Today’s highlight

On Dec. 31, 1879, Thomas Edison first demonstrated his electric incandescent lights for the public by illuminating some 100 bulbs in and around his laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey.

On this date

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

1972: Major League baseball player Roberto Clemente, 38, was killed when a plane he had chartered and was traveling on to bring relief supplies to earthquake-devastated Nicaragua crashed shortly after takeoff from Puerto Rico.

1985: Singer Rick Nelson, 45, and six others were killed when fire broke out aboard a plane that was taking the group to a New Year’s Eve performance in Dallas.

1995: The syndicated comic strip “Calvin and Hobbes,” created by Bill Watterson, came to an end after a 10-year run.

1999: Russian President Boris Yeltsin resigned, making Prime Minister Vladimir Putin acting president.

2019: The health commission in the central Chinese city of Wuhan announced that experts were investigating an outbreak of respiratory illness and that most of the victims had visited a seafood market in the city; the statement said 27 people had become ill with a strain of viral pneumonia, which would eventually be known as COVID-19.

Today’s birthdays

Actor Anthony Hopkins is 87. Rock musician Andy Summers is 82. Actor Ben Kingsley is 81. Actor Tim Matheson is 77. Actor Bebe Neuwirth is 66. Businessman Donald Trump Jr. is 47.