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.
- 1225 –The Ly Dynasty of Vietnam ends after 216 years by the enthronement of the boy emperor Tran Thai Tong, husband of the last Ly monarch, Ly Chieu Hoang, starting the Tran Dynasty.
- 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.
- 1660 –James II of England is named Duke of Normandy by Louis XIV of France.
- 1853 –A dinner party is held inside a life-size model of an Iguanodon created by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins and Sir Richard Owen in south London, England, United Kingdom
- 1857 –Queen Victoria chooses Ottawa, Ontario, then a small logging town, as the capital of Canada.
- 1862 –American Civil War: The Battle of Stones River begins near Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
- 1879 –Thomas Edison demonstrates incandescent lighting to the public for the first time, in Menlo Park, New Jersey.
- 1907 –The first New Year’s Eve celebration is held in Times Square (then known as Longacre Square) in New York, New York.
- 1946 –President Harry S. Truman officially proclaims the end of hostilities in World War II.
- 1961 –RTÉ Ireland’s state broadcaster launches its first national television service.
- 1965 –Jean-Bédel Bokassa, leader of the Central African Republic army, and his military officers begins a coup d'état against the government of President David Dacko.
- 1981 –A coup d'état in Ghana removes President Hilla Limann’s PNP government and replaces it with the Provisional National Defence Council led by Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings.
- 1983 –In Nigeria a coup d'état led by Major General Muhammadu Buhari ends the Nigerian Second Republic.
- 1994 –This date is skipped altogether in Kiribati as the Phoenix Islands and Line Islands change time zones from UTC−11:00 to UTC+13:00 and UTC-10:00 to UTC+14:00, respectively.
- 1998 –The European Exchange Rate Mechanism freezes the values of the legacy currencies in the Eurozone, and establishes the value of the euro currency.
- 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.
- 1999 –The United States Government hands control of the Panama Canal (as well all the adjacent land to the canal known as the Panama Canal Zone) to Panama. This act complied with the signing of the 1977 Torrijos-Carter Treaties.
- 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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