A Blast from the Past

Today is Dec. 31.

With the expiration of the Panama Canal Treaty of 1979, the Republic of Panama assumed full control of the Panama Canal on this date in 1999. The U.S. Panama Canal Commission ceased to exist.

Three years after a federal judge ruled it a monopoly, the court-ordered breakup of the American Telephone and Telegraph Co. took effect at midnight on this date in 1983. AT&T was divided up into seven regional "Baby Bells," which were responsible for local telephone service. Americans would soon be able to choose which company they wanted to provide their long-distance phone service.

After working together for several years, singing cowboy star Roy Rogers and his co-star Dale Evans were married on this date in 1947. It was "Happy Trails" after that until Rogers' death in 1998.

It was on this date in 1984 that the first mandatory seat belt law in the United States went into effect in the state of New York at midnight.

Let there be light! Inventor Thomas Edison gave the first public demonstration of his incandescent electric lamp to a New Year's crowd in Menlo Park, N.J., on this date in 1879

And it was on this date in 1985 that rock singer Rick Nelson, his fiancé, and five members of his band were killed in the New Year's Eve crash of their chartered DC-3 in northeast Texas. A fire caused by a faulty cabin heater was blamed for the accident, although there was speculation -- later proven to be unfounded -- that the musicians were free-basing cocaine aboard the plane, triggering a blaze.

We now return you to the present, already in progress.