WHAT HAPPENED ON 31. DECEMBER
Want to find out what all happened on 31. December

First Winter Ascent of Lhotse (8,516m) by Krzysztof Wielicki (solo). (31. December 1988)

All official Soviet Union institutions have ceased operations by this date and the Soviet Union is officially dissolved. (31. December 1991)

Czechoslovakia is peacefully dissolved in what is dubbed by media as the Velvet Divorce, resulting in the creation of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. (31. December 1992)

Brandon Teena and two others are shot to death inside a farmhouse in Humboldt, Nebraska by John Lotter and Tom Nissen after the two men discovered Teena was transgender. (31. December 1993)

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. (31. December 1994)

The First Chechen War: Russian army began a New Year's storm of Grozny (31. December 1994)

The European Exchange Rate Mechanism freezes the values of the legacy currencies in the Eurozone, and establishes the value of the euro currency. (31. December 1998)

First President of Russia, Boris Yeltsin, resigns from office, leaving Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as the acting President and successor. (31. December 1999)

Five hijackers, who had been holding 155 hostages on an Indian Airlines plane, leave the plane with two Islamic clerics that they had demanded be freed. (31. December 1999)

The United States 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. (31. December 1999)

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). (31. December 2004)

Both a blue moon and a lunar eclipse occur. (31. December 2009)

Tornadoes touch down in 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 36 tornadoes touched down, resulting in the deaths of 9 people and $113 million in damages. (31. December 2010)

NASA succeeds in putting the first of two Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory satellites in orbit around the moon. (31. December 2011)