31st of December in History
What happened on the 31st of December in history?
Change Date:
- 1384
John Wycliffe English religious reformer died
- 1600
British East India Company chartered
- 1719
John Flamsteed 1st Astronomer Royal dies at 73
- 1744
James Bradley announces discovery of earth's motion of nutation
- 1775
Battle of Qu‚bec
- 1805
End of French Republican calendar
- 1852
Future Pres & Mrs. Rutherford B. Hayes marry
- 1857
Queen Victoria chose Ottawa as new capital of Canada
- 1862
Pres Lincoln signs an act admitting West Virginia to the Union
- 1862
Union ironclad ship "Monitor" sank at Cape Hatteras NC
- 1879
Cornerstone laid for Iolani Palace (only royal palace in US)
- 1879
Edison gives public demonstration of his incandescent lamp
- 1890
Ellis Is opens as a US immigration depot
- 1921
Last SF firehorses retired
- 1943
NYC's Times Square greets Frank Sinatra at the Paramount Theater
- 1944
48 people die in a train accident in Ogden Utah
- 1946
Pres Truman officially proclaims end of WW II
- 1951
1st battery to convert radioactive energy to electrical announced
- 1958
Willie Shoemaker 1st jockey to win national riding championship 4X
- 1961
Marshall Plan expires after distributing more than $12 billion
- 1974
US citizens allowed to buy & own gold for 1st time in 40 years
- 1974
Free agent pitcher Catfish Hunter signs $3 million Yank contract
- 1981
Lt Rawlings stages coup in Ghana
- 1984
Bernhard Goetz surrenders to police in NH
- 1984
Rajiv Gandhi took office as India's 6th PM
- 1999
Control of Panama Canal reverts to Panama