| 147121 | December 31 | Event | 1907 – The first New Year's Eve celebration is held in Times Square (then known as Longacre Square) in New York, New York. |
| 147122 | December 31 | Event | 1909 – Manhattan Bridge opens. |
| 147123 | December 31 | Event | 1923 – The chimes of Big Ben are broadcast on radio for the first time by the BBC. |
| 147124 | December 31 | Event | 1944 – World War II: Hungary declares war on Nazi Germany. |
| 147125 | December 31 | Event | 1944 – World War II: Operation Nordwind, the last major German offensive on the Western Front begins. |
| 147126 | December 31 | Event | 1946 – President Harry S. Truman officially proclaims the end of hostilities in World War II. |
| 147127 | December 31 | Event | 1951 – The Marshall Plan expires after distributing more than US$13.3 billion in foreign aid to rebuild Europe. |
| 147128 | December 31 | Event | 1955 – General Motors becomes the first U.S. corporation to make over US$1 billion in a year. |
| 147129 | December 31 | Event | 1960 – The farthing coin ceases to be legal tender in the United Kingdom. |
| 147130 | December 31 | Event | 1961 – RTÉ, Ireland's state broadcaster, launches its first national television service. |
| 147131 | December 31 | Event | 1963 – The Central African Federation officially collapses, subsequently becoming Zambia, Malawi and Rhodesia. |
| 147132 | December 31 | Event | 1965 – Jean-Bédel Bokassa, leader of the Central African Republic army, and his military officers begins a coup d'état against the government of President David Dacko. |
| 147133 | December 31 | Event | 1967 – The Youth International Party, popularly known as the "Yippies", is founded. |
| 147134 | December 31 | Event | 1981 – A coup d'état in Ghana removes President Hilla Limann's PNP government and replaces it with the Provisional National Defence Council led by Flight lieutenant Jerry Rawlings. |
| 147135 | December 31 | Event | 1983 – The AT&T Bell System is broken up by the United States Government. |
| 147136 | December 31 | Event | 1983 – In Nigeria a coup d'état led by Major General Muhammadu Buhari ends the Second Nigerian Republic. |
| 147137 | December 31 | Event | 1986 – A fire at the Dupont Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, kills 97 and injures 140. |
| 147138 | December 31 | Event | 1988 – Pittsburgh Penguins' Mario Lemieux becomes the only National Hockey League player to score goals in five different ways: even strength, shorthanded, power play, penalty shot, and empty net, during an 8–6 win over the New Jersey Devils. |
| 147139 | December 31 | Event | 1988 – First Winter Ascent of Lhotse (8,516m) by Krzysztof Wielicki (solo). |
| 147140 | December 31 | Event | 1991 – All official Soviet Union institutions have ceased operations by this date and the Soviet Union is officially dissolved. |
| 147141 | December 31 | Event | 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. |
| 147142 | December 31 | Event | 1994 – 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. |
| 147143 | December 31 | Event | 1994 – The First Chechen War: Russian army began a New Year's storming of Grozny. |
| 147144 | December 31 | Event | 1998 – The European Exchange Rate Mechanism freezes the values of the legacy currencies in the Eurozone, and establishes the value of the euro currency. |
| 147145 | December 31 | Event | 1999 – First President of Russia, Boris Yeltsin, resigns from office, leaving Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as the acting President and successor. |
| 147146 | December 31 | Event | 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. |
| 147147 | December 31 | Event | 1999 – Indian Airlines Flight 814 hijacking ended after seven days with the release of 190 survivors at Kandahar Airport, Afghanistan. |
| 147148 | December 31 | Event | 2004 – 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). |
| 147149 | December 31 | Event | 2009 – Both a blue moon and a lunar eclipse occur. |
| 147150 | December 31 | Event | 2010 – 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, resu |