and actor.
• 1934 - Akram Awan was born. Islamic scholar.
• 1934 - Cornelia Maria Clapp dies [b. 1849]; American zoologist and educator whose influence as a teacher was great and enduring in a period when the world of science was just opening to women.
• 1935 - Monopoly was patented, game assigned to Parker Brothers, Inc., by Charles Darrow of Pennsylvania.
• 1935 - Manuel Portela Valladares preside un nuevo Gobierno en España.
• 1936 - Miguel de Unamuno dies (b. 1864). Spanish writer and philosopher.
• 1937 - Avram Hershko was born. Israeli biologist, Nobel laureate.
• 1937 - Anthony Hopkins was born. Welsh actor.
• 1938 - The first breath test for drivers, "drunkometer," was introduced in Indianapolis.
• 1938 - Rosalind Cash was born (d. 1995). American actress.
• 1940 - Mani Neumeier was born. German musician (Guru Guru).
• 1940 - Arsène d'Arsonval dies (b. 1851). French physician and physicist who was a pioneer in therapeutic use of electricity, heat, and light.
• 1941 - Alex Ferguson was born. Scottish football (soccer) player and well known manager (Manchester United).
• 1941 - Sarah Miles was born. English actress.
• 1942 - Andy Summers was born. British musician (The Police).
• 1943 - John Denver was born (d. 1997). Country/pop musician.
• 1943 - Ben Kingsley was born in Scarborough England; actor (Gandhi, Betrayal, Maurice...).
• 1943 - Pete Quaife was born. English bass guitarist (The Kinks).
• 1944 - World War II: Hungary declares war on Germany.
• 1944 - Taylor Hackford was born. American film producer and director.
• 1945 – Barbara Carrera was born. Nicaraguan actress and model.
• 1945 - Connie Willis was born. American writer.
• 1945 - Diane von Fürstenberg was born. Belgian-born fashion designer.
• 1946 - President Harry Truman officially proclaimed the end of hostilities in World War II.
• 1946 - Pius Ncube was born. Zimbabwean human rights advocate.
• 1947 - Rita Lee was born in São Paulo. Brazilian singer and composer.
• 1947 - Burton Cummings was born. Canadian musician (The Guess Who).
• 1947 - Tim Matheson was born. American actor.
• 1948 - Donna Summer was born in Boston. American singer.
• 1948 - René Robert was born. National Hockey League player.
• 1948 - Malcolm Campbell dies (b. 1885). English race car driver.
• 1949 - 18 countries recognize Republic Indonesia.
• 1949 - Ellen Datlow was born. American editor.
• 1949 - Susan Shwartz was born. American writer.
• 1951 – The Marshall Plan expires after distributing more than $13.3 billion USD in foreign aid to rebuild Europe.
• 1951 - George Thorogood was born. American musician.
• 1951 - Tom Hamilton was born. American musician (Aerosmith).
• 1952 - Vaughan Frederick Randal Jones was born; New Zealand mathematician who was awarded the Fields Medal in 1990 for his study of functional analysis and knot theory.
• 1953 - James Remar was born. American actor.
• 1953 - Jane Badler was born. American actress.
• 1953 - Albert Plesman dies (b. 1889). Dutch aviation pioneer.
• 1954 - Alex Salmond was born. Scottish politician.
• 1955 -The General Motors Corporation becomes the first American corporation to make over USD $1 billion in a year.
• 1955 - Dawood Ibrahim was born. Indian terrorist.
• 1956 - On December, 31st. in Romania was launched the first TV program.
• 1956 - Steve Rude was born. American comics artist.
• 1956 - Francisco José Tenreiro dies (b. 1921). Poet and government official, São Tomé & Príncipe.
• 1958 - Ernesto "Che" Guevara encabeza la ocupación de Santa Clara. Horas más tarde Fulgencio Batista huye de Cuba.
• 1958 - Bebe Neuwirth was born. American actress.
• 1959 - Phill Kline was born. American politician.
• 1959 - Paul Westerberg was born. American musician (The Replacements).
