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31 December| 31 December 406 | Roman Empire [barbarian invasions of Rome (378–476)] | The River Rhine in central Europe freezes over, allowing hordes of Vandals, Alans, and Scieri to invade the Roman Empire, ultimately leading to its collapse. | | 31 December 1808 | France [chemistry] | French chemist Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac publishes The Combination of Gases, in which he announces that gases combine chemically in simple proportions of volumes. | | 31 December 1851 | Austrian Empire [law and government] | The Austrian constitution of 1849 is abolished, consolidating the return to conservative rule in the Habsburg Empire. | | 31 December 1869 | France [births and deaths] | Henri Matisse, French painter, sculptor, illustrator, and designer, born in Le Cateau, France (–1954). | | 31 December 1968 | USSR [aircraft] | The world's first supersonic airliner, the Tupolev TU-144, designed by Soviet engineer Alexey Tupolev, makes its first flight. | | 31 December 1972 | UK, USA [everyday life] | British inventor Clive Sinclair launches his pocket calculator, the first to be widely available. The ‘Sinclair Executive’ weighs 70 g/12.5 oz and goes on sale for £79 in Britain and $195 in the USA. | | 31 December 1984 | USA [political events] | The USA withdraws from the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), alleging that it is too critical of US policy. It had announced its intention 29 December 1983, saying that the organization ‘exhibited hostility towards the basic installations of a free society’. | | 31 December 1999 | Portugal, China [decolonization] | The Portuguese territory of Macau is handed over to China after 442 years of colonial rule. |
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