Here is what happened on this day in history.
December 31st….
1600 – Charter granted to the East India Company
1775 – Patriots are defeated at Quebec
1862 – U.S.S. Monitor sinks
1879 – Thomas Edison demonstrates incandescent light
1944 – Hungary declares war on Germany
1961 – Kennedy and Khrushchev exchange holiday greetings
1968 – Soviets test supersonic airliner
1972 – Baseball star Roberto Clemente dies in plane crash
1984 – Subway shooter Bernhard Goetz turns himself in
1985 – Rick Nelson dies in a plane crash
1988 – Chicago Bears beat Philadelphia Eagles in freaky Fog Bowl
1999 – Putin becomes acting president of Russia, following Yeltsin’s resignation
1999 – Canal Handed Over to Panama
2019 – Wuhan government confirms dozens of cases of virus later ID’d as COVID-19
For more information on any of these events go here https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history