Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/December 31
This is a list of selected December 31 anniversaries that appear in the "On this day" section of the Main Page. To suggest a new item, in most cases, you can be bold and edit this page. Before doing so, please review the selected anniversaries guidelines. If your suggestion is potentially controversial or relates to a day currently or soon to appear on the Main Page, post it on the talk page instead.
Please note:
- Events listed on the Main Page are selected based on article quality and to provide a diverse range of topics, rather than solely on the importance or significance of the events.
- Only four or five events are featured each day; therefore, not all important or significant events can be included.
- An event is generally excluded if it is already the subject of the scheduled featured article or picture of the day.
To report an error in content currently on the Main Page, see Wikipedia:Main Page/Errors. If a listed event is inaccurate, please first seek consensus and update the corresponding article before making changes here.
| ← December 30 | January 1 → |
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Staging area
Images
Use only ONE image at a time
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Flag of the British East India Company -
Vladimir Putin -
2008 Times Square Ball -
Arthur Guinness -
Jean-Bédel Bokassa -
Battle of Quebec – Death of General Montgomery -
Painting of helicopter rescue efforts at the Dupont Plaza fire -
Parliament Hill, Ottawa -
Manhattan Bridge
.jpg)
Ineligible
| Blurb | Reason |
|---|---|
| New Year's Eve (Gregorian calendar) | unreferenced sections |
| Hogmanay in Scotland | refimprove section |
| 406 – The Vandals, Alans and Suebians crossed the Rhine River to begin an invasion of Gaul. | date is probable only |
| 1225 – Lý Chiêu Hoàng, the only empress regnant in Vietnamese history, married Trần Thái Tông to establish the Trần dynasty, with both the bride and groom aged seven. | Hook appears to be dubiously sourced and possibly inaccurate |
| 1600 – The British East India Company was founded by a Royal Charter of Queen Elizabeth I. | refimprove sections |
| 1960 – The farthing, a British coin first minted in England in the 13th century, ceased to be legal tender. | unreferenced section |
| 1963 – Despite Prime Minister Roy Welensky's efforts, the Central African Federation collapsed and subsequently becoming three separate nations: Zambia, Malawi and Rhodesia. | primary sources |
| 1981 – Ghanaian president Hilla Limann was deposed in a coup d'état. | refimprove |
| 1983 – Major-General Muhammadu Buhari was selected to lead Nigeria after a successful military coup d'etat that overthrew civilian President Shehu Shagari. | date not cited |
| 1994 - Two timezones of Kiribati moved west of the International Date Line, causing them to skip December 31. | claim not cited |
| Diane von Fürstenberg |b|1946 | many dead links |
| Junot Díaz |b|1968| | birthday not cited |
Eligible
- 1759 – Arthur Guinness signed a 9,000-year lease at £45 per annum to the St. James's Gate Brewery in Dublin and began brewing Guinness.
- 1775 – American Revolutionary War: At the Battle of Quebec, British forces repulsed an attack by the Continental Army to capture Quebec City and enlist French Canadian support.
- 1857 – Queen Victoria announced the choice of Ottawa , then a small logging town, to be the capital of the British colony of Canada.
- 1862 – The Battle of Stones River in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, began with an engagement in which both sides would suffer their highest casualty rates in the American Civil War.
- 1907 – New York City held its first annual ball drop event in Times Square as part of New Year's Eve celebrations.
- 1950 – Korean War: North Korean troops attacked United Nations forces in the first of two battles at Wonju.
- 1961 - RTÉ, Ireland's first television network, began broadcasting.
- 1965 – Central African military officers led by Jean-Bédel Bokassa began a coup d'état against the government of President David Dacko.
- 1972 – Puerto Rican baseball player Roberto Clemente died in a plane crash en route to deliver aid to victims of that year's Nicaragua earthquake.
- 1993 – Brandon Teena, an American trans man, was raped and murdered in Humboldt, Nebraska; his death led to increased lobbying for hate crime laws in the United States.
- 1998 – The European Exchange Rate Mechanism froze the exchange rates of the legacy currencies in the eurozone, establishing the value of the euro.
- 1999 – Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin became acting president upon President Boris Yeltsin's unexpected resignation.
- 2006 – War in Somalia: Transitional Federal Government forces attacked the last stronghold of the Islamic Courts Union in the town of Jilib.
- 2010 – 28 tornadoes (one depicted) touched down in midwestern and southern United States, part of an outbreak that led to the deaths of nine people and large property damage.
- Born/died: | Ahmad Maymandi |d|1032| Carlo Gimach |d|1730| Kapiʻolani |b|1834| Henri Matisse |b|1869| Aleksis Kivi |d|1872| Ion Creangă |d|1889| Samuel Ajayi Crowther |d|1891| Simon Wiesenthal |b|1908| Mary Logan Reddick |b|1914| Cornelia Clapp |d|1934| Steve Bennett |b|1950| Anwar Usman |b|1956| C. D. Howe |d|1960| Henry Gerber |d|1972| Philipp Tanzer |b|1977| Amy Cure |b|1992
Notes
- Lincoln Tunnel appears on December 22, so Manhattan Bridge should not appear in the same year
December 31: Dissolution of Czechoslovakia (1992); Saint Sylvester's Day (Western Christianity)
Taipei 101
- 1909 – The Manhattan Bridge, connecting Lower Manhattan to Downtown Brooklyn and considered to be the forerunner of modern suspension bridges, opened to traffic.
- 1983 – Two Australian biologists published an article titled "A Synopsis of the Class Reptilia in Australia", initiating the Wells and Wellington affair.
- 1986 – Three disgruntled employees set fire to the Dupont Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, killing more than 90 people and injuring 140 others, making it the second-deadliest hotel fire in American history.
- 1999 – In accordance with the Torrijos–Carter Treaties, Panama assumed full control of the Panama Canal Zone from the United States.
- 2004 – Taipei 101 (pictured) in Taipei, Taiwan, opened to the public as the world's tallest building.
- Ibn Hawshab (d. 914)
- Richard Montgomery (d. 1775)
- Cornelius Gallagher (b. 1854)
- Siw Malmkvist (b. 1936)
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