http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
Dec 31, 1999: Panama Canal turned over to Panama
On this day in 1999, the United States, in accordance with the Torrijos-Carter Treaties, officially hands over control of the Panama Canal, putting the strategic waterway into Panamanian hands for the first time. Crowds of Panamanians celebrated the transfer of the 50-mile canal, which links the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and officially opened when the SS Arcon sailed through on August 15, 1914. Since then, over 922,000 ships have used the canal.
Interest in finding a shortcut from the Atlantic to the Pacific originated with explorers in Central America in the early 1500s. In 1523, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V commissioned a survey of the Isthmus of Panama and several plans for a canal were produced, but none ever implemented. U.S. interest in building a canal was sparked with the expansion of the American West and the California gold rush in 1848. (Today, a ship heading from New York to San Francisco can save about 7,800 miles by taking the Panama Canal rather than sailing around South America.)
In 1880 a French company run by the builder of the Suez Canal started digging a canal across the Isthmus of Panama (then a part of Colombia). More than 22,000 workers died from tropical diseases such as yellow fever during this early phase of construction and the company eventually went bankrupt, selling its project rights to the United States in 1902 for $40 million. President Theodore Roosevelt championed the canal, viewing it as important to America's economic and military interests. In 1903, Panama declared its independence from Colombia in a U.S.-backed revolution and the U.S. and Panama signed the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty, in which the U.S. agreed to pay Panama $10 million for a perpetual lease on land for the canal, plus $250,000 annually in rent.
Over 56,000 people worked on the canal between 1904 and 1913 and over 5,600 lost their lives. When finished, the canal, which cost the U.S. $375 million to build, was considered a great engineering marvel and represented America's emergence as a world power.
In 1977, responding to nearly 20 years of Panamanian protest, U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Panama's General Omar Torrijos signed two new treaties that replaced the original 1903 agreement and called for a transfer of canal control in 1999. The treaty, narrowly ratified by the U.S. Senate, gave America the ongoing right to defend the canal against any threats to its neutrality. In October 2006, Panamanian voters approved a $5.25 billion plan to double the canal's size by 2015 to better accommodate modern ships.
Ships pay tolls to use the canal, based on each vessel's size and cargo volume. In May 2006, the Maersk Dellys paid a record toll of $249,165. The smallest-ever toll--36 cents--was paid by Richard Halliburton, who swam the canal in 1928.
Dec 31, 1775: Patriots defeated at Quebec
During the American Revolution, Patriot forces under generals Benedict Arnold and Richard Montgomery are defeated by the British defenders of the city of Quebec in Canada.
On December 2, Arnold and Montgomery met on the outskirts of Quebec and demanded the surrender of the city. Governor Sir Guy Carleton rejected their demand, and on December 9 the Patriots commenced a bombardment of Quebec, which was met by a counterbattery by the British defenders that disabled several of the Patriots' guns. At approximately 4 a.m. on December 31, the Patriot forces advanced on the city under the cover of a blizzard. The British defenders were ready, however, and when Montgomery's forces came within 50 yards of the fortified city they opened fire with a barrage of artillery and musket fire. Montgomery was killed in the first assault, and, after several more attempts at penetrating Quebec's defenses, his men were forced into retreat.
Meanwhile, Arnold's division suffered a similar fate during their attack of the northern wall of the city. A two-gun battery opened fire on the advancing Americans, killing a number of Americans and wounding Benedict Arnold in the leg. Patriot Daniel Morgan assumed command, made progress against the defenders, but halted at the second wall of fortifications to wait for reinforcements. By the time the rest of Arnold's army finally arrived, the British had reorganized and the attack was called off. Of the 900 Americans who participated in the siege, 60 were killed and wounded and more than 400 were captured.
The remaining Patriot forces then retreated from the invasion of Canada. As the Americans crossed the St. Lawrence River to safety, Benedict Arnold remained in Canadian territory until the last of his soldiers had escaped. With the pursuing British forces almost in firing range, Arnold checked one last time to make sure all his men had escaped. He then shot his horse and fled down the St. Lawrence in a canoe.
Less than five years later, Benedict Arnold, as commander of West Point, famously became a traitor when he agreed to surrender the important Hudson River fort to the British for a bribe of $20,000. The plot was uncovered after British spy John André was captured with incriminating papers, forcing Arnold to flee to British protection and join in their fight against the country that he once so valiantly served.
