On this day
Revisit the news, notable people, and historical moments connected to this date.
Portrait 1080 × 1920 PNG · created on your device
CAIRO, Dec. 31--Egypt has appealed urgently to the United States to release Egyptian dollar assets that have been frozen in American banks for the last five months, an official source said today.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 31--The Ambassador of Syria told the State Department today that the United States' services as protector of the Middle East against the Soviet Union would not be welcomed by the Arab nations.
HARTFORD, Dec. 31-Fire ruined the $5,000,000 St. Joseph's Cathedral today. The Roman Catholic church, seat of the archdiocese of Hartford, was the second to burn here in thirtysix hours.
WARSAW, Dec. 31--Wladyslaw Gomulka, Polish Communist leader, has aligned himself with President Tito of Yugoslavia against Soviet interference in the internal affairs of the smaller Communist countries.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 31--The Interstate Commerce Commission authorized today a 5 per cent increase in coach and firstclass fares on all Western railroads and eight Eastern railroads.
1957Evangelos Venizelos, Greek lawyer and politician, Deputy Prime Minister of Greece[†]
Evangelos Venizelos is a Greek academic and retired politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister of Greece from 2011 to 2015, as well as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 25 June 2013 to 27 January 2015 and Minister for Finance of Greece from 17 June 2011 to 21 March 2012. He was a member of the Hellenic Parliament for the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) for the first electoral district of Thessaloniki. He is a Professor of Constitutional Law at the Law School of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.
1957George Town, Penang, is made a city by a royal charter of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.[†]
George Town is the capital of the Malaysian state of Penang. It is the core city of the George Town Conurbation, Malaysia's second largest metropolitan area with a population of 2.84 million and the second largest metropolitan economy in the country. The city proper spans an area of 306 km2 (118 sq mi) encompassing Penang Island and surrounding islets, and had a population of 794,313 as of 2020.
1957Lèse majesté in Thailand is strengthened to include "insult" and changed to a crime against national security, after the Thai criminal code of 1956 went into effect.: 6, 18[†]
In Thailand, lèse-majesté is a crime according to Section 112 of the Thai Criminal Code, which makes it illegal to defame, insult, or threaten the king of Thailand, the queen of Thailand, the heir to the throne of Thailand, or the regent of Thailand. Modern Thai lèse-majesté law has been on the statute books since 1908. Thailand is the only constitutional monarchy to have strengthened its lèse-majesté law since the Second World War. With penalties ranging from three to fifteen years imprisonment for each count, it has been described as the "world's harshest lèse majesté law" and "possibly the strictest criminal-defamation law anywhere". Its enforcement has been described as being "in the interest of the palace".
In 1957, the world population was approximately 2,852,618,337 people[†]