• 1959 - Val Kilmer was born. American actor (The Saint, Top Gun, The Doors).
• 1960 - The farthing coin, used in Britain since the 13th century, ceases to be legal tender.
• 1960 - John Allen Muhammad was born. American serial killer.
• 1960 - Steve Bruce was born. English football player & manager.
• 1961 - The Marshall Plan expired after distributing more than $12 billion in foreign aid to rebuild Europe.
• 1961 - Nina Li Chi was born. Chinese actress.
• 1961 - Rick Aguilera was born. Baseball player.
• 1962 - Heather McCartney was born. British activist.
• 1962 - Pedro Cardoso was born. Brazilian actor.
• 1963 - The Central African Federation officially collapses and splits into Zambia, Malawi and Rhodesia.
• 1963 - Scott Ian was born. American musician (Anthrax).
• 1963 - Konishiki was born. American sumo wrestler.
• 1964 - Michael McDonald was born. American actor, comedian.
• 1964 - Lowri Turner was born. British TV presenter.
• 1964 - Allen D'Nulderf was born. American stuntman.
• 1964 - Ólafur Thors dies (b. 1892). Prime Minister of Iceland.
• 1964 - Bobby Byrne dies (b. 1884). Baseball player.
• 1965 - Fernanda Porto was born. Brazilian singer.
• 1965 - Julie Doucet was born. Canadian underground cartoonist.
• 1965 - Nicholas Sparks was born. American writer.
• 1965 - Gong Li was born. Chinese actress.
• 1966 - Lisa Joyner was born. American entertainment reporter.
• 1968 - Marien Ngouabi assumed the presidency of the Republic of the Congo.
• 1968 - Gerry Dee was born. Canadian comedian and actor.
• 1969 - George Lewis dies (b. 1900). American jazz musician.
• 1970 - Carlos Morales Quintana was born. Husband of Princess Alexia of Greece and Denmark.
• 1970 - Bryon Russell was born. American basketball player.
• 1971 - US President Richard Nixon signs the National Air Quality Control Act, which calls for a 90% reduction in automobile emissions by 1975. The act also tightened air-pollution controls and fines in other industries.
• 1971 - Brent Barry was born. American basketball player.
• 1971 - Esteban Loaiza was born. Mexican Major League Baseball player.
• 1971 - Pete Duel dies (b. 1940). American actor.
• 1971 - Marin Sais dies (b. 1890). American actress.
• 1971 - Vikram Sarabhai dies (b. 1919). Indian physicist.
• 1972 - Joe McIntyre was born. American singer and songwriter (New Kids on the Block).
• 1972 - Roberto Clemente dies (b. 1934). Baseball player. From Puerto Rico Roberto Clement was elected to the Hall of Fame posthumously in 1973, being the first Hispanic American to be selected.
• 1973 - Shandon Anderson was born. American basketball player.
• 1973 - Malcolm Middleton was born. Scottish musician (Arab Strap).
• 1974 - Mario Aerts was born. Belgian cyclist.
• 1974 - Ryan Sakoda was born. Japanese American professional wrestler.
• 1974 - Tony Kanaan was born. Brazilian racing driver.
• 1975 - Pela primeira vez em 51 anos, a corrida de São Silvestre, maratona internacional realizada todos os anos em São Paulo, aceitou a participação de mulheres.
• 1975 - Toni Kuivasto was born. Finnish footballer.
• 1976 - Vanessa Kerry was born. Daughter of American Senator John Kerry.
• 1977 - Wardy Alfaro was born. Costa Rican football player.
• 1977 - Donald Trump Jr. was born. Son of entrepreneur Donald Trump.
• 1977 - Sabah III Al-Salim Al-Sabah dies (b. 1924). Ruler of Kuwait.
• 1978 - Papoose was born. African-American rapper.
• 1978 - United States ends official relations with Nationalist China.
• 1978 - En Colombia el Movimiento 19 de Abril sustrae más de cinco mil armas de una guarnición militar conocida como Cantón Norte.
• 1979 - La Reina Isabel II de Inglaterra nombra caballero de la Orden del Imperio Británico al director de cine Alfred Hitchcock.
