On This Day:
Wednesday December 31, 2014 This is the 365th day of the year, with no days remaining in 2014. Fact of the Day: tea and coffee Tea was first drunk in China, around 2700 BC. It became popular in England, Holland, and America in the early 18th century AD. Afternoon tea in Britain became customary after its introduction in 1840. Iced tea was first offered at the 1904 world's fair (the Louisiana Purchase Exposition). Coffee was introduced about 1000 AD in Arabia and was thought to be a medicinal tonic. In the 16th century, it became accepted as a social beverage in Arabia and Persia.
Holidays First Night.
New Year's Eve.
Japan: Omisoka or Grand Last Day; also Namahage.
Feast day of St. Sylvester I, pope, St. Melania the Younger, and St. Columba of Sens.
Events 1600 - Queen Elizabeth I of England granted a formal charter to the London merchants trading to the East Indies, hoping to break the Dutch monopoly of the spice trade.
1775 - The British fought off an attack by Continental Army generals Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold at Quebec; general Richard Montgomery was killed.
1781 - The first modern bank in the U.S., the Bank of North America, was organized by Robert Morris and received its charter from the Confederation Congress. It began operating in Philadelphia.
1805 - The French Revolutionary calendar (Republican calendar) in use since 1793, was last used officially.
1879 - Thomas Edison first demonstrated his electric incandescent light bulb to the public, in Menlo Park, New Jersey.
1890 - New York's Ellis Island opened its doors to what would be millions of immigrants to the United States.
1897 - Brooklyn, New York, spent its last day as a separate entity before becoming part of New York City.
1911 - Marie Sklodowska Curie received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her isolation of the element of metallic radium and other earlier discoveries in the field of chemistry. She was the first person to be awarded a second Nobel Prize, eight years after she became the first woman ever to be honored with a Nobel Prize.
1923 - In London, the chimes of Big Ben were broadcast by the BBC for the first time.
1946 - President Harry S. Truman officially proclaimed an end to World War II.
1960 - The farthing coin, which had been in use in Great Britain since the 13th century, ceased to be legal tender.
1965 - California became the largest state in population.
1974 - Private U.S. citizens were allowed to buy and own gold for the first time in more than 40 years.
1990 - Titleholder Gary Kasparov of the USSR won the world chess championship match against his countryman Anatoly Karpov.
1995 - Bill Watterson's comic strip "Calvin and Hobbes" ends syndication which started on November 18, 1985.
1999 - Panama assumed control of the Panama Canal, according to the treaty of 1979.
Births 1720 - Charles Edward Stuart, the "Young Pretender" to the British throne.
1815 - George Gordon Meade, Union general who defeated Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Gettysburg.
1869 - Henri Matisse, French painter, designer.
1880 - George Marshall, U.S. Secretary of State, designer of Marshall Plan, Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff during World War II.
1884 - Elizabeth Arden, Canadian-born American cosmetic executive.
1947 - Burton Cummings, pianist and showman, he was the lead singer for the Canadian rock band "The Guess Who."
1959 - Val Kilmer, American stage and film actor.
Deaths 1980 - Marshall McLuhan, Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar.
1985 - Rick Nelson (Ricky Nelson), American actor and singer, in an airplane crash. He was a star of the television show "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" with his family and then became one of rock and roll's first teen idols.
1997 - Floyd Cramer American Hall of Fame pianist who was one of the architects of the "Nashville Sound."
1997 - Michael Kennedy, son of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, in a skiing accident.
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