| As the earth is not a sphere, but has protuberant parts at the equator, the attraction of the moon exercises on those protuberant parts a pulling effect which continually changes the direction of the earth's axis, and consequently the position of the pole must be in a state of incessant fluctuation. |
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| When delegates from the New England states met at Providence, Rhode Island, at the close of 1776, they recommended a series of sweeping controls. At the end of January the Providence Convention's proceedings were laid before Congress with a recommendation for endorsement. In the spirited debate that ensued, radical leaders like Samuel Adams and Richard Henry Lee defended the measures as "promoting Liberty and happiness." Their opponents, capitalizing on popular objections to a revival of mercantilist controls, charged the New England states with usurping the powers of Congress. Limit is 70¢ a day for carpenters, 42¢ for tailors |
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| On May 17, 1781, Robert Morris proposed the plan for a bank to Congress, which scheme met the approval of that body, and it recommended that the several States should interdict any other banks or bankers from carrying on business within their territory during the war. Congress, Dec. 31, 1781, incorporated the Bank of North America with a capital of two million dollars, most of this being subscribed from abroad through the influence of Morris. |
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| The Queen's advisors had her pick Ottawa for two important reasons: first, it was the only settlement of any significant size located right on the border of Canada East and Canada West (Quebec/Ontario border today), making it a compromise between the two colonies and their French and English populations; second, the War of 1812 had shown how vulnerable the major cities were to American attack, since they were all located very close to the border; third, the government owned a large parcel of land on a spectacular spot overlooking the Ottawa River. |
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| Shortly after midnight on December 31, 1862, while under tow by the USS Rhode Island to Beaufort, North Carolina, the Monitor sank in a gale off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. Water poured in around the turret faster than the pumps could remove it. Reluctantly, the captain gave the order to abandon ship. Sixteen crewmen lost their lives. Two were lost while attempting to cut the tow line to the Rhode Island, and others were swept overboard while attempting to reach the lifeboats; it is not known how many went down with the ship. |
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| A patent was issued to J.D. Schneiter who wanted to use "postal rockets" to deliver messages from inhabitants and troops in besieged cities. The first known use of rocket mail was, however, was in Niuafo'ou, Tonga in 1902. |
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| In 1879, inventor Thomas Edison first publicly demonstrated his electric incandescent light in Menlo Park, New Jersey. This was not the first electric light, however, since arc lights were already in use for illumination of large areas, such as department stores and streets lighting. Edison's lamp was the first to be practical, because he had solved problems with short-lived filaments. After testing many materials, he found a suitable carbonized filament. He also created a good vacuum in the globe, to remove oxygen. |
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| "The Pirates of Penzance" made its triumphant premiere at the Fifth Avenue Theater in New York on New Year's Eve, 1879. However, the partners still needed to secure British copyright. Under the laws of the time, this required an actual "performance". To prevent details of the new opera from becoming widely known, the first performance was given at the tiny Royal Bijou Theatre in the seaside town of Paignton. Originally announced for Monday, December 29, it was postponed by a day because the performing materials - coming from America on the ship Bothnia - had only just arrived, and the Company needed a day to rehearse. |
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| To enhance the prestige of Hawai`i overseas and to mark her status as a modern nation, the Hawaiian government appropriated funds to build a new palace. The cornerstone for `Iolani Palace was laid on December 31, 1879 with full Masonic rites. |  |
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| An independent city prior to 1898, Brooklyn developed out of the small Dutch-founded town of "Breuckelen" on the East River shore of Long Island, named after Breukelen in the Netherlands. Were it still a city, and not a borough, it would be the fourth-largest city in the United States after New York City itself, Los Angeles and Chicago. |
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| The New Year’s Eve Ball first descended from a flagpole at One Times Square, constructed with iron and wood materials with 100 25-watt bulbs weighing 700 pounds and measuring 5 feet in diameter. |  |
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| Marie Curie was awarded the Nobel Prize in recognition of her services to the advancement of chemistry by the discovery of the elements radium and polonium, by the isolation of radium and the study of the nature and compounds of this remarkable element. |  |
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| Following a football celebration, Tom Sterling is tricked into marrying Carmen Mendoza, a chorus girl; and while awaiting a divorce decree, he unexpectedly inherits $3 million. Tom rescues Kid Boots, a tailor's helper, from the irate clutches of a customer; and The Kid follows him to his apartment, where Carmen tries to prove that her marriage is a success so that she may share the fortune. |  |
