Today's Event – 31st December 2021

• 1501 – The First Battle of Cannanore commences, seeing the first use of the naval line of battle.

• 1600 – The British East India Company is chartered.

• 1687 – The first Huguenots set sail from France to the Cape of Good Hope.

• 1757 – Empress Elizabeth I of Russia issues her ukase incorporating Königsberg into Russia.

• 1759 – Arthur Guinness signs a 9,000 year lease at £45 per annum and starts brewing Guinness.

• 1775 – American Revolutionary War: Battle of Quebec: British forces repulse an attack by Continental Army General Richard Montgomery.

• 1790 – Efimeris, the oldest Greek newspaper of which issues have survived till today, is published for the first time.

• 1796 – The incorporation of Baltimore as a city.

• 1831 – Gramercy Park is deeded to New York City.

• 1853 – A dinner party is held inside a life-size model of an iguanodon created by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins and Sir Richard Owen in south London, England.

• 1857 – Queen Victoria chooses Ottawa, then a small logging town, as the capital of the Province of Canada.

• 1878 – Karl Benz, working in Mannheim, Germany, files for a patent on his first reliable two-stroke gas engine. He was granted the patent in 1879.

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

• 1906 – Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar signs the Persian Constitution of 1906 

• 1907 – The first New Year's Eve celebration is held in Times Square (then known as Longacre Square) in Manhattan.

• 1942 – USS Essex, first aircraft carrier of a 24-ship class, is commissioned.

• 1951 – Cold War: The Marshall Plan expires after distributing more than US$13.3 billion in foreign aid to rebuild Western Europe.

• 1955 – General Motors becomes the first U.S. corporation to make over US$1 billion in a year.

• 1956 – The Romanian Television network begins its first broadcast in Bucharest.

• 1961 – RTÉ, Ireland's state broadcaster, launches its first national television service.

• 1963 – The Central African Federation officially collapses, subsequently becoming Zambia, Malawi and Rhodesia.

• 1965 – Jean-Bédel Bokassa, leader of the Central African Republic army, and his military officers begin a coup d'état against the government of President David Dacko.

• 1968 – The first flight of the Tupolev Tu-144, the first civilian supersonic transport in the world.

• 1968 – MacRobertson Miller Airlines Flight 1750 crashes near Port Hedland, Western Australia, killing all 26 people on board

• 1981 – A coup d'état in Ghana removes President Hilla Limann's PNP government and replaces it with the Provisional National Defence Council led by Flight lieutenant Jerry Rawlings.

• 1983 – The AT&T Bell System is broken up by the United States Government.

• 1983 – Benjamin Ward is appointed New York City Police Department's first ever African American police commissioner.

• 1983 – In Nigeria, a coup d'état led by Major General Muhammadu Buhari ends the Second Nigerian Republic.

• 1991 – All official Soviet Union institutions have ceased operations by this date, five days after the Soviet Union is officially dissolved.

• 1992 – Czechoslovakia is peacefully dissolved in what is dubbed by media as the Velvet Divorce, resulting in the creation of the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic.

• 1994 – This date is skipped altogether in Kiribati as the Phoenix Islands and Line Islands change time zones from UTC−11:00 to UTC+13:00 and UTC−10:00 to UTC+14:00, respectively.

• 1994 – The First Chechen War: The Russian Ground Forces begin a New Year's storming of Grozny.

• 1998 – The European Exchange Rate Mechanism freezes the values of the legacy currencies in the Eurozone, and establishes the value of the euro currency.

• 1999 – The first President of Russia, Boris Yeltsin, resigns from office, leaving Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as the acting President and successor.

• 1999 – The U.S. government hands control of the Panama Canal (as well all the adjacent land to the canal known as the Panama Canal Zone) to Panama. This act complied with the signing of the 1977 Torrijos–Carter Treaties.

• 1999 – Indian Airlines Flight 814 hijacking ends after seven days with the release of 190 survivors at Kandahar Airport, Afghanistan.

• 2000 – The last day of the 20th Century and 2nd Millennium.

• 2004 – The official opening of Taipei 101, the tallest skyscraper at that time in the world, standing at a height of 509 metres (1,670 ft).

• 2009 – Both a blue moon and a lunar eclipse occur.

• 2010 – Tornadoes touch down in midwestern and southern United States, including Washington County, Arkansas; Greater St. Louis, Sunset Hills, Missouri, Illinois, and Oklahoma, with a few tornadoes in the early hours. A total of 36 tornadoes touched down, resulting in the deaths of nine people and $113 million in damages.

