DECEMBER 31
1938: Rolla N. Harger's "Drunkometer" is first put to use by Indianapolis police eager to keep tipsy drivers off the roads on New Year's Eve. Harger, an Indiana University biochemist, invented the practical test so law enforcement officers could confidently halt drivers suspected of intoxication. The Drunkometer, a forerunner of the breathalyzer still used today, determines blood alcohol content by sampling a driver's breath in a balloon and mixing it with a chemical solution.
1857:Queen Victoria chooses Ottawa as new capital of Canada.
1947: Roy Rogers, the "King of the Cowboys," marries Dale Evans, the "Queen of the West" and leading lady in many of his cowboy films, at the Flying L Ranch in Davis, Okla. Although it is his third marriage and her fourth, they remain happily married for 51 years, until Rogers' death in 1998.
1972: Dick Clark hosts Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve for the first time on NBC, featuring guests Al Green, Helen Reddy and Three Dog Night. Clark will host the event (now on ABC) for the next 40 years, sharing hosting duties with Ryan Seacrest from 2005 until 2012. Clark died in April at age 82.
1951:The Marshall Plan expires after distributing more than USD $12 billion in foreign aid to rebuild Europe.
1946:President Truman officially proclaims end of WW-II
1890: Ellis Island (New York NY) opens as a US immigration depot
1879:Edison gives first public demonstration of his incandescent lamp
1999:Businesses across the world prepare for the rumored Y2k disaster -whereby computer systems around the world would stop working at midnight.
1995:American cartoonist Bill Watterson concludes his comic strip "Calvin and Hobbes" after 10 years.
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