history at a glance

TODAY is Sunday December 31 the 365th day of the year. It is the last day of the year. Highlights in history on this date:

1907 – The first New Year’s Eve celebration is held in Times Square (then known as Longacre

Square) in Manhattan. 1944 – World War II: Hungary declares war on Nazi Germany. 1944 – World War II: Operation Nordwind, the last major German offensive on the Western

Front begins. 1946 – President Harry S. Truman officially proclaims the end of hostilities in World War II. 1951 – The Marshall Plan expires after distributing more than US$13.3 billion in foreign aid to

rebuild Europe. 1955 – General Motors becomes the first US corporation to make over US$1 billion in a year. 1963 – The Central African Federation officially collapses, subsequently becoming Zambia,

Malawi and Rhodesia. 1965 – Jean-Bédel Bokassa, leader of the Central African Republic army, and his military officers begins a coup d’état against the government of President David Dacko. 1968 – The first flight of the Tupolev Tu-144, the first civilian supersonic transport. 1981 – A coup d’état in Ghana removes President Hilla Limann’s PNP government and replaces

it with the Provisional National Defence Council led by Flight lieutenant Jerry Rawlings. 1983 – In Nigeria a coup d’état led by Major General Muhammadu Buhari ends the Second

Nigerian Republic. 1986 – Arson at the Dupont Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico kills 97 people and injures

140. 1991 – All official Soviet Union institutions have ceased operations by this date 5 days after

the Soviet Union is officially dissolved. 1992 – Czechoslovakia is peacefully dissolved in what is dubbed by media as the Velvet Divorce, resulting in the creation of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. 1994 – This date is skipped altogether in Kiribati as the Phoenix Islands and Line Islands change time zones from UTC-11:00 to UTC+13:00 and UTC-10:00 to UTC+14:00, respectively. 1994 – The First Chechen War: Russian army began a New Year’s storming of Grozny. 1998 – The European Exchange Rate Mechanism freezes the values of the legacy currencies in

the Eurozone, and establishes the value of the euro currency. 1999 – First President of Russia, Boris Yeltsin, resigns from office, leaving Prime Minister

Vladimir Putin as the acting President and successor. 1999 – The United States Government hands control of the Panama Canal (as well all the adjacent land to the canal known as the Panama Canal Zone) to Panama. This act complied with the signing of the 1977 Torrijos–Carter Treaties. 1999 – Indian Airlines Flight 814 hijacking ended after seven days with the release of 190

survivors at Kandahar Airport, Afghanistan. 2004 – The official opening of Taipei 101, the tallest skyscraper at that time in the world,

standing at a height of 509 metres (1,670 ft). 2009 – Both a blue moon and a lunar eclipse occur. 2011 – NASA succeeds in putting the first of two Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory

satellites in orbit around the Moon. 2014 – A New Year’s Eve celebration stampede in Shanghai kills at least 36 people and injures

49 others. 2015 – A fire broke out at the Downtown Address Hotel in Downtown Dubai, United Arab Emirates located near the Burj Khalifa 2 hours before the fireworks display was due to commence. 16 injuries were reported; one had a heart attack, another suffered a major injury, and fourteen others with minor injuries,