1995 – Cartoonist Bill Watterson ends his “Calvin & Hobbes” comic strip after 10 years
0192 – Roman Emperor Commodus survives poisoning attempt by his mistress only to be strangled in the bath in assassination plot
0406 – 80,000 Vandals, Alans and Suebians cross the Rhine at Mainz, beginning invasion of Gallia
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
1564 – Willem van Orange demands freedom of conscience/religion
1604 – Dutch East India Company Admiral Steven van der Haghen’s fleet reaches Bantam, Indonesia
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.
1744 – English astronomer James Bradley announces discovery of Earth’s nutation motion (wobble)
1775 – The British repulsed an attack by Continental Army generals Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold at Quebec. Montgomery was killed in the battle.
1776 – Rhode Island establishes wage & price controls to curb inflation: Limit is 70 cents a day for carpenters, 42 cents for tailors
1783 – Import of African slaves banned by all of the Northern US states
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.
1870 – J D Schneiter patents rocket mail in France, (not done)
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.
1910 – US tobacco industry produced 9 billion cigarettes in 1910
1921 – Last San Francisco firehorses retired
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.
1930 – US tobacco industry produced 123 billion cigarettes in 1930
1938 – The first breath test for drivers, “drunkometer,” was introduced in Indianapolis.
1946 – U.S. President Truman officially proclaimed the end of hostilities in World War II.
1955 – General Motors became the first U.S. corporation to earn more than one billion dollars in a single year.
1958 – Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista tells his Cabinet he is fleeing the country
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.
1962 – Ohio ends suit against Reds when they agree to stay in Cin for 10 yrs
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.
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
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)
1970 – President Allende nationalizes Chilean coal mines
1974 – Private U.S. citizens were allowed to buy and own gold for the first time in more than 40 years.
1977 – Amir Sheikh Jabir al-Ahmad al-Jabir Al Sabah becomes leader of Kuwait
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.
1981 – Lt Jerry Rawlings becomes head of Ghana, suspends constitution
1983 – A military coup in Nigeria overthrew the civilian government of Shehu Shagari and installed Maj-Gen Muhammadu Buhari.
1984 – Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen loses his arm in a car crash
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.
1988 – “The Fog Bowl”, a heavy, dense fog rolls over Soldier Field in Chicago during second quarter of the Bears vs Eagles NFC Divisional Playoff Game, cuts visibility to 15-20 yards (Bears win 20-12)
1990 – Iraq begins a military draft of 17 year olds
1995 – Cartoonist Bill Watterson ends his “Calvin & Hobbes” comic strip after 10 years, believing he had achieved all he could in the medium.
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.
2009 – Both a Blue Moon and lunar eclipse occured on the same day, The next such event to happen on New Year’s eve will be in 2028.
2014 – 36 die and 47 are wounded during a stampede of New Year revellers on Shanghai’s Bund riverfront
2017 – Ban on ivory trade in China comes into effect
2019 – 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
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
