Editing December 31 (section)

===1901–present===
*[[1906]] &ndash; [[Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar]] signs the [[Persian Constitution of 1906]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Great Britain. Foreign and Commonwealth Office|title=British and Foreign State Papers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GNIMAQAAIAAJ|year=1927|publisher=H.M. Stationery Office|page=75}}</ref>
*[[1907]] &ndash; The first ever [[Times Square Ball|ball drop]] in [[Times Square]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Deconstructed – Times Square Ball – Lots of Sparkle for a Swift Fall|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/27/nyregion/27ball.html?ref=nyregion&gwh=DFA1FDC3A94D96DE864D020AB6405314|work=The New York Times|access-date=January 15, 2013|first=Alan|last=Feuer|date=December 27, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211125103445/https://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/27/nyregion/27ball.html?ref=nyregion&gwh=DFA1FDC3A94D96DE864D020AB6405314 |archive-date=25 November 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref>
*[[1942]] &ndash; [[USS Essex (CV-9)|USS ''Essex'']], first aircraft carrier of a 24-ship class, is [[Ship commissioning|commissioned.]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Essex IV (CV-9) |url=https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/e/essex-iv.html |access-date=2020-12-26 |website=NHHC |language=en-US }}</ref>
*  1942   &ndash; [[World War II]]: The [[Royal Navy]] defeats the [[Kriegsmarine]] at the [[Battle of the Barents Sea]]. This leads to the resignation of [[Grand Admiral]] [[Erich Raeder]] a month later.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kappes |first=Irwin |title=The Battle of the Barents Sea |url=https://www.german-navy.de/kriegsmarine/articles/feature5.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211006170208/https://www.german-navy.de/kriegsmarine/articles/feature5.html |archive-date=2021-10-06 |access-date=2021-12-31 |website=www.german-navy.de}}</ref>
*[[1944]] &ndash; World War II: [[Operation Nordwind]], the last major [[Wehrmacht]] offensive on the [[Western Front (World War II)|Western Front]], begins.
*[[1946]] &ndash; President [[Harry S. Truman]] officially proclaims the [[Proclamation 2714|end of hostilities]] in World War II.
*[[1951]] &ndash; [[Cold War]]: The [[Marshall Plan]] expires after distributing more than US$13.3 billion in foreign aid to rebuild [[Western Europe]].
*[[1955]] &ndash; [[General Motors]] becomes the first U.S. corporation to make over US$1 billion in a year.
*[[1956]] &ndash; The [[Romanian Television]] network begins its first broadcast in [[Bucharest]].
*[[1961]] &ndash; [[RTÉ]], Ireland's state broadcaster, launches its first national television service.
*[[1963]] &ndash; [[Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland|The Central African Federation]] officially collapses, subsequently becoming [[Zambia]], [[Malawi]] and [[Rhodesia]].
*[[1965]] &ndash; [[Jean-Bédel Bokassa]], leader of the [[Central African Republic]] army, and his military officers [[Saint-Sylvestre coup d'état|begin a coup d'état]] against the government of [[List of heads of state of the Central African Republic and Central African Empire|President]] [[David Dacko]].
*[[1968]] &ndash; The first flight of the [[Tupolev Tu-144]], the first civilian supersonic transport in the world.
*  1968   &ndash; [[MacRobertson Miller Airlines Flight 1750]] crashes near [[Port Hedland, Western Australia]], killing all 26 people on board.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Ranter|first=Harro|title=ASN Aircraft accident Vickers 720C Viscount VH-RMQ Port Hedland, WA|url=https://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19681231-2|url-status=live|access-date=2021-12-29|website=aviation-safety.net|publisher=[[Aviation Safety Network]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050527210458/http://aviation-safety.net:80/database/record.php?id=19681231-2 |archive-date=2005-05-27 }}</ref>
*[[1981]] &ndash; A [[coup d'état]] in [[Ghana]] removes [[List of heads of state of Ghana|President]] [[Hilla Limann]]'s [[People's National Party (Ghana)|PNP]] [[Limann government|government]] and replaces it with the [[Provisional National Defence Council]] led by [[Flight lieutenant]] [[Jerry Rawlings]].
*[[1983]] &ndash; The [[AT&T Corporation|AT&T]] [[Bell System]] is broken up by the [[Federal government of the United States|United States Government]].
*  1983   &ndash; [[Benjamin Ward]] is appointed [[New York City Police Department]]'s first ever [[African Americans|African American]] [[New York City Police Commissioner|police commissioner]].
*  1983   &ndash; In [[Nigeria]], a [[1983 Nigerian coup d'état|coup d'état]] led by Major General [[Muhammadu Buhari]] ends the [[Second Nigerian Republic]].
*[[1991]] &ndash; All official [[Soviet Union]] institutions have ceased operations by this date, five days after the Soviet Union is [[Dissolution of the Soviet Union|officially dissolved]].
*[[1992]] &ndash; [[Czechoslovakia]] is [[Dissolution of Czechoslovakia|peacefully dissolved]] in what is dubbed by media as the ''Velvet Divorce'', resulting in the creation of the [[Czech Republic]] and the [[Slovakia|Slovak Republic]].
*[[1994]] &ndash; 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   &ndash; The [[First Chechen War]]: The [[Russian Ground Forces]] begin a [[Battle of Grozny (1994–95)|New Year's storming]] of [[Grozny]].
