About December 31

December 31, 2025 is the 365th day of the year 2025 in the Gregorian calendar. The day of the week is Wednesday.

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 48 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

  • 535
    Byzantine General Belisarius completes the conquest of Sicily, defeating the Ostrogothic garrison of Syracuse, and ending his consulship for the year.
  • 1600
    The British East India Company is chartered.
  • 1660
    James II of England is named Duke of Normandy by Louis XIV of France.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 1906
    Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar signs the Persian Constitution of 1906.
  • 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.
  • 1923
    The chimes of Big Ben are broadcast on radio for the first time by the BBC.
  • 1951
    The Marshall Plan expires after distributing more than US$13.3 billion in foreign aid to rebuild Europe.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 1999
    Boris Yeltsin, the first president of Russia, resigns as President of Russia, leaving Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as the acting President.

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