NEW YEAR FIREWORKS
Fireworks burst from the top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge that is also fixed with a smiling face that over looks the Sydney Opera House during Australian New Year celebrations, Wednesday, Dec. 31, 1997. Thousands of fireworks were exploded to entertain the more than one million people estimated to have gathered along the harbor to watch the half hour display that cost organizers dlrs U.S. 1.3 million in pyrotechnics. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)
Sophia Loren 1962
Italian actress Sophia Loren raises a glass of champagne in her Rome apartment in a toast to all her friends and fans and wishing everyone a happy new year, Dec. 31, 1962. (AP Photo)
FIRST AP WIREPHOTO
The wreckage of a small plane lies in a wooded area near Morehousville, N.Y., Dec. 31, 1934 after a crash landing three days earlier. The four people aboard were reportedly not seriously injured. This photo is believed to be the first photo transmitted to Associated Press members on the AP wirephoto network, Jan. 1, 1935.
Calvin Coolidge
President Coolidge and Howard E. Coffin return from their hunting trip in an oxcart with the quarry bagged by Colonel Osmun La Trobe, the president's military aide, in Sapelo Island, Ga. on Dec. 31, 1928. The president and his wife are spending the Christmas holidays on the Coffin estate. (AP Photo)
Winston Churchill
Prime Minister Winston Churchill of Great Britain dons a fur cap presented to him on Dec. 31, 1942 by Canadian newspapermen during his visit to Ottawa. (AP Photo)
NYC NEW YEARS 1950
Three quarters of a million people crowd into Times Square, in New York, Dec. 31, 1949, to welcome in the New Year. (AP Photo)
London Polish Troops Repatriated
Fog delayed the departure of the first party of 2,000 Polish soldiers from Tilbury on December 31. Transports are expected to leave weekly until all the 24,000 Polish soldiers who have expressed a wish to return home, have been repatriated. To secure the return of the Polish forces with the least delay and hardship, Britain has agreed to give each man an additional new battledress and to pay him all the army pay and allowances to which he would have been due had he been demobilized in Britain. Some the Polish troops on the deck of S.S. Banfora on Dec. 31, 1945. The Banfora, originally a Dutch vessel, after being used by the British as a repatriation ship for Polish servicemen will be returned to its present owners, the French. (AP Photo)
Frankie Sinatra and Ava Gardner
Crooner Frankie Sinatra and Actress Ava Gardner, back together again, toasted in the New Year at the fashionable Rome restaurant ?Hostaria dell?Orso?, Rome on Dec. 31, 1953. It was their first time out since they arrived here from Madrid two days ago. Since Ava?s cold, caught in Spain, has kept her confined to her Rome apartment, where Frankie is staying with her. (AP Photo)
Monster Truck 1987
An eight-ton truck with six-foot tires named Goliath crushes two cars outside Madison Square Garden in New York, Dec. 31, 1987 in a symbolic move to put an end to holiday drinking and driving. The monster truck is one of the featured vehicles in the U.S. Hot Rod Motocross and Mudbog Championships at the garden this weekend. (AP Photo/G. Paul Burnett)
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein, seen in these candid photos during rehearsal with the New York Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, presents a display of varied expressions at Carnegie Hall in New York, Dec. 31, 1957. Bernstein, with all the direction his baton and face can muster, takes over on January 2 as conductor of the famous orchestra. (AP Photo)
New Years Eve Times Square
A wall-to-wall crowd fills New York's Times Square as "1966" is flashed on the front of the Allied Chemical tower at the stroke of midnight and the old year ends, Dec. 31, 1966. The tower is the former Times Tower with a new facade of white marble making its debut to a New Years Eve crowd. (AP Photo/Harvey Lippman)
Gadhafi
Libyan President Moammar Gadhafi walks in the garden of the People's Assembly house in Tripoli, Libya, on Dec. 31, 1977. (AP Photo/Claudio Luffoli)
Peking Opera
Chinese actors in elaborate traditional costumes during a performance Dec. 31, 1978 in Beijing of the Peking Opera. This art form, which has been suppressed for political reasons for years, is enjoying a rebirth in China. (AP Photo/Neal Ulevich)
Al Sharpton and Mike Tyson 1991
Former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, top, shakes hands with Frank Boone, left, behind Rev. Al Sharpton, at a news conference at Boone's home, Tuesday, Dec. 31, 1991, New York. Boone's son Darren Brown, 28, was one of eight victims who died when an angry crowd stampeded an entrance to a college gymnasium where a celebrity rap star's benefit basketball game was held on Saturday night at City College in New York. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)
Bosnia Herzegovina Civil war 1994 Truce Agreemenet
U.N. and Bosnian government representatives signing the four-month cessation of hostilities agreement for Bosnia-Herzegovina on New Year’s Eve, in Sarajevo on Saturday, Dec. 31, 1994. U.N. commander for Bosnia Lt.Gen. Sir Michael Rose, left; special envoy Yasushi Akashi, second from left; Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic, 3rd from left; and Bosnian Army commander Gen. Rasim Delic after conducting negotiations prior the signing of the document, which now has to be signed also by the Bosnian Serb representatives. (AP Photo/Hidajet Degi Delic)
ROYAL PALACE GUARDS
Traditional guards armed with golden swords and daggers guard the entrance to the conference room in the Royal Yamama Palace in Riyahd, Saudi Arabia, Dec. 31, 1990. The king of Saudi Arabia and the U.S. president are to meet here on Sunday evening. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)