Ingenpedia:OnThisDay/December 31, 2020


 * 1775 – American Revolutionary War: At the Battle of Quebec, British forces repulsed an attack by the Continental Army to capture Quebec City and enlist French Canadian support.
 * 1857 – Queen Victoria announced the choice of Ottawa (pictured), then a small logging town, as the capital of the British colony of Canada.
 * 1909 – The Manhattan Bridge, connecting Lower Manhattan to Downtown Brooklyn and considered to be the forerunner of modern suspension bridges, opened to traffic.
 * 1965 – Military officers led by Jean-Bédel Bokassa began a coup d'état against the government of Central African Republic president David Dacko.
 * 1999 – Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin became acting president upon President Boris Yeltsin's unexpected resignation.