On this day: December 31

Events on December 31

• 1687 The first Huguenots set sail from France to the Cape of Good Hope. Wikipedia
• 1759 Arthur Guinness signed a 9,000-year lease at £45 per annum to the St. James's Gate Brewery in Dublin and began brewing Guinness. Wikipedia
• 1831 Gramercy Park is deeded to New York City. Wikipedia
• 1844 The Philippines skipped this date in order to align the country with the rest of Asia, as the trading interest switched to China, Dutch East Indies and neighboring territories after Mexico gained independence from Spain on 27 September 1821. In the islands, Monday, 30 December 1844 was immediately followed by Wednesday, 1 January 1845. Wikipedia
• 1857 Queen Victoria announced the choice of Ottawa , then a small logging town, to be the capital of the British colony of Canada. Wikipedia
• 1857 Queen Victoria chooses Ottawa, then a small logging town, as the capital of the Province of Canada. Wikipedia
• 1862 American Civil War: Abraham Lincoln signs an enabling act that would admit West Virginia to the Union, thus dividing Virginia in two. Wikipedia
• 1879 Thomas Edison demonstrates incandescent lighting to the public for the first time, in Menlo Park, New Jersey. Wikipedia
• 1942 World War II: The Royal Navy defeats the Kriegsmarine at the Battle of the Barents Sea. This leads to the resignation of Grand Admiral Erich Raeder a month later. Wikipedia
• 1956 The Romanian Television network begins its first broadcast in Bucharest. Wikipedia
• 1963 The Central African Federation officially collapses, subsequently becoming Zambia, Malawi and Rhodesia. Wikipedia
• 1965 Jean-Bédel Bokassa, leader of the Central African Republic army, and his military officers begin a coup d'état against the government of President David Dacko. Wikipedia
• 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. Wikipedia
• 1983 In Nigeria, a coup d'état led by Major General Muhammadu Buhari ends the Second Nigerian Republic. Wikipedia
• 1991 All official Soviet Union institutions have ceased operations by this date, five days after the Soviet Union is officially dissolved. Wikipedia
• 1992 Czechoslovakia is peacefully dissolved in what is dubbed by media as the Velvet Divorce, resulting in the creation of the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic. Wikipedia
• 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. Wikipedia
• 1998 The European Exchange Rate Mechanism froze the exchange rates of the legacy currencies in the eurozone, establishing the value of the euro. Wikipedia
• 1998 The European Exchange Rate Mechanism freezes the values of the legacy currencies in the Eurozone, and establishes the value of the euro currency. Wikipedia
• 1999 Indian Airlines Flight 814 hijacking ends after seven days with the release of 190 survivors at Kandahar Airport, Afghanistan. Wikipedia
• 1999 Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin became acting president upon President Boris Yeltsin's unexpected resignation. Wikipedia
• 1999 The first President of Russia, Boris Yeltsin, resigns from office, leaving Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as the acting President and successor. Wikipedia
• 1999 The U.S. 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. Wikipedia
• 2010 Tornadoes touch down in midwestern and southern United States, including Washington County, Arkansas; Greater St. Louis, Sunset Hills, Missouri, Illinois, and Oklahoma, with a few tornadoes in the early hours. A total of 36 tornadoes touched down, resulting in the deaths of nine people and $113 million in damages. Wikipedia
• 2011 NASA succeeds in putting the first of two Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory satellites in orbit around the Moon. Wikipedia
• 2014 A New Year's Eve celebration stampede in Shanghai kills at least 36 people and injures 49 others. Wikipedia