Dec 31, 1944: Hungary declares war on Germany
On this day, the provisional government of Hungary officially declares war on Germany, bringing an end to Hungary's cooperation—sometimes free, sometimes coerced—with the Axis power.
Miklas Horthy, the anticommunist regent and virtual dictator of Hungary, who had once hoped to keep his country a nonbelligerent in the war, had reluctantly aligned Hungary with Hitler in November 1940. While ideologically not fascist, Hungary had many radical right-wing elements at play in its politics, as well as a history of anti-Semitism. Those radical forces saw many common "ideals" with Nazism and believed the future lay with Germany. So though Horthy little admired Hitler personally, he felt the need to placate influential parties within his own country and protect his nation from Soviet domination.
When the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, Hitler demanded that Hungary mobilize its military against the Soviets as well. So on June 29, 1941, Hungary declared war on the USSR. In March 1942, Horthy replaced Prime Minister Lazlo Bardossy, (a political manipulator too eager to piggyback on German territorial expansion and turn on former allies for the sake of personal gains), with Miklos Kallay, who shared the regent's goal of regaining the favor of the Western—non-Soviet—Allies. Kallay was able to communicate to the Allies that Hungary was open to switching sides again should they make it to Hungary's border and offer Hungary protection from German and/or Soviet occupation.
In January 1943, the Battle of Voronezh against the USSR saw Hungary's entire 2nd Army decimated by the Soviets, rendering Hungary militarily impotent. Hitler, who learned of Kallay's sly communiques with the West, gave Horthy an ultimatum: Either cooperate fully with the German regime or suffer German occupation. Horthy chose to collaborate, which meant the suppression of left-leaning political parties and an intense persecution of Hungary's Jews, including massive deportations to Auschwitz, something Kallay, to his credit, had fought to prevent. (More than 550,000 Hungarian Jews—out of 750,000—would die during the war.)
As Soviet troops began to occupy more Hungarian territory, a desperate Horthy signed an armistice with Moscow. When the regent announced this on radio, he was kidnapped by the Germans and forced to abdicate. Ferenc Szalasi, leader of the fascist Arrow Cross Party, was made head of the country on October 15, 1944, though he was little more than a puppet of the Germans. His rule of terror, especially against Hungary's Jews, would become infamous.
Soviet troops finally liberated the bulk of Hungary from German rule in December 1944. On December 31, a Provisional National Assembly, composed of Communists loyal to the USSR, officially declared war on Germany. The Assembly would go on to sign an armistice with all the Allies in January of 1945.
Dec 31, 1978: United States ends official relations with Nationalist China
Flags at both the American embassy in Taipei and the Taiwanese embassy in the United States are lowered for the last time as U.S. relations with Taiwan officially come to an end. On January 1, 1979 the United States officially recognized the government of the People's Republic of China in Beijing.
The American decision to sever relations with Taiwan and grant recognition to the People's Republic of China was hotly resented by representatives of the Chinese Nationalist government. In a brief ceremony accompanying the lowering of the Taiwanese flag, a Chinese Nationalist official declared that the action "did not mean that we are giving up our fight against communism." He strongly criticized American President Jimmy Carter for cutting off ties with "a loyal friend and ally of the United States" in exchange for normalizing relations with "our enemy, the Chinese Communist regime." American officials had little comment, except to assure those seeking visas and other services in Taiwan that the U.S. embassy would continue to help them until March 1, 1979. At that time, a "nongovernmental" office would take over those duties.
It was a rather quiet end to nearly 30 years of American refusal to grant official recognition to the communist government of mainland China. The U.S. decision to maintain strong relations with the Nationalist government on Taiwan had been the main roadblock to diplomatic relations between America and the People's Republic of China. By the late 1970s, the desire for closer economic relations with communist China and the belief that diplomatic relations with the PRC might act as a buffer against Soviet aggression led U.S. officials to view continued relations with Taiwan as counterproductive. President Carter's decision to sever relations with Taiwan removed that obstacle. One of the oldest and most antagonistic relationships of the Cold War seemed to be thawing.
