• The British East India Company receives its royal charter (1600)
• England imposes a window tax, resulting in many householders bricking up windows (1695)
• Baltimore, Maryland, is incorporated as a city (1796)
• American Civil War: West Virginia is admitted to the Union as a separate state (1862)
• Karl Benz files for a patent on his two-stroke gas engine (1878)
• Thomas Edison demonstrates incandescent lighting publicly for the first time (1879)
• The first New Year’s Eve celebration is held in New York City’s Times Square (then known as Longacre Square) (1907)
• BBC broadcasts the chimes of Big Ben on the radio for the first time (1923)
• US President Harry S. Truman officially proclaims the end of hostilities in World War II (1946)
• The Marshall Plan expires, having distributed more than US$13 billion in foreign aid to rebuild Europe (1951)
• General Motors becomes the first US corporation to make over US$1 billion in a single year (1955)
• The farthing coin ceases to be legal tender in the UK (1960)
• The Youth International Party (“Yippies”) is founded (1967)
• The AT&T Bell System is broken up by the US government (1983)
• All Soviet official institutions have ceased operations by this date, and the Soviet Union’s dissolution becomes official and final (1991)
• The Velvet Divorce is finalized, dissolving Czechoslovakia into the Czech Republic and Slovakia (1992)
• This date does not exist in Kiribati because of a switch in time zones (1994)
• Russian President Boris Yeltsin resigns, leaving Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as acting President (1999)
• The US Government transfers the Panama Canal and surrounding land to Panama (1999)
• A blue moon and a lunar eclipse occur (2009)

Birthdays

• Commodus, Roman emperor (192)
• Robert Boyle, chemist (1691)
• John Flamsteed, astronomer (1719)
• Roberto Clemente, baseball player (1972)
• Basil Wolverton, illustrator (1978)
• Marshall McLuhan, media theorist and philosopher (1980)
• Ricky Nelson, singer-songwriter (1985)
• George Allen, football coach (1990)
• Elliot Richardson, US Attorney-General and Watergate figure (1999)
• José Greco, dancer (2000)
• Eileen Heckart, actress (2001)
• Donald E. Westlake, author (2008)

Holidays and Celebrations

• Bisperas ng Bagong Taon (Philippines)
• Hogmanay (Scotland)
• International Solidarity Day (Azerbaijan)
• Leap Second Time Adjustment Day (as needed)
• New Year’s Eve (international)
• Universal Hour of Peace (beginning at 11:30pm local time)