December 31 facts for kids

December 31st is the very last day of the year! It's also known as New Year's Eve or Saint Sylvester's Day. People all over the world celebrate this day, getting ready for the start of a brand new year on January 1. It's a time for looking back at the past year and getting excited for what's to come.

Important Events in History

Ancient Times and Middle Ages (Before 1600)

• 406 – Groups like the Vandals and Alans crossed the Rhine River, starting an invasion of Gaul (which is mostly modern-day France).
• 535 – The Byzantine general Belisarius finished taking over Sicily, defeating the Ostrogoths in Palermo.
• 870 – In the Battle of Englefield, Vikings fought against Æthelwulf of Berkshire. The Vikings were pushed back, and many were defeated.
• 1105 – Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV had to give up his throne to his son, Henry V.
• 1225 – The Lý dynasty in Vietnam ended after 216 years. A new family, the Trần dynasty, began to rule.
• 1229 – James I the Conqueror, the King of Aragon, took over Medina Mayurqa (now Palma, Spain). This was part of the Christian reconquest of Majorca.
• 1501 – The First Battle of Cannanore began. This was one of the first times ships fought in a "line of battle" formation.
• 1600 – The British East India Company was officially started. This company became very powerful in trade.

Later History (1601–1900)

• 1687 – The first Huguenots (French Protestants) sailed from France to the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa.
• 1759 – Arthur Guinness signed a very long lease (9,000 years!) and started brewing his famous Guinness beer.
• 1775 – During the American Revolutionary War, British forces stopped an attack by American General Richard Montgomery in the Battle of Quebec.
• 1790 – Efimeris, the oldest Greek newspaper that still has copies today, was published for the first time.
• 1796 – Baltimore officially became a city.
• 1844 – The Philippines skipped this date! Monday, December 30, 1844, was followed immediately by Wednesday, January 1, 1845. This was done to align their time with other Asian trading partners.
• 1853 – A unique dinner party was held inside a huge model of an iguanodon dinosaur in south London, England.
• 1857 – Queen Victoria chose Ottawa, which was a small logging town, to be the capital of the Province of Canada.
• 1862 – During the American Civil War, Abraham Lincoln signed a law that made West Virginia a separate state, joining the Union.
• 1862 – The Battle of Stones River began near Murfreesboro, Tennessee, during the American Civil War.
• 1878 – Karl Benz in Mannheim, Germany, applied for a patent for his first reliable two-stroke gas engine.
• 1879 – Thomas Edison showed off his incandescent lighting to the public for the first time in Menlo Park, New Jersey.

Modern History (1901–Present)

• 1907 – The first ever ball drop happened in Times Square, New York City, to celebrate New Year's Eve.
• 1942 – The USS Essex, a very important aircraft carrier, was officially put into service.
• 1942 – During World War II, the Royal Navy defeated the German navy (Kriegsmarine) in the Battle of the Barents Sea.
• 1944 – World War II: Operation Nordwind, the last big German attack on the Western Front, began.
• 1946 – President Harry S. Truman officially announced the end of World War II.
• 1951 – The Marshall Plan, which helped rebuild Western Europe after World War II, ended. It had given over $13.3 billion in aid.
• 1955 – General Motors became the first U.S. company to earn over $1 billion in a single year.
• 1961 – RTÉ, Ireland's national broadcaster, started its first TV service.
• 1963 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland officially broke apart, forming the countries of Zambia, Malawi, and Rhodesia.
• 1968 – The Tupolev Tu-144, the world's first civilian supersonic airplane, had its first flight.
• 1983 – The huge AT&T phone company in the U.S. was broken up by the government.
• 1983 – Benjamin Ward became the first African American police commissioner for the New York City Police Department.
• 1991 – All official institutions of the Soviet Union stopped working, five days after the Soviet Union officially ended.
• 1992 – Czechoslovakia peacefully split into two new countries: the Czech Republic and Slovak Republic. This was called the Velvet Divorce.
• 1994 – This date was skipped in Kiribati as some of its islands changed time zones to be closer to the new day.
• 1995 – The very last comic strip of Calvin and Hobbes was published.
• 1999 – Boris Yeltsin, the first President of Russia, stepped down from office. Vladimir Putin became the acting president.
• 1999 – The U.S. government handed over control of the Panama Canal to Panama.
• 2004 – Taipei 101, which was the tallest skyscraper in the world at the time, officially opened. It stands at 509 meters (1,670 feet) tall.
• 2009 – A blue moon (the second full moon in a month) and a lunar eclipse happened on the same night.
• 2010 – Many tornadoes hit the Midwest and southern United States, causing damage and sadly, some deaths.
• 2011 – NASA successfully put the first of two Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory satellites into orbit around the Moon.
• 2014 – A terrible stampede happened during a New Year's Eve celebration in Shanghai, China, causing many injuries and deaths.
• 2015 – A fire broke out at a hotel in Downtown Dubai, near the Burj Khalifa, just before the New Year's fireworks show.
• 2019 – The World Health Organization learned about cases of pneumonia with an unknown cause in Wuhan, China. This later became known as COVID-19, which led to a worldwide pandemic.
• 2020 – The World Health Organization approved the first COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use.