Dec 31, 1600: Charter granted to the East India Company
Queen Elizabeth I of England grants a formal charter to the London merchants trading to the East Indies, hoping to break the Dutch monopoly of the spice trade in what is now Indonesia.
In the first few decades of its existence, the East India Company made far less progress in the East Indies than it did in India itself, where it acquired unequaled trade privileges from India's Mogul emperors. By the 1630s, the company abandoned its East Indies operations almost entirely to concentrate on its lucrative trade of Indian textiles and Chinese tea. In the early 18th century, the company increasingly became an agent of British imperialism as it intervened more and more in Indian and Chinese political affairs. The company had its own military, which defeated the rival French East India Company in 1752 and the Dutch in 1759.
In 1773, the British government passed the Regulating Act to reign in the company. The company's possessions in India were subsequently managed by a British governor general, and it gradually lost political and economic autonomy. The parliamentary acts of 1813 ended the East India Company's trade monopoly, and in 1834 it was transformed into a managing agency for the British government of India.
In 1857, a revolt by Indian soldiers in the Bengal army of the company developed into a widespread uprising against British rule in India. After the so-called Indian Mutiny was crushed in 1858, the British government assumed direct control over India, and in 1873 the East India Company was dissolved.
Dec 31, 1927: Henry Ford publishes the last issue of the Dearborn Independent
On December 31, 1927, the Dearborn Independent--a newspaper published by Henry Ford that, at the peak of its popularity in the mid-1920s, had about 700,000 readers--rolls off the printing press for the last time. Since 1920, Ford had used the paper as a platform for his anti-Semitic ideas, and many of its articles and essays were collected and published in a book called "The International Jew: The World's Foremost Problem." It was a bestseller in Nazi Germany and remains in print today.
Henry Ford was an innovative entrepreneur, but he was also a flagrant and unapologetic bigot: He hated immigrants, thought labor unionists were "the worst thing that ever struck the earth" and made no secret of his belief in "the Jewish plan to control the world, not by territorial acquisition, not by military aggression, not by governmental subjugation, but by control of the machinery of commerce and exchange." (He blamed Jewish bankers for everything that was wrong with the world, from the Great War to his own inability to buy out his company's shareholders during the recession of 1919.) Early in 1920, he put a new editor in charge of the Independent after the old one refused to print Ford's vitriolic essays and resigned, and the first of the paper's anti-Semitic tirades appeared in May 1920. They circulated widely, since the paper was sold by subscription as well as through Ford's nationwide network of dealerships.
In 1927, a Jewish lawyer and farm cooperative organizer named Aaron Sapiro sued Ford for defamation. (His was the third anti-Independent lawsuit, but the first to go to trial.) In court, Ford refused to take responsibility for the articles that appeared in his newspaper: in fact, he faked a car accident and hid in the hospital so he wouldn't have to testify. The suit ended in a mistrial, and--likely because of all the bad publicity the trial and the newspaper had brought him--Ford agreed to a private settlement with Sapiro. He issued a somewhat insincere public apology for his newspaper's years of defamatory content--"to my great regret," he wrote, "I have learned that Jews...resent this publication as promoting anti-Semitism"--and at the end of the year he closed down the Independent for good.
Today
Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:
406 - 80,000 Vandels attack the Rhine at Mainz
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.
765 - Coffin of Ho-tse Shen-hui interred in a stupa built in
China
870 - Skirmish at Englefield: Ethelred of Wessex beats
Danish invasion army
1229 - James I of Aragon the Conqueror enters Medina Mayurqa
(now known as Palma, Spain) thus consummating the Christian conquest of the
island of Majorca.
1492 - 100,000 Jews expelled from Sicily
1502 - Cesare Borgia (son of pope Alexander VI) occupies
Urbino
1564 - Willem van Orange demands freedom of
conscience/religion
1600 - British East India Company chartered
1604 - Admiral Steven van der Haghen's fleet reaches Bantam
1621 - Hungarian King Bethlen Gabor/Ferdinand II sign Treaty
of Mikulov
1660 - James II of England is named Duke of Normandy by
Louis XIV of France.
1669 - France & Brandenburg sign secret treaty
1670 - France & England sign Boyne-treaty
1680 - Amsterdam opera at Leidsegracht opens
1687 - 1st Huguenots depart France to Cape of Good Hope
1688 - Pro-James II-earl of Devonshire occupies Nottingham
[OS=Dec 21]
1695 - A window tax is imposed in England, causing many
shopkeepers to brick up their windows to avoid the tax.
