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
- 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.
- 1600 –The British East India Company is chartered.
- 1660 –James II of England is named Duke of Normandy by Louis XIV of France.
- 1759 –Arthur Guinness signs a 9,000 year lease at £45 per annum and starts brewing Guinness.
- 1775 –American Revolutionary War: Battle of Quebec: British forces repulse an attack by Continental Army General Richard Montgomery.
- 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
- 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.
- 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.
- 1961 –RTÉ Ireland’s state broadcaster launches its first national television service.
- 1986 –A fire at the Dupont Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, kills 97 and injures 140.
- 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
- 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.
- 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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