Tugboats guide ships many times their size in and out of the Panama Canal.

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Hailed as one of the great achievements of the 20th Century, the Panama Canal connects 160 countries and 1,700 ports around the world.

Powerful trains tow ships through the Panama Canal lock system.

The Panama Canal allows ships to travel between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, saving them a long journey around the tip of South America.

On September 7, 1977, President Jimmy Carter and Panamanian leader Omar Torrijos signed the Panama Canal Treaty, which ceded U.S. control of the canal beginning in 2000 and guaranteed the neutrality of the waterway thereafter. President Carter delivers a speech on the occasion of the treaty signing.

Find out what happened on December 31 in this video of This Day in History. On this day, Thomas Edison gave the first demonstration of his newly developed lamp in 1879. President Harry Truman also gave an important message. Truman told the United States that the hostilities of the Second World War had come to an end. On December 31, 2004, the world saw the unveiling of the new tallest building, the Burj Dubai. Most importantly, in 1999 the United States gave control over the Panama Canal to Panama. The construction of the canal cost the United States $350 million and 30,000 lives. However, Panamanian nationalists wanted their nation in control of it. This transaction strengthened the relations between the United States and Latin America.

On December 20, 1989, after a U.S. soldier was killed in Panama by Manuel Noriega’s forces, President George H.W. Bush sent U.S. troops into the Central American country in an effort to oust the dictator. In an address to the nation, Bush explains his decision to call for military action.