1700 - Frisia/Groningen adopt Gregorian calendar, tomorrow
is 1/12/1701
1708 - Great Alliance captures Bridge
1711 - Duke of Marlborough fired as English army commander
1744 - James Bradley announces discovery of Earth's nutation
motion (wobble)
1745 - Bonnie Prince Charlies army meets with de Esk
1756 - Russia joins the Alliance of Versailles
1758 - British expeditionary army occupies Goree (Dakar)
Senegal
1775 - Battle of Quebec; Americans unable to take British
stronghold
1776 - Rhode Island establishes wage & price controls to
curb inflation: Limit is 70 cents a day for carpenters, 42 cents for tailors
1779 - English fleet beat Dutch Merchant vessels
1781 - Bank of North America, 1st US bank opens
1783 - Import of African slaves banned by all of the
Northern states
1805 - End of French Republican calendar; France returns to
Gregorianism
1831 - Gramercy Park is deeded to New York City.
1841 - Alabama becomes 1st state to license dental surgeons
1857 - Queen Victoria chooses Ottawa as new capital of
Canada
1859 - Dutch colony in Dutch Indies counts 4,800 slaves
1861 - 22,990 mm of rain falls in Cherrapunji Assam in 1861,
world record
1862 - -Jan 20th) Battle of Stone's River/Battle of
Murfreesboro, Tennesse in American Civil War
1862 - President 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, NC
1870 - J D Schneiter patents rocket mail in France, (not
done)
1879 - Cornerstone laid for Iolani Palace (only royal palace
in US)
1879 - Cornerstone laid for Honolulu's Iolani Palace
1879 - Edison gives 1st public demonstration of his
incandescent lamp
1879 - Gilbert and Sullivan's Opera "Pirates of
Penzance," premieres in NYC
1890 - Ellis Island (NYC) opens as a US immigration depot
1896 - 25th auto built in US
1897 - Brooklyn's last day as a city, it incorporates into
NYC (1/1/1898)
1902 - Boers & British army sign peace treaty
1904 - The first New Year's Eve celebration is held in Times
Square, then known as Longacre Square, in New York, New York.
1906 - French/British/Italian treaty concerning rights on
Abyssinia
1907 - For 1st time a ball drops at Times Square to signal
new year
1907 - G Mahler conducts the Metropolitan Opera
1910 - US tobacco industry produced 9 billion cigarettes in
1910
Discoverer of Radium Marie CurieDiscoverer of Radium Marie
Curie 1911 - Marie Curie receives her 2nd Nobel Prize
1914 - Colonel Jacob Ruppert & Cap Huston purchase NY
Yankees for $460,000
1917 - Dutch Social-democratic trade union NVV counts
159,450 members
1918 - Kid Gleason replaces Pants Rowland as White Sox
manager
1920 - Roy Park makes 1st-ball duck in only Test Cricket
inn, v Eng at MCG
1921 - Last San Francisco firehorses retired
1923 - 1st transatlantic radio broadcast of a voice,
Pittsburgh-Manchester
1923 - BBC begins using Big Ben chime ID
1923 - H Tierney/J McCarthy's musical "Kid Boots,"
premieres in NYC
1924 - Hubble announces existence of distant galaxies
1925 - 14th congress of CPSU decides to accelerate industry
1927 - Ponsford scores 336 against SA, giving him 1146 for
month
1929 - Pope Pius XI publishes encyclical Divini illius
magistri
1930 - Pontifical encyclical Casti connubii against mixed
marriages
1930 - US tobacco industry produced 123 billion cigarettes
in 1930
1932 - John P O'Brien sworn-in as mayor of NYC
1934 - Helen Richey becomes 1st woman to pilot an airmail
transport
1935 - CPH becomes Dutch Communist Party
1935 - Charles Darrow patents Monopoly
1938 - Dr R N Harger's "drunkometer," 1st breath
test, introduced in Indiana
1938 - Dutch national debt hits ƒ3,986,629,805.70
1939 - 25 U boats sunk this month (81,000 ton)
1939 - Dutch national debt hits ƒ4,218,553,180.99
1940 - 37 U boats sunk this month (213,000 ton)
1941 - Young Park (2) in the Bronx named in honor of Samuel
Young
1942 - 60 U boats sunk this month (330,000 ton)
1942 - Battle in Barents Sea
