Today in History: December 31, Edison demonstrates incandescent lights in Menlo Park

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.

Also on this date:

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

In 1972, baseball player Roberto Clemente, 38, was killed when a plane he chartered and was traveling on crashed shortly after takeoff from Puerto Rico while carrying relief supplies for earthquake-devastated Nicaragua.

In 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.

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

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

In 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.

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

In 2024, a power blackout hit nearly all of Puerto Rico as the U.S. territory prepared to celebrate New Year’s, leaving more than 1.3 million people in the dark. A private utility company said more than 700,000 clients had their lights back on by later that night.

Today’s Birthdays: Actor Anthony Hopkins is 88. Rock musician Andy Summers (The Police) is 83. Actor Ben Kingsley is 82. Filmmaker Taylor Hackford is 81. Fashion designer Diane von Fürstenberg is 79. Actor Tim Matheson is 78. Actor Bebe Neuwirth is 67. Actor Gong Li is 60. Author Nicholas Sparks is 60. Businessman Donald Trump Jr. is 48. Singer-rapper PSY is 48. Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri is 46. Olympic gymnastics gold medalist Gabby Douglas is 30. Actor Hunter Schafer is 27.