Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/December 31

December 31: New Year's Eve, Hogmanay in Scotland.

• 1775 – American Revolutionary War: At the Battle of Quebec, British forces repulsed an attack by the Continental Army to capture Quebec City and enlist French Canadian support.

• 1857 – Queen Victoria (pictured) selected Ottawa as the capital of the British colony of Canada.

• 1960 – The farthing, a British coin first minted in England in the 13th century, ceased to be legal tender.

• 1963 – The Central African Federation officially collapsed, eventually to become Zambia, Malawi and Rhodesia.

• 1972 – American baseball player Roberto Clemente died in a plane crash en route to deliver aid to earthquake victims in Nicaragua.

• 1999 – Boris Yeltsin, the first democratically elected President of Russia, resigned and named Vladimir Putin as Acting President.

More anniversaries:

• December 30
• December 31
• January 1