About December 31
December 31, 2024 is the 366th day of the year 2024 in the Gregorian calendar. The day of the week is Tuesday.
You can browse the full year calendar in case you need it.
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Capricorn is the sun sign of a person born on this day. Turquoise is the modern birthstone for this month. Onyx is the mystical birthstone from Tibetan origin that dates back over a thousand years.
According to the lunisolar Chinese calendar, there are 29 days remaining before the start of the next Chinese New Year.
December 31: More About This Day
It is widely known as New Year’s Eve since the following day is New Year’s Day. It is the last day of the year.
What Happened On December 31
- 406 –Vandals, Alans and Suebians cross the Rhine, beginning an invasion of Gaul.
- 535 –Byzantine General Belisarius completes the conquest of Sicily, defeating the Ostrogothic garrison of Syracuse, and ending his consulship for the year.
- 1229 –James I of Aragon the Conqueror enters Medina Mayurqa (now known as Palma, Spain) thus consummating the Christian reconquest of the island of Majorca.
- 1600 –The British East India Company is chartered.
- 1687 –The first Huguenots set sail from France to the Cape of Good Hope.
- 1759 –Arthur Guinness signs a 9,000 year lease at £45 per annum and starts brewing Guinness.
- 1790 –Efimeris, the oldest Greek newspaper of which issues have survived till today is published for the first time.
- 1831 –Gramercy Park is deeded to New York City.
- 1857 –Queen Victoria chooses Ottawa, Ontario, then a small logging town, as the capital of Canada.
- 1862 –American Civil War: Abraham Lincoln signs an act that admits West Virginia to the Union, thus dividing Virginia in two.
- 1909 –Manhattan Bridge opens.
- 1951 –The Marshall Plan expires after distributing more than US$13.3 billion in foreign aid to rebuild Europe.
- 1955 –The General Motors Corporation becomes the first U.S. corporation to make over US$1 billion in a year.
- 1961 –RTÉ Ireland’s state broadcaster launches its first national television service.
- 1983 –In Nigeria a coup d'état led by Major General Muhammadu Buhari ends the Nigerian Second Republic.
- 1983 –The AT&T Bell System is broken up by the United States Government.
- 1991 –All official Soviet Union institutions have ceased operations by this date and the Soviet Union is officially dissolved.
- 1999 –Boris Yeltsin, the first president of Russia, resigns as President of Russia, leaving Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as the acting President.
- 1999 –Five hijackers, who had been holding 155 hostages on an Indian Airlines plane, leave the plane with two Islamic clerics that they had demanded be freed.
- 2004 –The official opening of Taipei 101, the tallest skyscraper at that time in the world, standing at a height of 509 m.
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