On the seventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me
Seven swans a-swimming,
Six geese a-laying,
Five golden rings.
Four colly birds,
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves
And a partridge in a pear tree.

St Silvester. Saint Sylvester's Day or the Feast of Saint Sylvester.

New Years Eve
The last day of the Gregorian year. The salutation “wassail” used to be given on this day. It comes from the Old English waes hael, be whole, be well.

1805
France abandoned the secular Republican calendar it had been adopted during the Revolution in 1793 and returned to the Gregorian calendar.

1869

French painter and sculptor Henri Matisse born in Le Cateau, France.

1878
German engine designer Karl Benz filed for a patent on his first reliable two-stroke gas engine.

1879
Thomas Edison demonstrates incandescent lighting to the public for the first time, in Menlo Park, New Jersey.

1907
The ball drops at Times Square to signal the new year for the first time.

1943
Actress Sarah Miles born in Ingatestone, Essex, England.

1967
Founding of the Youth International Party at the New York loft of Abbie Hoffman. Members became known as Yippies.

1972
American baseball player Roberto Clemente died in a plane crash en route to deliver aid to earthquake victims in Nicaragua.

1985
American pop singer Rick Nelson dies when his charter plane crashs in Texas.

Today from Chamber's Book of Days