2017: Portuguese politician and diplomat António Guterres was officially elected Secretary-General of the United Nations.
2017: An attack on a nightclub in Istanbul, Turkey, during New Year's celebrations, kills at least 39 people and injures more than 60 others.
2016: The Address Downtown Dubai burns over midnight as the New Year is rung in. The blaze started on the night of New Year's Eve 2015, by currently unknown causes. There was one fatality.
2013: At least 60 people are killed and 200 injured in a stampede after celebrations at Félix Houphouët-Boigny Stadium in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.
2011: A bomb explodes as Coptic Christians in Alexandria, Egypt, leave a new year service, killing 23 people.
2010: A suicide car bomber detonates at a volleyball tournament in Lakki Marwat, Pakistan, killing 105 and injuring 100 more.
2009: Sixty-six people die in a nightclub fire in Bangkok, Thailand.
2004: In a vote of confidence, General Pervez Musharraf wins 658 out of 1,170 votes in the Electoral College of Pakistan, and according to Article 41(8) of the Constitution of Pakistan, is "deemed to be elected" to the office of President until October 2007.
2002: Euro currency becomes legal tender in twelve of the European Union's member states.
1999: Euro currency is introduced in 11 member nations of the European Union (with the exceptions of the United Kingdom, Denmark, Greece and Sweden; Greece later adopts the euro).
1998: Russia begins to circulate new rubles to stem inflation and promote confidence.
1996: Curaçao gains limited self-government, though it remains within free association with the Netherlands.
1995: The Draupner wave in the North Sea in Norway is detected, confirming the existence of freak waves.
1986: Aruba becomes independent of Curaçao, though it remains in free association with the Netherlands.
1985: The first British mobile phone call is made by Michael Harrison to his father Sir Ernest Harrison, chairman of Vodafone.
1984: Brunei becomes independent of the United Kingdom.
1984: The original American Telephone & Telegraph Company is divested of its 22 Bell System companies as a result of the settlement of the 1974 United States Department of Justice antitrust suit against AT&T.
1981: Greece is admitted into the European Community.
1979: Formal diplomatic relations are established between China and the United States.
1978: Air India Flight 855Boeing 747 crashes into the sea, due to instrument failure and pilot disorientation, off the coast of Bombay, India, killing 213.
1947: The American and British occupation zones in Germany, after World War II, merge to form the Bizone, which later (with the French zone) became part of West Germany.
1945: World War II: The German Luftwaffe launches Operation Bodenplatte, a massive, but failed attempt to knock out Allied air power in northern Europe in a single blow.
1914: The SPT Airboat Line becomes the world's first scheduled airline to use a winged aircraft.
1912: The Republic of China is established.
1910: Captain David Beatty is promoted to Rear admiral, and becomes the youngest admiral in the Royal Navy (except for Royal family members), since Horatio Nelson.
1908: For the first time, a ball is dropped in New York City's Times Square to signify the start of the New Year at midnight.
1902: The first American college football bowl game, the Rose Bowl between Michigan and Stanford, is held in Pasadena, California.
1847: The world's first "Mercy" Hospital is founded in Pittsburgh by the Sisters of Mercy; the name will go on to grace over 30 major hospitals throughout the world.
1833: The United Kingdom claims sovereignty over the Falkland Islands.
1804: French rule ends in Haiti. Haiti becomes the first black republic and second independent country in North America after the United States
1803: Emperor Gia Long orders all bronze wares of the Tây Sơn dynasty to be collected and melted into nine cannons for the Royal Citadel in Huế, Vietnam.
1773: The hymn that became known as "Amazing Grace", then titled "1 Chronicles 17:16-17" is first used to accompany a sermon led by John Newton in the town of Olney, Buckinghamshire, England.
1772: The first traveler's cheques, which can be used in 90 European cities, go on sale in London, England.