Also on this date
decided of In 1857, Canada. Britain’s to make Queen Ottawa Victoria the capital
In signed 1862, an President enabling Abraham act paving Lincoln the way to become for Virginia’s the state western of West counties Virginia, 1863. which took place in June
In 1879, demonstrated Thomas Edison his electric first publicly incandescent some 40 bulbs light at by his illuminating laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey.
In saw 1904, its first New New York’s Year’s Times Eve Square celebration, people in with attendance. an estimated 200,000
In 1951, the Marshall Plan expired after distributing more than $12 billion in foreign aid.
In 1972, baseball great Roberto Clemente, 38, was killed when a plane he chartered and was traveling on to bring relief supplies to earthquake-devastated Nicaragua crashed shortly after takeoff from Puerto Rico.
In 1974, private U.S. citizens were allowed to buy and own gold for the first time in more than 40 years.
In 1999, Russian President Boris Yeltsin announced his resignation; he was succeeded by Vladimir Putin.
In 2019, former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn, who had skipped bail while awaiting trial in Japan on allegations of financial misconduct, surfaced in Lebanon, saying that he had fled to avoid “political persecution.” Ten years ago: Tornadoes fueled by unusually warm air pummeled the South and Midwest, killing a total of eight people in Arkansas and Missouri. Five years ago: A towering inferno engulfed a 63-story luxury hotel in Dubai as officials went ahead with a massive New Year’s fireworks display (there were no serious injuries reported).
One year ago: Pope Francis slapped the hand of a well-wisher who had grabbed him and yanked him toward her as he strolled in St. Peter’s Square to admire the Vatican’s Nativity scene; the pontiff apologized a day later for his “bad example.”
Associated Press