What happened on December 31 ?

406 - Vandals, Alans and Suebians cross the Rhine, beginning an invasion of Gallia.

1229 - James I of Aragon the Conqueror enters Medina Mayurqa (nowadays Palma de Mallorca, Spain) thus consuming the Christian conquest of the island of Mallorca.

1600 - British East India Company is chartered.

1687 - The first Huguenots set sail from France to the Cape of Good Hope.

1695 - A window tax is imposed in England, causing many shopkeepers to brick up their windows to avoid the tax.

1775 - American Revolutionary War: Battle of Quebec British forces repulse an attack by Continental Army generals Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold.

1831 - Gramercy Park is deeded to New York City.

1857 - Queen Victoria chooses Ottawa, Ontario, as the capital of Canada.

1862 - American Civil War: Abraham Lincoln signs an act that admits West Virginia to the Union (thus dividing Virginia in two).

1862 - American Civil War: The Battle of Stones River is fought near Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

1879 - Thomas Edison demonstrates incandescent lighting to the public for the first time.

1891 - A new immigration depot is opened on Ellis Island, New York.

1904 - The first New Year's Eve celebration is held in Times Square, then known as Longacre Square, in New York, New York.

1909 - Manhattan Bridge opens.

1916 - The Hampton Terrace Hotel in North Augusta, South Carolina, one of the largest and most luxurious hotels in the United States at the time, burns to the ground.

1923 - The chimes of Big Ben are broadcast on radio for the first time by the BBC.

1929 - Guy Lombardo performs Auld Lang Syne at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City for the first time.

1944 - World War II: Hungary declares war on Germany.

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

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

1960 - The farthing coin ceases to be legal tender in the United Kingdom.

1961 - The Marshall Plan expires after distributing more than USD $12 billion in foreign aid to rebuild Europe.

1963 - The Central African Federation officially collapses and splits into Zambia, Malawi and Rhodesia.

1968 - Marien Ngouabi assumed the presidency of the Republic of the Congo.

1983 - The AT&T Bell System is broken up by the United States Government.

1986 - A fire at the Dupont Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, kills 97 and injures 140.

1990 - Garry Kasparov holds his title by winning the World Chess Championship match against his countryman Anatoly Karpov.

1991 - The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is officially dissolved.

1991 - The civil war in El Salvador ends.

1992 - In the last of the great ITV franchise renewals, Thames Television, Television South West and Television South cease broadcasting, replaced by Carlton Television, Westcountry Television and Meridian Television respectively.

1994 - This date is skipped altogether in Kiribati, as the Phoenix Islands and Line Islands changed time zones from UTC-11 to UTC+13 and UTC-10 to UTC+14, respectively.

1995 - The last strip of the popular comic Calvin and Hobbes is published.

1997 - Quaker Oats settles a lawsuit involving the immoral use of child subjects.

1999 - Boris Yeltsin resigns as President of Russia, to be replaced by Vladimir Putin.

1999 - Five hijackers, who had been holding 155 hostages on an Indian Airlines plane, leave the plane with two Islamic clerics that they had demanded be freed.

1999 - At noon, according to the Torrijos-Carter Treaties, the United States Government handed Panama Canal control over to Panama. The Panama Canal Authority, the Panamanian Government Agency created to run the Canal, takes over.

2004 - The official opening of Taipei 101, the current tallest skyscraper in the world, standing at a height of 509 metres (1,670 feet).

2005 - AT&T and SBC Communications merge, SBC name is dropped. A new AT&T is formed.