1942 - Potatoes rationed in Holland
Singer/Actor Frank SinatraSinger/Actor Frank Sinatra 1943 -
NYC's Times Square greets Frank Sinatra at Paramount Theater
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 - Bradman scores 112, his 1st post-War century, SA v
Aust Services
1945 - Ratification of UN Charter completed
1946 - French troops leave Lebanon
1946 - Pres Harry Truman officially proclaims end of WW II
1948 - Dutch police actions up Java gone on strike
1949 - 18 countries recognize Republic Indonesia
1950 - Jockeys W Shoemaker & Joe Culmone set record of
388 wins in a year
1951 - 1st battery to convert radioactive energy to
electrical announced
1953 - Hulan Jack sworn in as Manhattan Borough president
1953 - WFBC (now WYFF) TV channel 4 in G'ville-Spartanburg,
SC (NBC) begins
1953 - Willie Shoemaker shatters record, riding 485 winners
in a year
33rd US President Harry Truman33rd US President Harry Truman
1955 - "Vamp" closes at Winter Garden Theater NYC after 60
performances
1955 - The General Motors Corporation becomes the first U.S.
corporation to make over $1 billion USD in a year.
1957 - AAU awards Bobby Morrow, James Sullivan Memorial
Trophy
1958 - 47th Davis Cup: USA beats Australia in Brisbane (3-2)
1958 - Cuban dictator Batista tells his Cabinet he is
fleeing the country
1958 - International Geophyscial Year ends
1958 - Willie Shoemaker 1st jockey to win national riding
championship 4X
1961 - "lrma La Douce" closes at Plymouth Theater
NYC after 527 performances
1961 - 1st performance of Beach Boys
1961 - Beach Boys play their debut gig under that name
1961 - Failed coup by Syrian group in Lebanon
1961 - Green Bay Packers shutout NY Giants 37-0 in NFL
championship game
1961 - Marshall Plan expires after distributing more than
$12 billion
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 - Chicago Bears win NFL championship
1963 - Dear Abby show premieres on CBS radio (runs 11 years)
1963 - Jerry Garcia & Bob Weir played music together for
the 1st time
Cuban President and Dictator Fulgencio BatistaCuban
President and Dictator Fulgencio Batista 1964 - Donald Campbell (UK) sets world
water speed record (276.33 mph)
1964 - Indonesia proclaims expelled from the UN
1966 - Monkee's "I'm a Believer" hits #1 & stays
there for 7 weeks
1966 - Pirate Radio 390 (Radio Invicata) off England,
resumes transmitting
1966 - Test Cricket debut of Bishen Singh Bedi, India v WI
Calcutta, 2-92
1966 - Toboggan Chutes begin operation in Cleveland
Metroparks
1967 - "Henry, Sweet Henry" closes at Palace
Theater NYC after 80 perfs
1967 - 1st NBA game at Great Western Forum, LA Lakers beat
Houston 147-118
1967 - Oakland Raiders beat Houston Oilers 40-7 in AFL
championship game
1967 - Packers beat Cowboys 21-17 in NFL championship game
(-13°F)
1968 - 1st supersonic airliner flown (Russian TU-144)
1968 - 1st test flight of Tupolev TU 144
1968 - NY Jets win AFL championship
1969 - Congo-Brazzaville becomes People's republic, under
major Ngouabi
1970 - Congress authorizes Eisenhower dollar coin
1970 - Paul McCartney files a lawsuit to disolve the Beatles
1970 - President Allende nationalizes Chilean coal mines
1970 - Would have been start of Aust/Eng Test Cricket at
MCG, washed out
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 - 39th Sugar Bowl: Oklahoma 14 beats Penn State 0
1972 - Leap second day; also in 1973-79, 1987
1972 - Miami Dolphins beat Pittsburgh Steelers 21-7 in AFC
championship game
1972 - Washington Redskins beat Dallas Cowboys 26-3 in NFC
championship game
1973 - 40th Sugar Bowl: Notre Dame 24 beats Alabama 23
1973 - 61st Australian Mens Tennis: John Newcombe beats O
Parun (63 67 75 61)
1973 - Johan Cruyff chosen European soccer Player of year
1974 - 41st Sugar Bowl: Nebraska 13 beats Florida 10
1974 - Gold legal in US, Franklin Mint strikes Panama's Gold
