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On This Day In History for December 31, 2025

This is the 365th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are no more days remaining in 2025.

It was on this date in 1759, that Arthur Guinness signed a 9,000-year lease at £45 per annum and started brewing Guinness.
181 years ago today, The Philippines skipped this date in order to align the country with the rest of Asia, as the trading interest switched to China, Dutch East Indies and neighboring territories after Mexico gained independence from Spain on 27 September 1821. In the islands, Monday, 30 December 1844 was immediately followed by Wednesday, 1 January 1845.
December 31, 1853, A dinner party was held inside a life-size model of an iguanodon created by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins and Sir Richard Owen in south London, England.
It was on this date in 1878, that Karl Benz, working in Mannheim, Germany, filed for a patent on his first reliable two-stroke gas engine. He was granted the patent in 1879.
Thomas Edison demonstrated incandescent lighting to the public for the first time, in Menlo Park, New Jersey on this date in 1879.
In 1907 the first ever ball drop was held in Times Square.
General Motors became the first U.S. corporation to make over US$1 billion in a year on this date in 1955.
On December 31, 1956, The Romanian Television network began its first broadcast in Bucharest.
57 years ago today was the first flight of the Tupolev Tu-144, the first civilian supersonic transport in the world.
Also today in 1983, The AT&T Bell System was broken up by the United States Government.
December 31, 1991, All official Soviet Union institutions had ceased operations by this date, five days after the Soviet Union was officially dissolved.
That same date in 1994, this date was 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.
The final comic of Calvin and Hobbes was published on this date in 1995.
On December 31, 2009, Both a blue moon and a lunar eclipse occurred.
It was also this date in 2011 that NASA succeeded in putting the first of two Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory satellites in orbit around the Moon.
It was 5 years ago today that The World Health Organization issued its first emergency use validation for a COVID-19 vaccine.

Happy birthday goes out on this date to:

French navigator and explorer, Jacques Cartier, born on this date in 1491.
George Meade, the American general and engineer was born 210 years ago today.
Born December 31, 1860, American businessman, co-founder of Texaco Joseph S. Cullinan.
Robert Grant Aitken, the American astronomer and academic was born 161 years ago today.
Born December 31, 1905, American astronomer and academic Helen Dodson Prince.
New Zealand mathematician and academic, Vaughan Jones, born on this date in 1952.
Val Kilmer, American actor was born on that same date in 1959.

Listener Birthdays

December
- 31 – Shadowbird’s Mom
- 31 – Mr. Sim (aka Jeremy)
January
- 3 – Thomas Gideon (The Command Line Podcast)
- 6 – Steve Therrien

And that’s the way it was, on this day in history for December 31, 2025

If you want to get on the Technorama Birthday Calendar, visit our website and look for the Birthday Calendar link.

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Episode 792: Firmware Update 2026: Patched, Rebooted, and Ready