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| In 1929 they began a 33-year residency at the Roosevelt Grill in New York. The broadcast (and later, the telecast) by CBS of the Royal Canadians' annual New Year's Eve performance at the Roosevelt Grill (and later at the grand ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria) became a traditional part of festivities throughout North America; the orchestra's rendition at the stroke of midnight of 'Auld Lang Syne' (a song that had been part of its repertoire since the days when it played in Scottish communities near London) was heard by millions of celebrants. |
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| In May 1934, Richey won the main race at the first National Air Meet for Women in Dayton. Richey was the female pilot to be hired to fly as a pilot of a commercial scheduled passenger carrier when Greensburg, PA's Dick Coulter's Central Airlines hired her on December 13, 1934. She was the only woman to train Army pilots and the first woman hired to pilot a scheduled airliner (Penn Central Airline) and the first woman to be sworn in as a United States air mail pilot, both occurring in 1934. |
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| In 1935, a patent was issued for the game of Monopoly assigned to Parker Brothers, Inc., by Charles Darrow of Pennsylvania. The patent titled it a "Board Game Apparatus" and described it as "intended primarily to provide a game of barter, thus involving trading and bargaining" in which "much of the interest in the game lies in trading and in striking shrewd bargains." Illustrations included with the patent showed not only the playing board and pieces, but also 22 "Title cards of the respective Real Estate holdings," Utilities, Chance and Community Chest cards, and the scrip money. The play of the game was described that on the throw of the dice, the players may move onto Real Estate locations which they then acquire. |
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| In 1938, the "drunkometer," the first breath test for car drivers, invented by Dr Rolla N. Harger of Indiana University School of Medicine, was officially introduced in Indianapolis. It was the first successful machine for testing human blood alcohol content by breath analysis. By 1948, Harger and other IU faculty began one-week courses on breath alcohol testing sponsored by the National Safety Council's Committee on Tests for Intoxication. Robert F. Borkenstein, an instructor on those courses later invented the Breathalyzer (1954), a more practical, highly portable instrument for testing breath alcohol. |
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| In 1943 he was booked as a supporting act to the Benny Goodman band at New York’s Paramount Theatre. Goodman remarked that when he introduced Frank the theatre filled with screams of over 3000 female fans. A new type of celebrity was born. Sinatra crooned romantic ballads and produced the bobby-sox phenomena. |  |
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| Laine’s film career focused on the main themes of western movies such as “Man With A Star”, the celebrated “High Noon”, “Gunfight At The OK Corral” and the “Rawhide” television series. Each enhanced the dramatic, heavily masculine style favoured by Laine's producer, Mitch Miller. He is best known for his 1949 hit "Mule Train", one of the most dramatic and impassioned recordings of its era. |  |
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| In 1951, the first battery to convert radioactive energy to electrical was announced. Invented by Philip Edwin Ohmart of Cincinnati, Ohio, it consisted of two electrochemically dissimilar electrodes separated by a filling gas that was ionized by exposure to the nuclear energy to produce electrical current. |
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| First heard on Mutual Network sponsored by Kellogg, and then by other advertisers, "Wild Bill Hickok" was a solid cowboy hero of the kids. He and his sidekick "Jingles," played to the hilt by Andy Devine, rode through the west looking for adventure and getting it. Remember their horses? Wild Bill rode "Buckshot," and Jingles rode "Joker." Guy Madison played Marshal Wild Bill Hickok on radio and TV, with Andy Devine as Jingles. Hollywood actors did the bad guys and townsfolk. Charlie Lion did the announcing, and was "Panhandle Jim" for the Corn Pops commercials. |
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| The Marshall Plan, known officially following its enactment as the European Recovery Program (ERP), was the primary plan of the United States for rebuilding the allied countries of Europe and repelling communism after World War II. The initiative was named for United States Secretary of State George Marshall and was largely the creation of State Department officials. |  |
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| Racing people frequently refer to Shoemaker's "soft hands," hands that took the reins of a horse and made "Shoe" the boss. Those hands guided 8,833 winners, a world record that would stand until broken by Laffit Pincay Jr. in 1999. In 1953, Shoemaker set the record for most winners (485) in a year -- a mark that held up for 20 years. |  |
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| Through 1976, he released a total of eighty-three albums on the label--and literally scores of single records, including his classic version of Merle Travis' timeless anthem to the working man, "Sixteen Tons"... at the time of it's release, the fastest selling single in Capitol's history. |  |
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| From July 1957 to December 1958 an international cooperative scientific program was conducted to study the earth and its environment. This program was the International Geophysical Year. More than 70 countries participated in the project which led to the discovery of the Van Allen radiation belts around planets, the theory of plate tectonics, exploration of outer space, construction of earth satellites, and increased research in the Arctic and Antarctic polar regions. IGY was sponsored by the International Council of Scientific Unions and involved nearly 30,000 scientists. |