100 balboa coin
1974 - Lindsey Buckingham & Stevie Nicks join Fleetwood
Mac
1974 - NY Yankees sign Jim "Catfish" Hunter for 5
yrs for a record $3.75 million
1974 - Popular Electronics displays Altair 8800 computer
1975 - 42nd Sugar Bowl: Alabama 13 beats Penn State 6
1976 - TV soap "Somerset" ends 6 year run
1976 - The Cars played their 1st gig
1977 - "Bubbling Brown Sugar" closes at ANTA
Theater NYC after 766 perfs
1977 - "Man of La Mancha" closes at Palace Theater
NYC after 124 performances
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 white editor flees South
Africa
1977 - Ted Bundy escapes from jail in Colorado
1977 - WFAT (Brooklyn New York pirate radio station) begins
broadcasting on 1620 AM
1978 - "Magic Show" closes at Cort Theater NYC
after 1859 performances
1978 - "Runaways" closes at Plymouth Theater NYC
after 199 performances
1978 - CIA director, Admiral Stansfield Turner retires from
the Navy
1978 - Iran shah names Chapour Bakhtiar premier
1978 - Taiwan's final day of diplomatic relations with US
1979 - Winterland Rock Concert Hall in SF closes after 556
concerts
1980 - A Jewish owned hotel in Nairobi Kenya is bombed
killing 18
1980 - NY Islanders greatest shutout margin (9-0) vs Chicago
Black Hawks
1980 - Senegal president Leopold Senghor resigns
1981 - CNN Headline News debuts
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
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
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 - Rajiv Gandhi takes office as India's 6th PM succeeding
his mother Indira Gandhi
1984 - Test Cricket debut of Mohammad Azharuddin, v England
at Calcutta
1984 - US leaves UNESCO
1986 - Dupont Plaza Hotel fire in San Juan, Puerto Rico
kills 97
1986 - Russian TU-144 flies for 1st time faster than sound
1986 - WIS-AM in Columbia SC changes call letters to WVOC
(now WOMG)
1989 - "Me & My Girl" closes at Marquis
Theater NYC after 1420 performances
1989 - "Threepenny Opera" closes at Lunt-Fontanne
Theater NYC after 65 perfs
1989 - Fog Bowl: Heavy fog rolls in on Bears 20-12 victory
over Eagles
1989 - Jockey Kent Desormeaux sets record with 598 wins in a
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
existance
1991 - Daniel R McCarthy elected NY Yankee managing general
partner
1991 - Dow Jones closes at record high 3168.83
1991 - J Donald Crump resigned as CFL Commissioner
1991 - USSR, last day of existence
1992 - Target date for Europe's single market
1993 - Barbra Striesand does her 1st live public concert in
20 years
1994 - 1st snowless December in Baltimore Maryland
1994 - Anti Apartheid Group of Netherlands (AABN) disbands
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.
1995 - "Danny Gans on Broadway" closes at Neil
Simon NYC
1995 - "Having Our Say" closes at Booth Theater NYC
after 308 performances
1995 - "Heiress" closes at Cort Theater NYC after
340 performances
1995 - "Paul Roebson" closes at Longacre Theater
NYC after 14 performances
1995 - "Racing Demon" closes at Vivian Beaumont
Theater NYC after 48 perfs
1995 - "Tempest" closes at Broadhurst Theater NYC
after 71 performances
1995 - 62nd Sugar Bowl: Virginia Tech beats Texas
1995 - Cartoonist Bill Watterson ends his "Calvin &
Hobbes" comic strip
1995 - Matthew Elliott scores separate cricket century same
day for Victoria
1997 - Intel cuts price of Pentium II-233 MHz from $401 to
$268
1997 - Marv Levy, retires as coach of Buffalo Bills
1997 - Microsoft buys Hotmail E-mail service
1997 - More Swedes died than were born in 1997, 1st time
since 1809
1997 - Orlando Hernandez, half-brother of pitcher Livan,
defects from Cuba
1997 - S Afr & US surgeons separate Zambian Siamese
twins joined at the head
1998 - US movie box office hits record $6.24 billion for
year
1998 - Exchange rates between the euro and legacy currencies
in the Eurozone become fixed.