• 2011 – Samoa and Tokelau skip the day of December 30, 2011 as they jump to the other side of the International Date Line, changing their time zones.[9]

• 2011 – NASA succeeds in putting the first of two Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory satellites in orbit around the Moon.

• 2014 – A New Year's Eve celebration stampede in Shanghai kills at least 36 people and injures 49 others.

• 2015 – A fire breaks out at the Downtown Address Hotel in Downtown Dubai, United Arab Emirates, located near the Burj Khalifa, two hours before the fireworks display is due to commence. Sixteen injuries were reported; one had a heart attack, another suffered a major injury, and fourteen others with minor injuries.

• 2018 – Thirty-nine people are killed after a ten-story building collapses in the industrial city of Magnitogorsk, Russia

• 2019 – The World Health Organization is informed of cases of pneumonia with an unknown cause, detected in Wuhan. This later turned out to be COVID-19, the cause of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

• 2020 – The World Health Organization's issues its first emergency use validation for a COVID-19 vaccine.

National Events- 

•  The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) Friday extended the validity of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) registration of NGOs expiring between September 29, 2020 and March 31, 2022 till March 31, 2022. Earlier, an extension was granted only till December 31 this year.

•  Restrictions have been clamped across India on New Year celebrations. While festivities have been completely banned in states like Delhi and Karnataka, others have brought in strict restrictions, such as curfews, to control the spread of the virus. Internationally, too, celebrations in Italy, Paris and London’s Trafalgar Square have been called off, among other destinations.

•  With 16,764 fresh cases of Covid-19 recorded on Thursday, India’s active caseload has risen to 91,361. The country witnessed its sharpest single-day spike in new cases of the Omicron variant, with 309 such cases being added to the overall caseload.

•  Parts of Northwest India are in for a chilly New Year as the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted a cold to severe cold wave over the region from Friday, December 31 to Monday, January 3.

• The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has registered a case against Sikhs For Justice (SFJ) operative based in Germany, Jaswinder Singh Multani. He is reported to have been detained in Germany by the authorities there.

International Events- 

• In a sprawling settlement of mud brick huts in western Afghanistan housing people displaced by drought and war, a woman is fighting to save her daughter. Aziz Gul’s husband sold their 10-year-old into marriage without telling his wife, taking a down-payment so he could feed his family of five children. Otherwise, he told her, they would all starve. He had to sacrifice one to save the rest. 

•  Former South Korean President Park Geun-hye was released from prison on Friday nearly five years after being convicted of corruption, fuelling debate over whether she would play any role ahead of the March presidential election.

•  Former Republican President Donald Trump’s recent comments touting Covid-19 vaccines as safe and a major achievement of his presidency have roiled extreme anti-vaxers, which include many of his ardent supporters.

•  Global coronavirus infections hit a record high over the past seven-day period. With numerous countries registering all-time highs, authorities in many places have called off celebrations to welcome in 2022, fearful that the all-conquering Omicron variant will take advantage of gatherings to spread even faster.

• China is on high alert against Covid-19 as the New Year holiday looms, with the city of Xi’an under lockdown while several New Year’s Eve events in other cities have been cancelled and some provinces urged restraint in travel during the festive season.

Job alerts-

• NHM Chandigarh Jobs for Surgeon and other posts. Last date 12 January 2022

• Uttarakhand Subordinate Service Selection Commission Jobs for Statistical Assistant, Research Officer and other posts. Last date 12 February 2022

• Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital Jobs for Junior Resident and other posts. Last date 17 January 2022

• Uttar Dinajpur District Jobs for Asha and other posts. Last date 31 January 2022

• National Technical Research Organization Jobs for Senior Aviator, Deputy Chief Aviator and other posts. Last date 23 January 2022

Sports-

•  Romelu Lukaku’s comments on being dissatisfied with life at Chelsea are “unhelpful” and will attract unnecessary attention, Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel said on Friday.

•  India wrapped up a memorable 2021 in style by bringing down South Africa’s citadel, the Supersport Park, as they handed the Proteas a 113-run loss in the first Test of the three-match series.

•  BCCI president Sourav Ganguly has been discharged from the hospital on Friday, where he was admitted earlier this week after his RT-PCR test came positive.

•  Former India and South Africa coach Gary Kirsten has expressed interest in coaching England’s Test side, saying it would be a “lovely project ” to revive the fortunes of Joe Root and his men.

• India’s top player Koneru Humpy finished fifth in the women’s event of the FIDE World Blitz championship while her compatriot R Vaishali, who was in second spot after nine rounds, slipped to 14th here.

