December 31 is the 365th day of the year (366th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, as the final day of the Gregorian year.

Events:

406 - Vandals, Alans and Suebians cross the Rhine, beginning an invasion of Gallia
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: British forces repulse an attack by Continental Army generals Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold at the Battle of Quebec.
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).
1879 - Thomas Edison demonstrates incandescent lighting to the public for the first time (Menlo Park, New Jersey).
1916 - The Hampton Terrace Hotel in North Augusta, South Carolina, one of the largest and most luxurious hotels in the USA at the time, burns to the ground.
1929 - Guy Lombardo plays Auld Lang Syne for the first time
1944 - World War II: Hungary declares war on Germany
1946 - President Harry Truman officially proclaims an end of hostilities in World War II.
1955 - General Motors becomes the first American corporation to make over USD $1 billion in a year.
1960 - The farthing coin, used in Great Britain since the 13th century, ceases to be legal tender.
1961 - The Marshall Plan expires after distributing more than USD $12 billion in foreign aid to rebuild Europe.
1986 - A fire at the Dupont Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, kills 97 and injures 140.
1990 - Russian Gary Kasparov holds his title by winning the World Chess Championship match against his countryman Anatoly Karpov.
1995 - The publication of the last new Calvin and Hobbes cartoon strip.
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 - The Panama Canal comes completely under Panama's jurisdiction.

Births:

1514 - Andreas Vesal, physician († 1564)
1790 - Antoine Adamberger, actress († 1867)
1869 - Henri Matisse, painter and graphic artist († 1954)
1880 - George Marshall, recipient of Nobel Prize in Peace 1953 for the Marshall Plan († 1959)
1881 - Max Pechstein, painter and graphic artist († 1955)
1894 - Pola Negri, actress († 1987)
1905 - Jule Styne, composer († 1994)
1908 - Simon Wiesenthal, concentration camp survivor, activist
1920 - Rex Allen, actor, singer († 1999)
1930 - Odetta, singer
1932 - Mildred Scheel, physician, founder of Deutsche Krebsliga († 1985)
1932 - George Schlatter, television producer
1937 - Anthony Hopkins, actor
1941 - Alex Ferguson, football player and manager
1943 - John Denver, country/pop musician († 1997)
1943 - Ben Kingsley, actor
1945 - Taylor Hackford, producer, director
1945 - Diane von Fürstenberg, fashion designer
1947 - Burton Cummings, musician ("The Guess Who")
1948 - Donna Summer, singer
1951 - George Thorogood, musician
1959 - Val Kilmer, actor
1960 - John Allen Muhammad, convicted Beltway sniper
1980 - Fernando Courmanian, football player, economist and sport businessman

Deaths:

192 - Commodus, Roman Emperor
1384 - John Wyclif, theologian
1972 - Roberto Clemente, Baseball Hall of Famer
1980 - Marshall McLuhan, one of the founders of media studies
1980 - Raoul Walsh, film director
1985 - Rick Nelson, singer
1990 - Vasili Lazarev, cosmonaut
1993 - Zviad Gamsakhurdia, scientist and writer, first President of the Republic of Georgia
1993 - Brandon Teena, murder victim
1997 - Floyd Cramer, musician
1997 - Michael Kennedy, son of Robert F. Kennedy, is killed in a skiing accident on Aspen Mountain in Colorado.
1999 - Sarah Knauss, dies at the age of 119 years - at death, the world's oldest person alive. (b. 1880).
1999 - Elliot Richardson, U.S politician
2000 - José Greco, dancer
2000 - Alan Cranston, U.S politician

Holidays and observances:

The seventh day of Christmas in Western Christianity.
The evening is called New Year's Eve. In the Netherlands the traditional food is oil-dumpling. At 24:00 the beginning of the new year is celebrated, see January 1.
The day and evening are called Hogmanay in Scotland.
Bahá'í Faith - Feast of Sharaf (Honor) - First day of the 16th month of the Bahá'í Calendar

January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December