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| When Castro and his forces swept down from the mountains, Batista's army surrendered or deserted. Cuban soldiers knew that Batista could not survive. In December, the dictator began flying his family out of the country. Some arrived in Jacksonville, Florida and were cursed at the airport. Batista left Cuba on December 31, 1958. |  |
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| After being known as The Pendletones, Kenny and the Cadets, and Carl and the Passions, a new group emerged this day: The Beach Boys. The early inspirations of the group were the Wilsons' musician father, Murry, and the close vocal harmonies of groups such as The Four Freshmen. The group performed initially as The Pendletones, after the Pendleton woolen shirts popular then. Although surfing motifs were very prominent in their early songs, Dennis was the sole actual surfer in the group. He suggested to his brothers that they do some songs celebrating his hobby and the lifestyle which had developed around it in Southern California. |
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| The soundtrack album for "GI Blues" enters the Billboard album chart and soon goes to number one. It remains number one for ten weeks and stays on the chart for 111 weeks. It would be the most successful album of Elvis's entire career on the Billboard charts. |  |
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| But as each of the newly-named "Beach Boys" earned only about $200 from that moment of fame, in early '62 (even though the group had made their live performing debut on December 31, 1961 at a Ritchie Valens memorial concert), the record business probably felt more like a hobby than a job. After all, Carl and Dennis were still in high school, Al and Brian were in college and Mike was 20 and working a full-time job. |  |
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| The American Basketball League played one full season, 1961-1962, and part of 1962-1963. The league actually folded on December 31, 1962. The ABL was the first basketball league to have a three point shot for baskets scored far away from the goal. The league was formed when basketball mogul Abe Saperstein did not get the Los Angeles NBA franchise he felt he had been promised in return for his years of supporting the NBA with doubleheader games featuring his Harlem Globetrotters. |
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| "The Match Game" premiered December 31, 1962 continuing through September 26, 1969 on NBC. This series had two three-person teams, each with one celebrity and two civillian contestants, attempting to match answers to simple audience-survey or fill-in-the-blank questions. |
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| On New Year's Eve, 1963, 16-year-old Weir and another underage friend were wandering the back alleys of Palo Alto, looking for a club that would admit them, when they heard banjo music. They followed the music to its source, "Dana Morgan's Music Store," where a young Jerry Garcia, oblivious to the date, was waiting on his students to arrive. Weir and Garcia spent the night playing music together and then decided to form a band. The band they formed was Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions, which became the Warlocks, and then the Grateful Dead. |
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| Campbell set seven world water-speed records between 1955 and 1964. The first was at Lake Ullswater on July 23, 1955, where he set a record of 203 mph (325 km/h). The series of increases peaked in December 31, 1964 at Dumbleyung Lake, Western Australia when he reached 276.33 mph. |  |
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| Neil Diamond wrote this song and performed it on one of his albums that came out a few months after the Monkee's cover version. The Monkees version was far more popular because of the exposure the song was given on their television series. Monkees drummer Micky Dolenz sang lead on this. |  |
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| Playing in a wind chill of 40 degrees below zero, the Green Bay Packers won the National Football League championship game by defeating Tom Landry’s Dallas Cowboys, 21-17. The game, played at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin was called the Ice Bowl. During the game, the whistles of the referees actually froze to their lips, which was no problem until the referees tried to remove those whistles (ouch!). It turned out to be the coldest championship game ever. |
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| From the end of December , 1968, the machine was completely ready to perform the first flight. And finally on the last day of 1968 “044” lifted-off in Zhukovskiy for the first time and rapidly climbed. The first flight lasted for 37 minutes. |  |
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| With the death of our 34th president Dwight David Eisenhower, legislation was introduced into Congress calling for a dollar coin depicting his likeness. Up to that time, the last circulating dollar that had been produced was the Peace dollar minted from 1921 through in 1935. Both the obverse and the reverse of the coin were designed by Frank Gasparro. The Eisenhower dollar began circulating in 1971. |  |
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| The Earth is rotating slower and slower over time, while the atomic clocks are not slowing down. On one average day the difference is around 0.002 seconds, which means around 1 second in 500 days. In order to synchronize the atomic clocks with the Earth's observed rotation, the atomic clocks are occasionally instructed to add an extra second the leap second. Leap seconds are inserted so that the difference between the UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) and UT1 (mean solar time - observed Earth rotation) is kept below 0.9 seconds. |
