1600 – British East India Company chartered

1744 – English astronomer James Bradley announces discovery of Earth’s nutation motion (wobble)

1756 – Russia joins the Alliance of Versailles

1857 – Queen Victoria chooses Ottawa as new capital of Canada

1861 – 22,990mm of rain falls in Cherrapunji Assam in India in 1861, a world record

1879 – Edison gives 1st public demonstration of his incandescent lamp

1904 – The first New Year’s Eve celebration is held in Times Square, then known as Longacre Square, in New York, New York.

1911 – Marie Curie receives her 2nd Nobel Prize

1923 – 1st transatlantic radio broadcast of a voice, Pittsburgh-Manchester

1924 – Italian Fascist Mussolini orders the suppression of opposition newspapers

1951 – 1st battery to convert radioactive energy to electricity announced

1968 – 1st supersonic airliner flown (Russian TU-144)

1968 – 1st test flight of Tupolev TU 144