*  [[1995]] &ndash; The final comic of [[Calvin and Hobbes]] is published.<ref name="CC+H_final_strip">[[Calvin and Hobbes#CITEREFWatterson2005|Watterson (2005)]]. vol. 3, p. 481. Comic originally published December 31, 1995.</ref>
*[[1998]] &ndash; The [[European Exchange Rate Mechanism]] freezes the values of the legacy currencies in the [[Eurozone]], and establishes the value of the [[euro]] currency.
*[[1999]] &ndash; The first [[President of Russia]], [[Boris Yeltsin]], resigns from office, leaving [[Prime Minister of Russia|Prime Minister]] [[Vladimir Putin]] as the [[Acting President of Russia|acting President]] and successor.
*  1999   &ndash; The U.S. 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   &ndash; [[Indian Airlines Flight 814]] hijacking ends after seven days with the release of 190 survivors at [[Kandahar Airport]], [[Afghanistan]].
*[[2001]] &ndash; Rwanda adopts a new [[Flag of Rwanda|national flag]] and [[Rwanda Nziza|anthem]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Vesperini |first=Helen |title=Rwanda unveils new flag and anthem |date=31 December 2001 |work=[[BBC News]]  |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1735405.stm |access-date=24 August 2024 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031105035109/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1735405.stm |archive-date=5 November 2003}}</ref>
*[[2004]] &ndash; The official opening of [[Taipei 101]], the [[List of tallest buildings and structures in the world|tallest]] [[skyscraper]] at that time in the world, standing at a height of {{convert|509|m|ft}}.
*[[2009]] &ndash; Both a [[blue moon]] and a [[December 2009 lunar eclipse|lunar eclipse]] occur.
*[[2010]] &ndash; [[2010 New Year's Eve tornado outbreak|Tornadoes]] touch down in [[Midwestern United States|midwestern]] and [[southern United States]], including [[Washington County, Arkansas]]; [[Greater St. Louis]], [[Sunset Hills, Missouri]], [[Illinois]], and [[Oklahoma]], with a few tornadoes in the early hours. A total of 36 tornadoes touched down, resulting in the deaths of nine people and $113 million in damages.
*[[2011]] &ndash; [[NASA]] succeeds in putting the first of two [[Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory]] [[satellite]]s in orbit around the [[Moon]].
*[[2014]] &ndash; A New Year's Eve celebration [[2014 Shanghai stampede|stampede]] in [[Shanghai]] kills at least 36 people and injures 49 others.
*[[2015]] &ndash; A fire breaks out at the Downtown Address Hotel in [[Downtown Dubai]], [[United Arab Emirates]], located near the [[Burj Khalifa]], two hours before the [[fireworks]] display is due to commence. Sixteen injuries were reported; one had a heart attack, another suffered a major injury, and fourteen others with minor injuries.
*[[2018]] &ndash; Thirty-nine people are killed after [[2018 Magnitogorsk building collapse|a ten-story building collapses]] in the industrial city of [[Magnitogorsk]], Russia.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/03/death-toll-rises-in-russian-apartment-block-collapse |title=Death toll rises to 39 in Russian apartment block collapse |date=2019-01-03 |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=2019-01-07}}</ref>
*[[2019]] &ndash; The [[World Health Organization]] is informed of cases of pneumonia with an unknown cause, detected in [[Wuhan]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Pneumonia of unknown cause – China |url=https://www.who.int/csr/don/05-january-2020-pneumonia-of-unkown-cause-china/en/ |website=WHO}}</ref> This later turned out to be [[COVID-19]], the cause of the [[COVID-19 pandemic]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Zhou |first1=Peng |last2=Yang |first2=Xing-Lou |last3=Wang |first3=Xian-Guang |last4=Hu |first4=Ben |last5=Zhang |first5=Lei |last6=Zhang |first6=Wei |last7=Si |first7=Hao-Rui |last8=Zhu |first8=Yan |last9=Li |first9=Bei |last10=Huang |first10=Chao-Lin |last11=Chen |first11=Hui-Dong |last12=Chen |first12=Jing |last13=Luo |first13=Yun |last14=Guo |first14=Hua |last15=Jiang |first15=Ren-Di |last16=Liu |first16=Mei-Qin |last17=Chen |first17=Ying |last18=Shen |first18=Xu-Rui |last19=Wang |first19=Xi |last20=Zheng |first20=Xiao-Shuang |last21=Zhao |first21=Kai |last22=Chen |first22=Quan-Jiao |last23=Deng |first23=Fei |last24=Liu |first24=Lin-Lin |last25=Yan |first25=Bing |last26=Zhan |first26=Fa-Xian |last27=Wang |first27=Yan-Yi |last28=Xiao |first28=Geng-Fu |last29=Shi |first29=Zheng-Li |title=A pneumonia outbreak associated with a new coronavirus of probable bat origin |journal=Nature |date=March 2020 |volume=579 |issue=7798 |pages=270–273 |doi=10.1038/s41586-020-2012-7 |pmid=32015507 |pmc=7095418 |bibcode=2020Natur.579..270Z }}</ref>
*[[2020]] &ndash; The World Health Organization issues its first emergency use validation for a [[COVID-19 vaccine]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=WHO issues its first emergency use validation for a COVID-19 vaccine and emphasizes need for equitable global access|url=https://www.who.int/news/item/31-12-2020-who-issues-its-first-emergency-use-validation-for-a-covid-19-vaccine-and-emphasizes-need-for-equitable-global-access|access-date=2021-02-16|website=www.who.int|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=2020-12-31|title=WHO clears Pfizer coronavirus vaccine for emergency use|url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/who-clears-pfizer-coronavirus-vaccine-for-emergency-use|access-date=2021-02-16|website=PBS NewsHour|language=en-us}}</ref>