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| From 1933 to 1974 it was illegal for U.S. citizens to own gold in the form of gold bullion, without a special license. On January 1, 1975, these restrictions were lifted and gold can now be freely held in the U. S. without any licensing or restrictions of any kind. |
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| Jim "Catfish" Hunter, the Hall of Fame hurler who helped the Oakland A's and the New York Yankees win six pennants in the 1970's, pitched a perfect game and was part of an economic revolution in sports as the first big-money free agent, signing a $3.75 million 5 year contract with the Yankees. |  |
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| By the mid-'70s, Fleetwood Mac had relocated to California, where they added the soft rock duo of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks to their lineup. Obsessed with the meticulously arranged pop of the Beach Boys and the Beatles, Buckingham helped the band become one of the most popular groups of the late '70s. |  |
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| The January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics Magazine is probably the most important publication in the history of the Microcomputer. The Altair 8800 was the first commercially successful microcomputer. In the Editorial of this issue the Altair is announced as a "Home computer". |  |
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| After spending the winter of 1976 in Ric Ocasek's basement working on a new collection of songs, The Cars were soon signed to Elektra Records (instead of Arista). But this time they had to go out and get themselves discovered rather than waiting for a record company to come to them. The brass at Elektra liked what they were hearing on the radio: a demo version of "Just What I Needed," which would go on to become The Cars' first single on their debut album. |
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| The Bee Gees wrote this for American singer Yvonne Elliman. Robert Stigwood, who produced the movie "Saturday Night Fever", insisted the Bee Gees perform it themselves for the soundtrack. Elliman did sing "If I Can't Have You," which was written by The Bee Gees and included on the soundtrack. That song was also a #1 hit in the US. "How Deep Is Your Love" won the 1977 Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance By A Group. It stayed in the Top-10 for 17 weeks, which was a record at the time. |
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| In December 1978 the U.S. Government accepted the three principles proposed by the Chinese Government for the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, namely, the United States should sever "diplomatic relations" and abrogate the "mutual defense treaty" with the Taiwan authorities and withdraw U.S. military forces from Taiwan. On 1 January 1979 China and the United States formally established diplomatic relations. |
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| In February 1977 President Jimmy Carter nominated Admiral Turner to be Director of Central Intelligence. In this capacity, he headed both the Intelligence Community and the Central Intelligence Agency. He was responsible for developing new procedures for closer oversight of the Intelligence Community by the Congress and the White House, he led the Intelligence Community in adapting to a new era of real time photographic satellites, and he instituted major management reform at the CIA. |
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| “Say, Say, Say” was a 1983 hit single for Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson, produced by George Martin. It was taken from McCartney's album “Pipes of Peace,” and was the second successful duet by McCartney and Jackson, the first being "The Girl Is Mine." |  |
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| Poison lead singer Bret Michaels wrote this in response to a failed love affair with a Los Angeles stripper. After playing at a bar in Dallas, Texas, Michaels called his girlfriend at her Los Angeles apartment and heard a man's voice in the background. The next day the disconsolate Michaels took his acoustic guitar with him to a Laundromat and wrote the song right there. |  |
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| Written and drawn by Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes debuted in 1985 and featured the adventures of Calvin, a hyperactive, overly imaginative, bratty six-year-old, and his best friend, the stuffed tiger Hobbes. Other regularly appearing characters included Calvin's stressed out parents; Susie Derkins, the neighborhood girl; Miss Wormwood, the much put-upon school teacher; Mo, the school bully; and Rosalyn, the only baby-sitter willing to watch Calvin. |  |
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| In an attempt to nudge its Microsoft Network into a more competetive position (vs. America Online), Microsoft announced the purchase of Hotmail, the free Web-based e-mail service. |  |
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New Year's Eve, the last evening of the Gregorian calendar year,
traditionally a night for merry-making to welcome in the new year.
1744 James Bradley announces discovery of Earth's
motion of nutation (wobble)
More ...
1776 Rhode Island establishes wage & price
controls to curb inflation
More ...
1781 Bank of North America, first US bank opens
More ...
1857 Queen Victoria chose Ottawa as new capital
of Canada
More ...
1861 75.5 feet of rain falls in Cherrapunji Assam
in 1861, world record
1862 Union ironclad ship "Monitor" sinks
off Cape Hatteras NC
More ...
1870 J D Schneiter patents rocket mail in France
More ...
1879 Edison gives first public demonstration of
his incandescent lamp
More ...
