History Events on December 31

World War II: Hungary declares war on Nazi Germany.

#World_War_II

RTÉ, Ireland's state broadcaster, launches its first national television service.

#Raidió_Teilifís_Éireann

The First Chechen War: Russian army began a New Year's storming of Grozny.

#First_Chechen_War

Both a blue moon and a lunar eclipse occur.

#Blue_moon

Czechoslovakia is peacefully dissolved in what is dubbed by media as the Velvet Divorce, resulting in the creation of the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic.

#Czechoslovakia

World War II: Operation Nordwind, the last major German offensive on the Western Front begins.

#Operation_Nordwind

Cold War: The Marshall Plan expires after distributing more than US$13.3 billion in foreign aid to rebuild Western Europe.

#Cold_War

Vandals, Alans and Suebians cross the Rhine, beginning an invasion of Gaul.

#Vandals

This date is skipped altogether in Kiribati as the Phoenix Islands and Line Islands change time zones from UTC?11:00 to UTC+13:00 and UTC?10:00 to UTC+14:00, respectively.

#Kiribati

A dinner party is held inside a life-size model of an iguanodon created by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins and Sir Richard Owen in south London, England.

#Iguanodon

Arthur Guinness signs a 9,000 year lease at £45 per annum and starts brewing Guinness.

#Arthur_Guinness

The Romanian Television network begins its first broadcast in Bucharest.

#Romanian_Television

The Central African Federation officially collapses, subsequently becoming Zambia, Malawi and Rhodesia.

#Federation_of_Rhodesia_and_Nyasaland

Efimeris, the oldest Greek newspaper of which issues have survived till today, is published for the first time.

#Efimeris

American Civil War: Abraham Lincoln signs an act that admits West Virginia to the Union, thus dividing Virginia in two.

#American_Civil_War

The AT&T Bell System is broken up by the United States Government.

#AT&T_Corporation

The first New Year's Eve celebration is held in Times Square (then known as Longacre Square) in Manhattan.

#New_Year's_Eve

Byzantine general Belisarius completes the conquest of Sicily, defeating the Gothic garrison of Palermo (Panormos), and ending his consulship for the year.

#Byzantine_Empire

Gramercy Park is deeded to New York City.

#Gramercy_Park

The official opening of Taipei 101, the tallest skyscraper at that time in the world, standing at a height of 509 metres (1,670 ft).

#Taipei_101

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) to Panama. This act complied with the signing of the 1977 Torrijos-Carter Treaties.

#Panama_Canal

American Civil War: The Battle of Stones River begins near Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

#Battle_of_Stones_River

President Harry S. Truman officially proclaims the end of hostilities in World War II.

#Harry_S._Truman

All official Soviet Union institutions have ceased operations by this date five days after the Soviet Union is officially dissolved.

#Soviet_Union

Tornadoes touch down in midwestern and southern United States, including Washington County, Arkansas; Greater St. Louis, Sunset Hills, Missouri, Illinois, and Oklahoma, with a few tornadoes in the early hours. A total 36 tornadoes touched down, resulting in the deaths of nine people and $113 million in damages.

#2010_New_Year's_Eve_tornado_outbreak

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

#James_II_of_England

Battle of Englefield: The Vikings clash with ealdorman Æthelwulf of Berkshire. The invaders are driven back to Reading (East Anglia), many Danes are killed.

#Battle_of_Englefield

The British East India Company is chartered.

#East_India_Company

NASA succeeds in putting the first of two Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory satellites in orbit around the Moon.

#NASA

The Lý dynasty of Vietnam ends after 216 years by the enthronement of the boy emperor Tr?n Thái Tông, husband of the last Lý monarch, Lý Chiêu Hoàng, starting the Tr?n dynasty.

#Lý_dynasty

The first President of Russia, Boris Yeltsin, resigns from office, leaving Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as the acting President and successor.

#President_of_Russia

The European Exchange Rate Mechanism freezes the values of the legacy currencies in the Eurozone, and establishes the value of the euro currency.

#European_Exchange_Rate_Mechanism

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.

#Coup_d'état

39 people were killed after a 10-storey building in the Industrial Russian City of Magnitogorsk collapsed.

#Magnitogorsk

General Motors becomes the first U.S. corporation to make over US$1 billion in a year.

#General_Motors

Thomas Edison demonstrates incandescent lighting to the public for the first time, in Menlo Park, New Jersey.

#Thomas_Edison

The last day of the 20th Century and 2nd Millennium.

#20th_century

Arson at the Dupont Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico kills 97 people and injures 140.

#Dupont_Plaza_Hotel_arson

Queen Victoria chooses Ottawa, then a small logging town, as the capital of Canada.

#Queen_Victoria

Jean-Bédel Bokassa, leader of the Central African Republic army, and his military officers begins a coup d'état against the government of President David Dacko.

#Jean-Bédel_Bokassa

American Revolutionary War: Battle of Quebec: British forces repulse an attack by Continental Army General Richard Montgomery.

#American_Revolutionary_War

A fire broke out at the Downtown Address Hotel in Downtown Dubai, United Arab Emirates located near the Burj Khalifa two hours before the fireworks display was due to commence. Sixteen injuries were reported; one had a heart attack, another suffered a major injury, and fourteen others with minor injuries.

#Downtown_Dubai

In Nigeria a coup d'état led by Major General Muhammadu Buhari ends the Second Nigerian Republic.

#Nigeria

Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar signs the Persian Constitution of 1906.

#Mozaffar_ad-Din_Shah_Qajar

The first flight of the Tupolev Tu-144, the first civilian supersonic transport in the world.

#Tupolev_Tu-144

The incorporation of Baltimore as a city.

#Baltimore

A New Year's Eve celebration stampede in Shanghai kills at least 36 people and injures 49 others.

#2014_Shanghai_stampede

James I the Conqueror, King of Aragon enters Medina Mayurqa (now known as Palma, Spain) thus consummating the Christian reconquest of the island of Majorca.

#James_I_of_Aragon

Indian Airlines Flight 814 hijacking ended after seven days with the release of 190 survivors at Kandahar Airport, Afghanistan.

Benjamin Ward is appointed New York City Police Department's first ever African American police commissioner.

Karl Benz, working in Mannheim, Germany, filed for a patent on his first reliable two-stroke gas engine, and he was granted the patent in 1879.

Empress Elizabeth I of Russia issues her ukase incorporating Königsberg into Russia.

The first Huguenots set sail from France to the Cape of Good Hope.

The First Battle of Cannanore commences.