Associated Press

On Dec. 31, 1879, Thomas Edison first publicly demonstrated his electric incandescent light in Menlo Park, New Jersey.

In 1904, New York’s Times Square saw its first New Year’s Eve celebration, with an estimated 200,000 people in attendance.

In 1951, the Marshall Plan expired after distributing more than $12 billion in foreign aid.

In 2019, the health commission in the central Chinese city of Wuhan announced that experts were investigating an outbreak of respiratory illness; the statement said 27 people had become ill with a strain of viral pneumonia and that seven were in serious condition.

In 2020, Britain completed its economic break from the European Union.

In 2022, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who had become the first pontiff in 600 years to resign from the job, died at age 95.