1879 Gilbert/Sullivan's "Pirates of Penzance"
premieres in New York NY
More ...
1879 Cornerstone laid for Iolani Palace (only
royal palace in US)
More ...
1896 25th auto built in US
1897 Brooklyn's last day as a city, it incorporates
into NYC (1/1/1898)
More ...
1907 For the first time a ball drops at Times
Square to signal the new year
More ...
1911 Marie Curie receives her 2nd Nobel Prize
More ...
1923 First transatlantic radio broadcast of a
voice, Pittsburgh-Manchester
1923 Singer Eddie Cantor opened in the lead role
of "Kid Boots"
More ...
1929 Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians debut
"Auld Lang Syne"
More ...
1934 Helen Richey becomes first woman to pilot
an airmail transport
More ...
1935 Charles Darrow patents Monopoly
More ...
1938 Dr R N Harger's "drunkometer",
first breath test, introduced in Indiana
More ...
1943 NYC's Times Square greets Frank Sinatra at
the Paramount Theater
More ...
1946 President Truman officially proclaims end
of WWII
1949 "Mule Train" by Frankie Laine topped
the charts.
More ...
1951 First battery to convert radioactive energy
to electrical announced
More ...
1951 The "Wild Bill Hickok" TV series
premieres on radio
More ...
1951 Marshall Plan expires after distributing
more than $12 billion
More ...
1953 Willie Shoemaker shatters record, riding
485 winners in a year
More ...
1955 General Motors became the first U.S. corporation
to earn more than one billion dollars in a single year
1955 "Sixteen Tons" by Tennessee Ernie
Ford topped the charts
More ...
1958 International Geophysical Year ends
More ...
1958 Willie Shoemaker first jockey to win national
riding championship 4X
1958 Cuban dictator Batista flees
More ...
1960 The Pendletones become The Beach Boys
More ...
1960 "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" by
Elvis Presley topped the charts
More ...
1961 Green Bay Packers shutout New York Giants
37-0 in NFL championship game
1961 Beach Boys play their debut gig under that
name
More ...
1962 American Basketball League announces suspension
of operation
More ...
1962 "Match Game" debuts on NBC with
host Gene Rayburn
More ...
1962 Ohio ends suit against Reds when they agree
to stay in Cincinnati for 10 years
1963 Dear Abby show premieres on CBS radio (runs
11 years)
1963 Jerry Garcia & Bob Weir played music
together for the first time
More ...
1964 Donald Campbell (UK) sets world water speed
record (276.33 mph)
More ...
1966 Monkee's "I'm a Believer" hits
#1 & stays there for 7 weeks
More ...
1967 First NBA game at Great Western Forum, Los
Angeles Lakers beat Houston 147-118
1967 Packers win "The Ice Bowl"
More ...
1968 First supersonic airliner flown (Russian
Tupolev TU-144)
More ...
1970 Congress authorizes the Eisenhower dollar
coin
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1972 Leap second day; also in 1973-79, 1987, 1998
More ...
1974 Gold legal in US, Franklin Mint strikes Panamá's
Gold 100 balboa coin
More ...
1974 Free agent pitcher Catfish Hunter signs with
Yankees
More ...
1974 Lindsey Buckingham & Stevie Nicks join
Fleetwood Mac
More ...
1974 Popular Electronics displays Altair 8800
computer
More ...
1976 The Cars play their first gig
More ...
1977 "How Deep Is Your Love" by the
Bee Gees topped the charts
More ...
1978 Taiwan's final day of diplomatic relations
with the US
More ...
1978 "Magic Show" closes at Cort Theater
NYC after 1859 performances
1978 CIA director, Admiral Stansfield Turner retires
from the Navy
More ...
1980 New York Islanders greatest shutout margin
(9-0) vs Chicago Black Hawks
1981 CNN Headline News debuts
1983 "Say, Say, Say" by Paul McCartney
& Michael Jackson topped the charts
More ...
1988 "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" by Poison
topped the charts
More ...
1989 Fog Bowl: Heavy fog rolls in on Bears 20-12
victory over Eagles
1989 Jockey Kent Desormeaux sets record with 598
wins in a year
1990 The Sci-Fi Channel on cable TV begins transmitting
1993 Barbra Streisand does her first live public
concert in 20 years
1994 First snowless December in Baltimore MD
1995 Cartoonist Bill Watterson ends his "Calvin
& Hobbes" comic strip
More ...
1997 Microsoft purchases Hotmail
More ...
1999 Control of Panamá Canal reverts to
Panamá