1999 - Control of Panama Canal reverts to Panama
Russian President Boris YeltsinRussian President Boris
Yeltsin 1999 - Boris Yeltsin resigns as President of Russia, leaving Prime
Minister Vladimir Putin as the acting President.
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 - 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.
1687 - The first Huguenots set sail from France for the Cape of Good Hope, where they would later create the South African wine industry with the vines they took with them on the voyage. 1695 - The window tax was imposed in Britain, which resulted in many windows being bricked up. 1711 - The Duke of Marlborough was dismissed as commander-in-chief. 1775 - The British repulsed an attack by Continental Army generals Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold at Quebec. Montgomery was killed in the battle. 1841 - The State of Alabama enacted the first dental legislation in the U.S. 1857 - Britain's Queen Victoria decided to make Ottawa the capital of Canada. 1862 - U.S. President Lincoln signed an act admitting West Virginia to the Union. 1877 - U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes became the first U.S. President to celebrate his silver (25th) wedding anniversary in the White House. 1879 - Thomas Edison gave his first public demonstration of incandescent lighting to an audience in Menlo Park, NJ. 1891 - New York's new Immigration Depot was opened at Ellis Island, to provide improved facilities for the massive numbers of arrivals. 1897 - Brooklyn, NY, spent its last day as a separate entity before becoming part of New York City. 1923 - In London, the BBC first broadcast the chimes of Big Ben. 1929 - Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians played "Auld Lang Syne" as a New Year's Eve song for the first time. 1946 - U.S. President Truman officially proclaimed the end of hostilities in World War II. 1947 - Roy Rogers and Dale Evans were married. 1953 - Willie Shoemaker broke his own record as he won his 485th race of the year. 1954 - The last episode of the radio show "Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok" aired. 1955 - General Motors became the first U.S. corporation to earn more than one billion dollars in a single year. 1960 - The farthing coin, which had been in use in Great Britain since the 13th century, ceased to be legal tender. 1961 - In the U.S., the Marshall Plan expired after distributing more than $12 billion in foreign aid. 1967 - The Green Bay Packers won the National Football League championship game by defeating the Dallas Cowboys 21-17. The game is known as the Ice Bowl since it was played in a wind chill of 40 degrees below zero. (NFL) 1974 - Private U.S. citizens were allowed to buy and own gold for the first time in more than 40 years. 1978 - Taiwanese diplomats struck their colors for the final time from the embassy flagpole in Washington, DC. The event marked the end of diplomatic relations with the U.S. 1979 - At year end oil prices were 88% higher than at the start of 1979. 1986 - A fire at the Dupont Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, killed 97 and injured 140 people. Three hotel workers later pled guilty to charges in connection with the fire. 1990 - Titleholder Gary Kasparov of the U.S.S.R. won the world chess championship match against his countryman Anatoly Karpov. 1996 - NCR Corp. became an independent company. 1997 - Michael Kennedy, 39-year-old son of the late U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, was killed in a skiing accident on Aspen Mountain in Colorado. 1999 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin resigned. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was designated acting president. 1999 - Five hijackers left the airport where they had been holding 150 hostages on an Indian Airlines plane. They left with two Islamic clerics that they had demanded be freed from an Indian prison. The plane had been hijacked during a flight from Katmandu, Nepal to New Dehli on December 24. 1999 - Sarah Knauss died at the age of 119 years. She was the world's oldest person. She was born September 24, 1880.
1879 Thomas Edison gave the first public demonstration of an electric incandescent lamp. 1938 The first breath test for drivers, "drunkometer," was introduced in Indianapolis. 1946 President Truman officially proclaimed the end of hostilities in World War II. 1961 The Marshall Plan expired after distributing more than $12 billion in foreign aid. 1963 Central African Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland was formally dissolved. 1964 The al-Fatah guerrillas of Yasser Arafat launched their first terrorist raid on Israel. 1987 Robert Mugabe sworn in as Zimbabwe's president.
The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:
http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php
http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/dec31.htm
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory
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