Henri Matisse
b. 1869
French painter and sculptor
On This Day · The 365th day of the year
December 31
December 31 carries 10 recorded events spanning between 1759 and 2004. Arthur Guinness signs a 9,000-year lease at £45 per annum and starts brewing Guinness.
Compiled & reviewed by Roman Tailor · Last reviewed July 13, 2026
What happened on December 31?
December 31 is the 365th day of the year. It marks 10 notable events in history, dated between 1759 and 2004. Famous people born on December 31 include Henri Matisse, Jacques Cartier and Alex Salmond.
The shape of the day
As calendar dates go, December 31 keeps a short memory — its record stays close to the present. Most of the weight falls in the 20th century, where conflict is a recurring thread.
Capricorn is the sign for December 31 — read more on the Capricorn page, or see December's birthstone & birth flower.
Released on December 31
Movies, games, albums & shows2026
- Game Active Matter
- Game Bellum
- Game Castlevania: Belmont's Curse
- Game Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Revival
- Game End of Abyss
- Game Game of Thrones: War for Westeros
- Game Gears of War: E-Day
- Game Infinitesimals
- Game Kena: Scars of Kosmora
- Game Lords of the Fallen II
- Game Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra
- Game Metro 2039
- Game Mortal Shell II
- Game Mudang: Two Hearts
- Game Nivalis
- Game Ontos
- Game Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy
- Game Squadron 42
- Game Stranger Than Heaven
- Game The Duskbloods
- Game The Eternal Life of Goldman
- Game The Sinking City 2
- Game Valor Mortis
- Game Witchbrook
- Game Aniimo
- Game There Are No Ghosts at the Grand
- Game Turok: Origins
- Game Professor Layton and the New World of Steam
- Game Star Wars Zero Company
- Game Hela: Of Mice & Magic
- Game Sea of Remnants
- Game ArcheAge Chronicles
- Game Over the Hill
- Game Big Walk
- Game Showa American Story
- Game Blighted
- Game Bloodstained: The Scarlet Engagement
- Game Haunted by Femboy
- Game SacriFire
- Game Ikuma: The Frozen Compass
- Game Mariachi Legends
- Game Dark Mass
- Game Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave
- Game Liminal Point
- Game Shadow of the Road
- Game Tears of Metal
- Game Tenebris Somnia
- Game Tenjutsu
2023
- TV The Bay of Spies
Release data from TMDB & IGDB.
Events
10 notable moments- 1759
Arthur Guinness
Arthur Guinness signs a 9,000-year lease at £45 per annum and starts brewing Guinness.
- 1775
American Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War: Battle of Quebec: British forces under General Guy Carleton repulse an attack by Continental Army General Richard Montgomery in a snowstorm.
- 1857
Queen Victoria
Queen Victoria chooses Ottawa, then a small logging town, as the capital of the Province of Canada.
- 1862
Abraham Lincoln
American Civil War: Abraham Lincoln signs an enabling act that would admit West Virginia to the Union, thus dividing Virginia in two.
- 1907
Times Square Ball
The first ever ball drop in Times Square.
- 1961
RTÉ
RTÉ, Ireland's state broadcaster, launches its first national television service.
- 1965
Jean-Bédel Bokassa
Jean-Bédel Bokassa, leader of the Central African Republic army, and his military officers begin a coup d'état against the government of President David Dacko.
- 1986
Dupont Plaza Hotel arson
Three disgruntled employees set fire to the Dupont Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, killing more than 90 people and injuring 140 others, making it the second-deadliest hotel fire in American history.
- 1998
European Exchange Rate Mechanism
The European Exchange Rate Mechanism freezes the values of the legacy currencies in the Eurozone, and establishes the value of the euro currency.
- 2004
Taipei 101
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).
Famous birthday twins
Born on December 31Jacques Cartier
b. 1491
French navigator and explorer
Alex Salmond
b. 1954
Scottish economist and politician
Grégory Coupet
b. 1972
French footballer
Horacio Quiroga
b. 1878
Uruguayan-Argentinian author, poet, and playwright
Muhammad ibn al-Qasim
b. 695
Umayyad general
Alex Ferguson
b. 1941
Scottish footballer and manager
Simon Wiesenthal
b. 1908
Ukrainian-Austrian Nazi hunter and author
Deaths
- 2022Pope Benedict XVI
- 1993Brandon Teena
- 1972Roberto Clemente
- 1877Gustave Courbet
- 1691Robert Boyle
- 192Commodus
Holidays & observances
- —Christian feast day: Pope Sylvester I (Catholic Church)
- —Christian feast day: December 31 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
- —International Solidarity Day of Azerbaijanis (Azerbaijan)
- —New Year's Eve (International observance), and its related observances: First Night (United States)
- —New Year's Eve (International observance), and its related observances: Last Day of the Year or Bisperás ng Bagong Taón, special holiday between Rizal Day and New Year's Day (Philippines)
- —New Year's Eve (International observance), and its related observances: Novy God Eve (Russia)
- —New Year's Eve (International observance), and its related observances: Ōmisoka (Japan)
- —New Year's Eve (International observance), and its related observances: The first day of Hogmanay or "Auld Year's Night" (Scotland)
Historical facts, event summaries, and biographical lines above are adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) license. DateLore adds curation, structure, and original editorial commentary. DateLore is not affiliated with the Wikimedia Foundation.
Born on this day?
Make your birthday card.
Drop in your birth year and we'll work out your exact age, the day of the week you were born, your Chinese zodiac, your generation, and the countdown to your next candle.
Please pick a valid date in the past.
—
Years old
—
Days lived
—
Day you were born