Make Up Your Mind Day 365 of 2007 Last Day in this year

Ho’o Pahu: Explode
HAWAIIAN PROVERB OF THE DAY — “Angrily goes the fire and the firebrand.”

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December 31, 1879: The cornerstone is laid for the Iolani Palace, Hawaii (the only royal palace in the U.S.)  To enhance the prestige of Hawaii overseas and to mark her status as a modern nation, the Hawaiian government appropriated funds to build a modern palace in Honolulu.

Despite a quick succession of three architects, work progressed at the hands of locally obtained contractors, artisans and laborers. The building was complete enough by August of 1882 for King Kalakaua to hold a luncheon for members of the Legislative Assembly. In December of that year King Kalakaua and Queen Kapi`olani took up residence in their new home.

December 31, 1956, January 4 1974, and lots of other dates, too: State officials on Oahu call for a ban on fireworks for the entire state. In 1956, there were more than 110 injuries from fireworks, most of them inflicted on children. Fireworks are on sale big-time at Wal-Mart, Long’s  and Costco today, anyway.  

HISTORICAL EVENTS ON THIS DAY – December 31st 

• 1600: The British East India Company is chartered to coordinate the trading of spices in India
• 1744: James Bradley announces the discovery of Earth’s motion of nutation 
• 1775: Battle of Quebec
• 1781: The Bank of North America opens (first U.S. bank) 
• 1857: Queen Victoria chooses Ottawa as the new capital of Canada 
• 1924: Edwin Hubble announces the existence of distant galaxies 
• 1926: After seventy years of effort, the last entry is made for the “Oxford English Dictionary”
• 1946: French troops leave Lebanon 
• 1946: President Truman officially proclaims the end of WW II 
• 1961: The Marshall Plan expires after distributing more than $12 billion 
• 1984: Rajiv Gandhi takes office as India’s 6th Prime Minister, succeeding his mother, Indira 
• 1985: 45-year old singer Rick Nelson, and six other people, perish  a DC-3 airplane
• 1999: Russian President Boris Yeltsin resigns in favor of Prime Minister Putin 
• 1999: The U.S. returns control of the Panama Canal Zone to Panama 

BORN ON THIS DAY – December 31st