Russian President Boris Yeltsin resigned, making Prime Minister Vladimir Putin acting president.
Today is Wednesday, Dec. 31, the 366th and final day of 2025. This is New Year’s Eve.Today in history:
On Dec. 31, 1999, Russian President Boris Yeltsin resigned, making Prime Minister Vladimir Putin acting president.Also on this date:
In 1879, Thomas Edison first demonstrated his electric incandescent lights for the public by illuminating some 100 bulbs in and around his laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey.
In 1904, New York’s Times Square saw its first New Year’s Eve celebration, with an estimated 200,000 people in attendance.
In 1972, baseball player Roberto Clemente, 38, was killed when a plane he chartered and was traveling on crashed shortly after takeoff from Puerto Rico while carrying relief supplies for earthquake-devastated Nicaragua.