• 1979 - Bob Bryar was born. American drummer (My Chemical Romance, Gerardolopoly).
• 1979 - Elaine Cassidy was born. Irish actress.
• 1980 - Léopold Sédar Senghor resigns after 20 years as Senegalese president .
• 1980 - Richie McCaw was born.New Zealand rugby player.
• 1980 - Bob Bryar was born. American drummer (My Chemical Romance).
• 1980 - Matt Cross was born. American professional wrestler.
• 1980 - Marshall McLuhan dies (b. 1911). Canadian writer.
• 1980 - Raoul Walsh dies (b. 1887). American film director.
• 1981 - A 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.
• 1981 - Jason Campbell was born. American football player.
• 1981 - Matthew Pavlich was born. Australian football player.
• 1982 - Craig Gordon was born. Scottish footballer.
• 1982 - Luke Schenscher was born. Australian basketball player.
• 1982 - Julio DePaula was born. Dominican baseball player in the United States.
• 1982 - Kurt Otto Friedrichs dies [ b. 1901] German mathematician.His main work was on partial differential equations in mathematical physics.
• 1983 - The last day that the AT&T Bell System exists before being broken up by the United States Government.
• 1983 - Nigeria's National Assembly dissolves after military coup.
• 1983 - Jaqueline Carvalho was born. Brazilian volleyball player.
• 1984 - Luciano Jaramillo Trujillo dies. Colombian painter.
• 1985 - Rick Nelson dies (b. 1940). American singer.
• 1985 - João de Araújo Correia dies (b. 1 Jan 1899). Portuguese writer [Contos Bárbaros (1939), Montes Pintados, Contos Durienses, Folhas de Xisto].
• 1986 - A fire at the Dupont Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, kills 97 and injures 140.
• 1986 - Lloyd Haynes dies (b. 1934). American actor.
• 1987 - Robert Mugabe assumes office as President of Zimbabwe.
• 1987 - Javaris Crittenton was born. American basketball player.
• 1987 - Émilie Le Pennec was born. French gymnast.
• 1988 - In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, a boat sinks killing 55 people. / No Rio de Janeiro o Bateau Mouche IV afunda na Baía de Guanabara matando 55 pessoas.
• 1988 - Mario Lemieux became the first player in National Hockey League history to score one each of the five types of goals in a single game: an even-strength goal, a power-play goal, a short-handed goal, a penalty shot and an empty-net goal.
• 1988 - Yara Amaral dies (b. 16 Sep 1939). Brazilian actress.
• 1990 - Russian Garry Kasparov holds his title by winning the World Chess Championship match against his countryman Anatoly Karpov.
• 1990 - Vasili Lazarev dies (b. 1928). Soviet cosmonaut.
• 1990 - George Allen dies. American football coach.
• 1991 - All official Soviet Union institutions have ceased operations by this date and the Soviet Union is officially dissolved.
• 1991 - The civil war in El Salvador ends.
• 1992 - Czechoslovakia is dissolved, resulting in the creation of the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
• 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.
• 1993 - Zviad Gamsakhurdia dies (b. 1939). Scientist and writer, first President of the Republic of Georgia.
• 1993 - the last research samples of the smallpox virus (variola) were scheduled to be destroyed. Smallpox was the world's most dreaded plagues until 1977, when it was declared eradicated. However, some scientists who wanted to continue research on the virus stopped the destruction plan. The remaining frozen samples are in Moscow.
• 1993 - Brandon Teena dies murdered (b. 1972). Transsexual.
• 1993 - Zviad Gamsakhurdia dies (b. 1929). First President of Georgia, scientist and writer.
• 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.
• 1994 - Woody Strode dies (b. 1914). American actor and decathlete.
• 1995 - The last strip of the popular comic Calvin and Hobbes is published.
• 1995 - Renuncia del primer ministro italiano Lamberto Dini.
• 1995 - O presidente da Argélia Liamine Zeroual indica Ahmed Ouyahia como seu novo primeiro-ministro.
