Lincoln signs act to admit West Virginia to the Union (1862), and Philippines skips 31 December 1844 to align with Asia (1844). Born on this day: Henri Matisse, Anthony Hopkins and Salman of Saudi Arabia. Died: Benedict XVI, Robert Boyle and Commodus.
29 events, 76 births and 71 deaths on this date.
Lincoln signed the enabling act that paved the route for West Virginia to become a state, carving it out of Virginia during the Civil War. The Virginia counties that had broken away from the Confederacy were given a path into the Union.
Alexander Gardner · Public domainTo match the rest of Asia, the Philippines dropped a whole day, so Monday 30 December was followed straight by Wednesday 1 January 1845. Trade had shifted towards China and the Dutch East Indies after Mexico won independence from Spain in 1821.
Kiribati's Phoenix and Line Islands changed their time zones, jumping forward by one day and leaving no 31 December behind. The change brought them into step with the Gilbert Islands, which share the same day.
Thomas Edison put his electric lamp on display for ordinary visitors at Menlo Park, New Jersey, a step toward replacing gas lighting in homes and streets. It was a public showing of the system he had spent the previous year and a half building.
Belisarius, the Byzantine commander, finished taking Sicily by overpowering the Gothic troops holding Palermo. The win also brought his year-long term as consul to a close.
The first of two twin GRAIL spacecraft reached lunar orbit, the pair built to measure tiny changes in the Moon's gravity. By tracking how the two craft moved, the mission aimed to reveal what lies beneath the surface.
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French painter, sculptor and printmaker, best known for his bold use of colour and flattened forms. Alongside Picasso, he helped define the visual art of the early twentieth century, and he later produced striking cut-paper collages when illness kept him from painting.
Carl Van Vechten · Public domain
Welsh actor known for playing Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs and an elderly man with dementia in The Father, both Oscar-winning roles. Still working across film, television and the stage.
Omar David Sandoval Sida · CC BY-SA 4.0
Salman has been King of Saudi Arabia since 2015, after his half-brother King Abdullah died. Before that he governed Riyadh for decades, and as king he backed the Yemen intervention and Vision 2030, and allowed women to get behind the wheel.
Ron Przysucha / U.S. Department of State · Public domain
Joseph Ratzinger led the Catholic Church from 2005 until he resigned in 2013, the first pope to step down in nearly six centuries. He was known as a theologian and writer who defended traditional doctrine, and he kept the title pope emeritus until his death.
WDKrause · CC BY-SA 3.0
Robert Boyle was an Anglo-Irish scientist remembered as one of the first modern chemists and a pioneer of experimental method. He is best known for Boyle's law, linking how hard a trapped gas is squeezed to the space it fills, at a fixed temperature.
Johann Kerseboom · Public domain
Roman emperor who fought as a gladiator in the Colosseum and built a personality cult around himself. He was assassinated by a wrestler named Narcissus, ending the Nerva–Antonine dynasty.
Public domain
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