Famous People Born on This Day

• 1491 – Jacques Cartier, a French explorer who mapped the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the Saint Lawrence River.
• 1514 – Andreas Vesalius, a Belgian doctor who was very important in studying the human body.
• 1720 – Charles Edward Stuart, a Scottish prince who tried to claim the throne of England.
• 1738 – Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis, a British general who fought in the American Revolutionary War.
• 1869 – Henri Matisse, a famous French painter and sculptor.
• 1878 – Elizabeth Arden, a Canadian businesswoman who started a well-known cosmetics company.
• 1880 – George Marshall, an American general and politician who won the Nobel Peace Prize for the Marshall Plan.
• 1908 – Simon Wiesenthal, an Austrian who hunted down former Nazis after World War II.
• 1937 – Anthony Hopkins, a famous Welsh actor.
• 1941 – Alex Ferguson, a very successful Scottish football manager.
• 1943 – John Denver, a popular American singer-songwriter.
• 1943 – Ben Kingsley, a well-known English actor.
• 1948 – Donna Summer, a famous American singer.
• 1959 – Val Kilmer, an American actor.
• 1977 – Psy, a South Korean musician famous for "Gangnam Style."
• 1995 – Gabby Douglas, an American gymnast and Olympic gold medalist.

Notable People Who Passed Away on This Day

• 192 – Commodus, a Roman emperor.
• 335 – Pope Sylvester I, an early pope.
• 1384 – John Wycliffe, an English philosopher and religious reformer.
• 1691 – Robert Boyle, an important Anglo-Irish chemist and physicist.
• 1775 – Richard Montgomery, an American general who died during the Battle of Quebec.
• 1872 – Aleksis Kivi, a famous Finnish author and playwright.
• 1877 – Gustave Courbet, a French painter.
• 1972 – Roberto Clemente, a beloved Puerto Rican-American baseball player.
• 1980 – Marshall McLuhan, a Canadian thinker known for his ideas about media.
• 1985 – Ricky Nelson, an American singer and actor.
• 2021 – Betty White, a very popular American actress and comedian.
• 2022 – Pope Benedict XVI, who was the leader of the Catholic Church from 2005 to 2013.

Holidays and Celebrations

• New Year's Eve is celebrated all over the world! It's a night for parties, fireworks, and counting down to the new year.
• In Azerbaijan, it's International Solidarity Day of Azerbaijanis.
• In Japan, it's Ōmisoka, a day for preparing for the new year.
• In Scotland, it's the first day of Hogmanay, their New Year's celebration.
• It's also the seventh of the Twelve Days of Christmas for many Christians.
• The sixth day of Kwanzaa is celebrated in the United States.

See also

In Spanish: 31 de diciembre para niños

• January 0