What Happened on December 31st in History

The Romanian Television network begins its first broadcast in Bucharest.

Televiziunea Română, more commonly referred to as TVR, is the short name for Societatea Română de Televiziune, the Romanian public television. It operates nine channels: TVR 1, TVR 2, TVR 3, TVR...

RTÉ, Ireland's state broadcaster, launches its first national television service.

Raidió Teilifís Éireann is the Irish public service broadcaster. It produces and broadcasts programmes on television, radio and online. The radio service began on 1 January 1926, and regular...

The Central African Federation officially collapses, subsequently becoming Zambia, Malawi and Rhodesia.

The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, also known as the Central African Federation (CAF), was a colonial federation that consisted of three southern African territories: the self-governing...

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.

Jean-Bédel Bokassa was a Central African politician and military officer who served as the second president of the Central African Republic (CAR), after seizing power in the Saint-Sylvestre coup...

The first flight of the Tupolev Tu-144, the first civilian supersonic transport in the world.

The Tupolev Tu-144 is a Soviet supersonic passenger airliner designed by Tupolev that operated commercially from 1975 to 1983, including 1977–1978 passenger service.

MacRobertson Miller Airlines Flight 1750 crashes near Port Hedland, Western Australia, killing all 26 people on board.

On 31 December 1968 a Vickers Viscount aircraft departed from Perth, Western Australia for a flight of 724 nautical miles (1341 km) to Port Hedland. The aircraft crashed 28 nautical miles (52 km)...

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.

The 1981 Ghanaian coup d'état was a successful government takeover in Ghana led by Air Force Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings, overthrowing the administration of President Hilla Limann and...

The AT&T Bell System is broken up by the United States Government.

AT&T Corporation, an abbreviation of its former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, was an American telecommunications company that provided voice, video, data, and Internet...

Benjamin Ward is appointed New York City Police Department's first ever African American police commissioner.

Benjamin Ward was the first African American New York City Police Commissioner.

In Nigeria, a coup d'état led by Major General Muhammadu Buhari ends the Second Nigerian Republic.

Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of...

Three disgruntled employees set fire to the Dupont Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, killing more than 90 people and injuring 140 others, making it the second-deadliest hotel fire in American history.

On New Year's Eve, December 31, 1986, three disgruntled employees of the Dupont Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, intentionally set a fire. The employees were involved in a labor dispute with...

All official Soviet Union institutions have ceased operations by this date, five days after the Soviet Union is officially dissolved.

The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until its dissolution in 1991. It was the world's...

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.

Czechoslovakia was a country in Central Europe. The country was bordered by Austria and Hungary to the south, Germany to the west and northwest, Poland to the northeast, and Ukraine to the...

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.

Kiribati, officially the Republic of Kiribati, is an archipelagic country spanning the Micronesia and Polynesia sub-regions of Oceania in the central Pacific Ocean. The state comprises 32 atolls and...

The First Chechen War: The Russian Ground Forces begin a New Year's storming of Grozny.

The First Chechen War, also referred to as the First Russo-Chechen War, was a conflict between the separatist Chechen Republic of Ichkeria and the Russian Federation from 1994 to 1996. The conflict...

The final comic of Calvin and Hobbes is published.

Calvin and Hobbes is an American daily comic strip created by cartoonist Bill Watterson and syndicated from November 18, 1985, to December 31, 1995. The strip centers on Calvin, a six-year-old boy...

The European Exchange Rate Mechanism freezes the values of the legacy currencies in the Eurozone, and establishes the value of the euro currency.

The European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM II) is a system introduced by the European Economic Community on 1 January 1999 alongside the introduction of a single currency, the euro as part of the...

The first President of Russia, Boris Yeltsin, resigns from office, leaving Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as the acting President and successor.

The president of Russia, officially the president of the Russian Federation, is the executive head of state of Russia. The president is the chair of the Federal State Council and the supreme...

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.

The Panama Canal is an artificial 82-kilometer (51-mile) waterway in Panama that connects the Caribbean Sea with the Pacific Ocean. It cuts across the narrowest point of the Isthmus of Panama, and...

Indian Airlines Flight 814 hijacking ends after seven days with the release of 190 survivors at Kandahar Airport, Afghanistan.

Indian Airlines Flight 814, commonly known as IC 814, was an Indian Airlines Airbus A300 that was hijacked on 24 December 1999 by five members of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen. The passenger flight, en route...

Rwanda adopts a new national flag and anthem.

The national flag of Rwanda is a horizontal tricolour of light blue, yellow, and green, in a 2:1:1 ratio, charged with a golden sun in the upper fly-side corner. It was adopted on 31 December 2001...

The official opening of Taipei 101, the tallest skyscraper at that time in the world, standing at a height of 509 metres (1,670 ft).

Taipei 101, formerly known as the Taipei World Financial Center, is a 508-meter, 101-story skyscraper in Taipei, Taiwan. It is owned by the Taipei Financial Center Corporation. It was officially...

Both a blue moon and a lunar eclipse occur.

A blue moon refers to the presence of a second full moon in a calendar month, the third full moon in a season containing four, or a moon that appears blue due to atmospheric effects.

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.

A destructive and deadly three-day-long tornado outbreak impacted the central and lower Mississippi Valley from December 30, 2010, to January 1, 2011. Associated with a low pressure system and a...

NASA succeeds in putting the first of two Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory satellites in orbit around the Moon.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government responsible for the United States' civil space program and for research in aeronautics and...

A New Year's Eve celebration stampede in Shanghai kills at least 36 people and injures 49 others.

On 31 December 2014, a deadly crush occurred in Shanghai, near Chen Yi Square on the Bund, where around 300,000 people had gathered for the new year celebration. Thirty-six people were killed and...

A fire breaks out at the Downtown Address Hotel in Downtown Dubai, United Arab Emirates, located near the Burj Khalifa, two hours before the fireworks display is due to commence. Sixteen injuries were reported; one had a heart attack, another suffered a major injury, and fourteen others with minor injuries.

Downtown Dubai or The Dubai Downtown is a large-scale, mixed-use complex in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It was developed by the Emaar real estate development company. Before 2000, this area was...

Thirty-nine people are killed after a ten-story building collapses in the industrial city of Magnitogorsk, Russia.

On 31 December 2018, at approximately 6:02 a.m. local time, an apartment block in Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, partially collapsed. The collapse killed 39 people and injured 17 more....

The World Health Organization is informed of cases of pneumonia with an unknown cause, detected in Wuhan. This later turned out to be COVID-19, the cause of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is headquartered in...

The World Health Organization issues its first emergency use validation for a COVID-19 vaccine.

A COVID‑19 vaccine is designed to induce immunity against SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). COVID-19 vaccines help reduce the risk of severe illness,...