TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON: DEC 31
406 80,000 Vandals, Alans and Suebians cross the Rhine at Mainz, beginning invasion of Gallia
1492 100,000 Jews expelled from Sicily
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.
1744 English astronomer James Bradley announces discovery of Earth’s nutation motion (wobble)
1775 George Washington orders recruiting officers to accept free blacks into the army.
1775 The British repulsed an attack by Continental Army generals Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold at Quebec. Montgomery was killed in the battle.
1862 President Lincoln signs act admitting West Virginia to the Union
1879 Thomas Edison gave the first public demonstration of an electric incandescent lamp.
1891 New York’s new Immigration Depot was opened at Ellis Island, to provide improved facilities for the massive numbers of arrivals.
1907 The first annual ball drop at Times Square
1909 Manhattan Bridge opens for traffic
1910 US tobacco industry produced 9 billion cigarettes in 1910
1923 The Sahara is crossed by an automobile for the first time.
1930 US tobacco industry produced 123 billion cigarettes in 1930
1930 Brewery heir Adolphus Busch is kidnapped.
1938 The first breath test for drivers, “drunkometer,” was introduced in Indianapolis.
1942 After five months of battle, Emperor Hirohito allows the Japanese commanders at Guadalcanal to retreat.
1958 Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista tells his Cabinet he is fleeing the country
1961 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 Cincinnati for 10 years
1964 The al-Fatah guerrillas of Yasser Arafat launched their first terrorist raid on Israel.
1965 California becomes the largest state in population.
1981 CNN Headline News debuts
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.
1995 Cartoonist Bill Watterson ends his “Calvin & Hobbes” comic strip
1999 Control of Panamá Canal reverts to Panamá
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.
REFERENCES: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeoplehistory.com, timeandate.com, factmonster.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
