UK, 
US, 
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IrelandAt A Glance
31 December 2012 at a glance
- Day of the week
- 31 December 2012 was a Monday.
- Billboard Hot 100 No. 1
- The Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 was “Locked Out of Heaven” by Bruno Mars.
- Top Film of 2012
- The highest-grossing film worldwide released in 2012 was The Avengers.
- Bestselling Novel of 2012
- “Fifty Shades of Grey” by E. L. James was No. 1 on Publishers Weekly's US fiction list for 2012.
- Top-Rated TV Show
- “NCIS” (CBS) was No. 1 in the Nielsen ratings for the 2012–13 season.
- Star sign
- The star sign for 31 December is Capricorn.
- Chinese zodiac
- In the Chinese zodiac, 31 December 2012 fell in the Year of the Dragon.
- Birthstone
- The birthstone for December is Turquoise.
- Moon phase
- The moon phase on 31 December 2012 was Waning Gibbous.
On this day: 31 December
- 2009 Both a blue moon and a lunar eclipse occur.
- 2011 NASA succeeds in putting the first of two Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory satellites in orbit around the Moon.
- 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.
- 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 issues its first emergency use validation for a COVID-19 vaccine.
Famous people born on December 31
- Val Kilmer, American actor (1959–2025)
- Sophia Laforteza, Filipino-American singer (born 2002)
- Alex Ferguson, Scottish footballer and manager (born 1941)
- Charles Edward Stuart, Scottish claimant to the throne of England (1720–1788)
Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Choose your country: the charts, news and leaders change to match.
Events of 2012 in the United States
A selection from Wikipedia's '2012 in the United States'. Not a complete list.
- March 2 – Dr. Seuss' The Lorax is released in theaters.
- March 20 – John Carter records one of the biggest losses in cinema history, forcing Disney to take a $200 million writedown and chairman Rich Ross to resign.
- May 4 – The Avengers, directed by Joss Whedon, is released by Marvel Studios as the sixth film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and the final film in its "Phase One" slate.
Life in the US in 2012
President
Barack Obama
Gas (per gallon)
$3.68
Loaf of Bread
$1.84
Average House
$256,900
Weekly Wage
$757
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