• 1997 - Quaker Oats settles a lawsuit involving the immoral use of child subjects in radioactivity experiments circa 1945-56.
• 1997 - Michael Kennedy, son of Robert F. Kennedy, killed in a skiing accident on Aspen Mountain in Colorado.
• 1997 - Microsoft buys Hotmail E-mail service.
• 1997 - Floyd Cramer dies (b. 1933). American musician.
• 1997 - Billie Dove dies (b. 1903). American actress.
• 1997 - Michael Kennedy dies (b. 1958). American politician.
• 1998 – The European Exchange Rate Mechanism freezes the values of the legacy currencies in the Eurozone, and establishes the value of the euro currency.
• 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 control of the Panama Canal 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.
• 1999 - Sarah Knauss dies at the age of 119 years - at death, the world's oldest person alive.
• 1999 - Elliot Richardson dies (b. 1920). American politician.
• 2000 - Alan Cranston dies (b. 1914). American politician.
• 2000 - José Greco dies (b. 1918). Italian-born American flamenco dancer and choreographer.
• 2000 - Kenneth L. Pike dies (b. 1912). He was a U.S. linguist and anthropologist known for his studies of the aboriginal languages of Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, New Guinea, Java, Ghana, Nigeria, Australia, Nepal, and the Philippines.
• 2000 - Bill Clinton suscribe el tratado para crear el Tribunal Penal Internacional (TPI) con capacidad para investigar y juzgar a individuos acusados de haber cometido graves delitos contra el Derecho Internacional Comunitario. Su sucesor en la presidencia de los EE.UU., George W. Bush, retirará la participación de los EE.UU. en el tribunal.
• 2000 - Manuel de Rivacoba y Rivacoba dies in Santiago de Chile (b. 1925). Spanish penalist and politician.
• 2001 - Eileen Heckart dies (b. 1919). American actress.
• 2002 - Kevin MacMichael dies (b. 1951). American guitarist (Cutting Crew).
• 2003 - Arthur R. von Hippel dies (b. 1898). German-born American physicist and professor at MIT.
• 2004 - The official opening of Taipei 101, the current tallest skyscraper in the world, standing at a height of 509 metres (1,670 feet).
• 2004 - Gerard Debreu dies (b. 1921). French-born economist, Nobel Prize laureate.
• 2005 - AT&T and SBC Communications merge, SBC name is dropped. A new AT&T is formed.
• 2005 - The Greek BBC radio service ends.
• 2005 - Lisbon-Dakar all terrain veihucules rallye starts from Lisbon, Portugal.
• 2005 - Enrico di Giuseppe dies (b. 1932). American tenor.
• 2005 - Phillip Whitehead dies (b. 1937). British politician.
• 2006 - The United Kingdom pays final installment of Second World War debt to the United States.
• 2006 - First day of Eid-ul-Adha, the Islamic "Festival of Sacrifice".
• 2006 - George Sisler, Jr. dies (b. 1917). American baseball executive.
• 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.
• 2007 – Bill Idelson dies (b. 1919). American actor.
• 2007 – Ettore Sottsass dies (b. 1917). Italian architect and designer.
• 2007 – Kathryn Ish dies (b. 1936). American actress.
• 2007 – Markku Peltola dies (b. 1956). Finnish actor and musician.
• 2007 – Michael Goldberg dies (b. 1924). American painter.
• 2007 – Milton L. Klein dies (b. 1910). Canadian politician.
• 2007 – Tommy Dickson dies (b. 1929). British footballer.
• 2007 – Tony Elliott dies (b. 1959). American football player.
• 2007 - Vítor [Manuel Moreira] Francisco dies (b. 26 May 1951). Portuguese poet and fadist, Terreiro do Fado webmaster.
• 2008 – Donald E. Westlake dies (b. 1933). American author.
• New Year's Eve on the Gregorian Calendar.
• Last Day of the Year Celebration, special non-working holiday in the Philippines.
• Hogmanay in Scotland.
• Roman Catholic Church: St. Sylvester I.
• International Solidarity Day (Azerbaijan).