Awards and honours-

Technology-

• Vi (Vodafone Idea) has reintroduced the Rs. 601 prepaid recharge plan with a reduced validity of 28 days. The plan previously used to be valid for a total of 56 days. Benefits bundled with the Rs. 601 Vi prepaid plan remain unchanged. The recharge plan offers daily 4G data allocation, unlimited voice calls, and SMS messages per day. It also offers one year of access to Disney+ Hotstar Mobile that gives online streaming of exclusive TV shows, live sports, and Hollywood movies.

•  Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro December 2021 update has been paused due to reports of call drops, the company has said. The technology giant has said that they have identified a fix that will roll out in a software update by late January. Google's newest phones have been at the centre of controversy because of various glitches on the software front. Since the phones' launch in October, various users of the newest Pixel smartphones have been complaining of issues

•  The Korean government is planning to develop a technology for Korea's first artificial sun KSTAR to maintain 100 million degrees for 300 seconds by 2026. The 300 seconds is the minimum time required for the commercialisation of nuclear fusion technology. The Ministry of Science and ICT announced on December 30 that it held the 16th National Fusion Committee at the Korea Institute of Fusion Energy and finalise the '4th basic plan of nuclear fusion energy development (2022-2026)'. The science ministry sets goals and directions of its policies for nuclear fusion energy development every 5 years.

•  Samsung Galaxy S21 FE cases have been accidentally revealed by the South Korean company ahead of its official announcement. The company appears to have a total of 15 cases in plans for the Galaxy S21 FE that will be available in a variety of colour options. In addition to the traditional Silicone cases, the phone may have options such as Smart Clear View and Thin Strap. The colour options of the cases appear to be aligning with the shades of the Galaxy S21 FE.

• The price of Bitcoin hit record highs in 2021 thanks to support from traditional finance, but cryptocurrency specialists are struggling to predict next year's outcome for the volatile sector.

Economy – 

• The GST Council on Friday decided to defer the hike in the rate of goods and services tax (GST) on textiles from 5 per cent to 12 per cent, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced. 

•  The Indian stock markets have witnessed a record bull run in 2021. Not only the benchmark indices hit record highs this year, the midcap and smallcap indices too put up a stellar show during the calendar giving returns of nearly 61 per cent.

•  Shares of cash management company CMS Info Systems had a tepid start and got listed at a premium of nearly 2 per cent from their issue price in the stock exchanges today.

•  The S&P BSE Sensex jumped 364.54 points to 58,158.86 in opening deals while the Nifty 50 surged 104.05 points to 17,308.00.

• Clarifying that tax liabilities from the recent cash seizure from searches conducted at the residential and business premises of Uttar Pradesh-based businessman Peeyush Jain are yet to be determined, GST authorities on Thursday said no deposit of tax dues has been made so far.

Environment –

•  TBA

Local –

• The Delhi Government has ordered the closure of three markets in North East Delhi’s Seelampur area till December 31 or until further orders for violating Covid-19 norms. 

•  Genome sequencing at the Kasturba Gandhi Hospital, Mumbai, has detected the new variant Omicron in nearly one-third samples it tested – in an indication of community transmission in the state. This comes a day after the Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) detected Omicron in 38 of its samples from Mumbai and Pune in their community surveillance

•  With a massive spike in Covid-19 cases in the state capital, elaborate arrangements have been made at and around the Park Street for regulation of both pedestrian and vehicular traffic for the New Year and New Year’s eve, Kolkata Police said on Thursday.

•  Amid a surge in Covid-19 cases in Chennai over the past couple of weeks, the Centre on Thursday asked Tamil Nadu Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan to enhance testing and contact tracing and strengthen hospital-level preparedness in the state.

• Continuing to see a surge in the spread of Covid-19 infections, Bengaluru Urban logged 565 fresh cases out of 707 cases in Karnataka. The active case tally in the state stood at 8223.

Person in News – 

•  TBA

GK – 

‘Narcotics Control Bureau’ functions under the aegis of which Union Ministry?

[A] Union Finance Ministry
[B] Union Home Ministry
[C] Union External Affairs Ministry
[D] Union Defence Ministry

Which state is the first state in India to observe Sahibzada Diwas?

[A] Uttar Pradesh
[B] Madhya Pradesh
[C] Assam
[D] Nagaland

What is ‘Frozen tardigrade’, that was seen in the news?

[A] Microscopic multicellular organisms
[B] Food Processing Unit
[C] Nano Preservative
[D] Rocket Fuel

Where is Indravati Tiger Reserve located?

[A] Karnataka
[B] Chhattisgarh
[C] Bihar
[D] West Bengal

Who was Edward O Wilson, who has been in news recently?

[A] Biologist
[B] Cosmonaut
[C] Cricketer
[D] Dancer