December 31

Track	Year	Event	Artist	Song	Album
1.	1600	The British East India Company is chartered.	The Police	Tea in the Sahara	Synchronicity
2.	1695	A window tax is imposed in England, causing many householders to brick up windows to avoid the tax.	Brandtson	Bricks and Windows	Trying to Figure Things Out
3.	1759	Arthur Guinness signs a 9,000 year lease at £45 per annum and starts brewingGuinness.	Genesis	Keep It Dark	Abacab
4.	1857	Queen Victoria chooses Ottawa, Ontario, then a small logging town, as the capital of Canada.	Triumvirat	The Capital of Power	Spartacus
5.	1862	American Civil War: Abraham Lincoln signs an act that admits West Virginia to the Union, thus dividing Virginia in two.	Johnny Cash	In Virginia	Johnny and June
6.	1879	Thomas Edison demonstrates incandescent lighting to the public for the first time, in Menlo Park, N.J.	Animal Collective	Hey Light	Here Comes the Indian
7.	1904	The first New Year's Eve celebration is held in Times Square (then known as Longacre Square) in New York, New York.	Walkmen	New Year's Eve	Bows and Arrows
8.	1923	The chimes of Big Ben are broadcast on radio for the first time by the BBC.	Nick Drake	At the Chime of a City Clock	Bryter Layter
9.	1955	The General Motors Corporation becomes the first U.S. corporation to make over $1 billion USD in a year.	The Lovin' Spoonful	Money	Money
10.	1960	The farthing coin ceases to be legal tender in the United Kingdom.	Map	Legal and Tender	Think Like an Owner
11.	1983	The AT&T Bell System is broken up by the United States Government.	Electric Light Orchestra	Ma-ma-ma belle	On the Third Day
12.	1992	Czechoslovakia is peacefully dissolved in what is dubbed by media as the Velvet Divorce, resulting in the creation of theCzech Republic and Slovakia.	My Way My Love	Czech Sun	Dedicated to an Angel on Your Shoulder

(Historical facts about December 31 are from Wikipedia.)