Inventions, firsts, and turning points tied to today’s date — each one sourced and dated.
At noon on the last day of 1999, a waterway the United States had run for 85 years passed fully into Panamanian hands.
After the city banned his rooftop fireworks, a newspaper publisher lowered a 700-pound lit ball instead — and a tradition was born.
On New Year's Eve 1879, special trains carried crowds to Menlo Park to see a laboratory glowing without a single flame.
