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
- 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.
- 1831 –Gramercy Park is deeded to New York City.
- 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.
- 1909 –Manhattan Bridge opens.
- 1923 –The chimes of Big Ben are broadcast on radio for the first time by the BBC.
- 1944 –World War II: Hungary declares war on Nazi Germany.
- 1946 –President Harry S. Truman officially proclaims the end of hostilities in World War II.
- 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.
- 1963 –The Central African Federation officially collapses and splits into Zambia, Malawi and Rhodesia.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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 –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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