406 - Vandals, Alans and Suebians cross the Rhine, beginning an invasion of Gaul.
535 - Byzantine general Belisarius completes the conquest of Sicily, defeating the Gothic garrison of Palermo (Panormos), and ending his consulship for the year.
1225 - The Lý Dynasty of Vietnam ends after 216 years by the enthronement of the boy emperor Tran Thai Tong, husband of the last Ly monarch, Ly Chieu Hoang, starting the Trần Dynasty.
1229 - James I of Aragon the Conqueror enters Medina Mayurqa (now known as Palma, Spain) thus consummating the Christian reconquest of the island of Majorca.
1600 - The British East India Company is chartered.
1660 - James II of England is named Duke of Normandy by Louis XIV of France.
1695 - A window tax is imposed in England, causing many householders to brick up windows to avoid the tax.
1759 - Arthur Guinness signs a 9,000 year lease at £45 per annum and starts brewing Guinness.
1857 - Queen Victoria chooses Ottawa, then a small logging town, as the capital of Canada.
1907 - The first New Year's Eve celebration is held in Times Square (then known as Longacre Square) in New York, New York.
1909 - Manhattan Bridge opens.
1923 - The chimes of Big Ben are broadcast on radio for the first time by the BBC.
1944 - World War II: Hungary declares war on Nazi Germany.
1951 - The Marshall Plan expires after distributing more than US$13.3 billion in foreign aid to rebuild Europe.
1955 - The General Motors Corporation becomes the first U.S. corporation to make over US$1 billion in a year.
1960 - The farthing coin ceases to be legal tender in the United Kingdom.
1961 - RTÉ, Ireland's state broadcaster, launches its first national television service.
1963 - The Central African Federation officially collapses and splits into Zambia, Malawi and Rhodesia.
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 - The First Chechen War: Russian army began a New Year's storm of Grozny
1999 - Boris Yeltsin, 1st President of Russia, resigns as President of Russia, leaving Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as the acting President.
2009 - Both a blue moon and a lunar eclipse occur.
Famous Birthdays
1378 - Pope Callixtus III
1572 - Emperor Go-Yozei of Japan
1738 - Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis, general
1880 - George C. Marshall, United States Secretary of State, Nobel Laureate
1885 - Princess Victoria Adelaide of Schleswig-Holstein, consort of Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
1937 - Sir Anthony Hopkins, actor
1941 - Sir Alex Ferguson, football manager
1943 - Sir Ben Kingsley, actor
1970 - Carlos Morales Quintana, husband of HRH Princess Alexia of Greece and Denmark
1984 - Édgar Lugo, footballer
1991 - Camila Giorgi, tennis player
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