December 31

1229 – James I, King of Aragon, enters Palma, Spain, completing the retaking of Majorca island during the Reconquista.

1744 – English astronomer James Bradley announces discovery of Earth’s nutation motion or wobble in its rotation.

1775 – During the Revolutionary War, British forces repulse an attack on Quebec by the Continental Army forces under General Richard Montgomery.

1796 – Baltimore, Maryland is incorporated.

1862 – President Lincoln signs an act enabling the admission of West Virginia as a state in the Union, partitioning Virginia.

1878 – Karl Benz, in Mannheim, Germany, files a patent on his 2 stroke internal combustion engine

1879 – Thomas Edison demonstrates incandescent lighting to the public in Menlo Park, New Jersey.

1907 – The first New Year’s Eve celebration is held in Times Square,  Manhattan.

1946 – President Harry S. Truman officially proclaims the end of hostilities in World War II.

1955 – General Motors becomes the first U.S. corporation to make over $1 billion in a year.

1959 – AK Church is born somewhere in eastern Oklahoma.

1983 – The federal consent decree for divestiture into regional independent operating companies of the AT&T Bell System comes into effect.

1991 – All official Soviet institutions are confirmed to have ceased operations in the former Soviet Union

1992 – Czechoslovakia is dissolved into the Czech and the Slovak Republics.

1999 –  Under terms of the 1977 Torrijos–Carter Treaty, the U.S. cedes control of the Panama Canal and Canal Zone to Panama.

2000 – The last day of the 20th Century and 2nd Millennium.

2010 –  A total of 36 tornadoes touch down in Arkansas, Illinois, and Oklahoma, killing 9 people and causing $113 million in damages.

2019 – The World Health Organization is informed of cases of pneumonia with an unknown cause, detected in Wuhan, China, later classified as SARS COVID-19

2020 – The World Health Organization issues its first emergency use authorization – EUA – for a COVID-19 vaxx.