Born on December 31

• 1378 Pope Callixtus III (died 1458) Wikipedia
• 1491 Jacques Cartier, French navigator and explorer (died 1557) Wikipedia
• 1514 Andreas Vesalius, Belgian anatomist, physician, and author (died 1564) Wikipedia
• 1668 Herman Boerhaave, Dutch botanist and physician (died 1738) Wikipedia
• 1720 Charles Edward Stuart, Scottish claimant to the throne of England (died 1788) Wikipedia
• 1738 Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis, English general and politician, 3rd Governor-General of India (died 1805) Wikipedia
• 1741 Gottfried August Bürger, German poet and academic (died 1794) Wikipedia
• 1805 Marie d'Agoult, German-French historian and author (died 1876) Wikipedia
• 1830 Isma'il Pasha, Egyptian ruler (died 1895) Wikipedia
• 1838 Émile Loubet, French lawyer and politician, 7th President of France (died 1929) Wikipedia
• 1855 Giovanni Pascoli, Italian poet and scholar (died 1912) Wikipedia
• 1869 Henri Matisse, French painter and sculptor (died 1954) Wikipedia
• 1880 George Marshall, American general and politician, 50th United States Secretary of State (died 1959) Wikipedia
• 1908 Simon Wiesenthal, Ukrainian-Austrian Nazi hunter and author (died 2005) Wikipedia
• 1937 Avram Hershko, Hungarian-Israeli biochemist and physician Wikipedia
• 1941 Sir Alex Ferguson, Scottish footballer and manager Wikipedia
• 1954 Alex Salmond, Scottish economist and politician (died 2024) Wikipedia
• 1959 Val Kilmer, American actor (died 2025) Wikipedia
• 1959 Baron Waqa, Nauruan composer and politician, 14th President of Nauru Wikipedia
• 1960 Steve Bruce, English footballer and manager Wikipedia
• 1982 Craig Gordon, Scottish footballer Wikipedia
• 1987 Seydou Doumbia, Ivorian footballer Wikipedia

Died on December 31

• 192 Commodus, Roman emperor (born 161) Wikipedia
• 335 Pope Sylvester I Wikipedia
• 914 Ibn Hawshab, founder of the Isma'ili community in Yemen Wikipedia
• 1384 John Wycliffe, English philosopher, theologian, and translator (born 1331) Wikipedia
• 1691 Robert Boyle, Anglo-Irish chemist and physicist (born 1627) Wikipedia
• 1877 Gustave Courbet, French-Swiss painter and sculptor (born 1819) Wikipedia
• 1936 Miguel de Unamuno, Spanish philosopher, author, and poet (born 1864) Wikipedia
• 1953 Albert Plesman, Dutch businessman, founded KLM (born 1889) Wikipedia
• 1980 Marshall McLuhan, Canadian philosopher and theorist (born 1911) Wikipedia
• 1993 Big Bertha, Irish cattle and twice Guinness World Record holder (oldest cow, cow with most offspring) (born 1945) Wikipedia
• 1993 Zviad Gamsakhurdia, Georgian anthropologist and politician, 1st President of Georgia (born 1939) Wikipedia
• 2004 Gérard Debreu, French economist and mathematician, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1921) Wikipedia
• 2021 Betty White, American actress, comedian and producer (born 1922) Wikipedia
• 2022 Pope Benedict XVI, German Roman Catholic cardinal and theologian, pope (2005–2013) and archbishop of Munich and Freising (1977–1982) (born 1927) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day: Pope Sylvester I (Catholic Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: December 31 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• International Solidarity Day of Azerbaijanis (Azerbaijan) Wikipedia
• New Year's Eve (International observance), and its related observances: First Night (United States) Wikipedia
• New Year's Eve (International observance), and its related observances: Last Day of the Year or Bisperás ng Bagong Taón, special holiday between Rizal Day and New Year's Day (Philippines) Wikipedia
• New Year's Eve (International observance), and its related observances: Novy God Eve (Russia) Wikipedia
• New Year's Eve (International observance), and its related observances: Ōmisoka (Japan) Wikipedia
• New Year's Eve (International observance), and its related observances: The first day of Hogmanay or "Auld Year's Night" (Scotland) Wikipedia
• The seventh of the Twelve Days of Christmas (Western Christianity) Wikipedia
• The sixth and penultimate day of Kwanzaa (United States) Wikipedia

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “December 31” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-09 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. We picked the 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths with the widest coverage across Wikipedia's language editions (counted from Wikidata) and sorted them by year; the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures.