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.
- 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.
- 1695 –A window tax is imposed in England, causing many householders to brick up windows to avoid the tax.
- 1862 –American Civil War: Abraham Lincoln signs an act that admits West Virginia to the Union, thus dividing Virginia in two.
- 1862 –American Civil War: The Battle of Stones River begins near Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
- 1907 –The first New Year’s Eve celebration is held in Times Square (then known as Longacre Square) in New York, New York.
- 1909 –Manhattan Bridge opens.
- 1946 –President Harry S. Truman officially proclaims the end of hostilities in World War II.
- 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.
- 1963 –The Central African Federation officially collapses and splits into Zambia, Malawi and Rhodesia.
- 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.
- 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.
- 1986 –A fire at the Dupont Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, kills 97 and injures 140.
- 1991 –All official Soviet Union institutions have ceased operations by this date and the Soviet Union is officially dissolved.
- 1992 –Czechoslovakia is peacefully dissolved in what is dubbed by media as the Velvet Divorce, resulting in the creation of the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
- 1994 –The first Chechen war: Russian army began a New Year’s storm of Grozny
- 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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