1600 – British East India Company chartered
1687 – The first Huguenots set sail from France for the Cape of Good Hope, where they later created the South African wine industry
1695 – The window tax was imposed in Britain, which resulted in many windows being bricked up.
1744 – English astronomer James Bradley announces discovery of Earth’s nutation motion
1857 – Britain’s Queen Victoria decided to make Ottawa the capital of Canada.
1877 – U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes became the first U.S. President to celebrate his silver (25th) wedding anniversary in the White House.
1897 – Brooklyn, NY, spent its last day as a separate entity before becoming part of New York City.
1904 – The first New Year’s Eve celebration is held in Times Square, then known as Longacre Square, in New York, New York.
1911 – Marie Curie receives her 2nd Nobel Prize
1923 – In London, the BBC first broadcast the chimes of Big Ben.
1929 – Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians played “Auld Lang Syne” as a New Year’s Eve song for the first time.
1935 – Charles Darrow patents Monopoly
1960 – The farthing coin, which had been in use in Great Britain since the 13th century, ceased to be legal tender.
1999 – Five hijackers left the airport where they had been holding 150 hostages on an Indian Airlines plane. They left with two Islamic clerics that they had demanded be freed from an Indian prison. The plane had been hijacked during a flight from Katmandu, Nepal to New Delhi on December 24.
2004 – In Taiwan, the Taipei 101 skyscraper opened to the public.
By: Archa Dave
