December 1

### Up to 1900

- 800 – Charlemagne judges the accusations against Pope Leo III in the Vatican.
- 1420 – Henry V of England enters Paris.
- 1640 – Portugal regains its independence from Spain.
- 1821 – The first constitution of Costa Rica is issued.
- 1822 – Emperor Pedro I of Brazil is crowned.
- 1824 – The United States House of Representatives is given the task to decide the winner of the US Presidential Election after no candidate got an overall majority of Electoral College votes.
- 1828 – Argentine general Juan Lavalle carries out a coup against Governor Manuel Dorrego, beginning the Decembrist revolution.
- 1835 – Hans Christian Andersen publishes his first book of fairy tales.
- 1864 – Great Fire of Brisbane.
- 1865 – Shaw University, the first historically black university in the Southern United States, is founded in North Carolina.
- 1885 – The fizzy drink Dr Pepper is first served at a drug store in Waco, Texas.

### 1901 – 1950

- 1913 – Ford Motor Company introduces the first moving assembly line.
- 1913 – Crete is annexed by Greece.
- 1913 – The Buenos Aires Metro opens to the public.
- 1918 – Iceland becomes a sovereign state, yet remains a part of the Danish kingdom.
- 1918 – The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later known as the Kingdom of Yugoslavia) is proclaimed.
- 1918 – Transylvania unites with the Kingdom of Romania.
- 1919 – Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor officially takes her seat in the House of Commons as the UK's first female Member of Parliament.
- 1923 – The dam of the Gleno Reservoir near Bergamo, Italy, bursts, killing around 600 people.
- 1934 – In the Soviet Union, Politburo member Sergey Kirov is shot dead by Leonid Nikolaev at Communist Headquarters in Leningrad.
- 1941 – World War II: Emperor Hirohito of Japan gives the final approval to begin war against the United States.
- 1941 – World War II: New York City Mayor Fiorello La Guardia signs the Administration Order No. 9, creating the Civil Air Patrol.
- 1948 – Taman Shud Case: The body of an unidentified man is found in Adelaide, South Australia, involving an undetectable poison and a secret code in a rare book. The case remains unsolved.

### 1951 – 2000

- 1953 – Hugh Hefner publishes the first edition of Playboy magazine.
- 1955 – In Montgomery, Alabama, seamstress Rosa Parks refuses to give her bus seat to a white man and is arrested for violating the city's racial segregation laws, an incident which leads to the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
- 1958 – Central African Republic becomes independent from France.
- 1958 – The _Our Lady of the Angels_ school fire in Chicago kills 92 children and 3 nuns.
- 1959 – Cold War: Antarctic Treaty signed, which sets aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve and bans military activity on that continent.
- 1960 – Paul McCartney and Pete Best are arrested in Hamburg after being accused of attempted arson.
- 1961 – The independent Republic of West Papua is proclaimed in modern–day Western New Guinea.
- 1963 – Nagaland becomes the 16th state of India.
- 1964 – Malta, Malawi and Zambia join the UN.
- 1965 – India's Border Security Force is founded.
- 1966 – Kurt Georg Kiesinger succeeds Ludwig Erhard as Chancellor of West Germany.
- 1969 – Vietnam War: The first draft lottery in the United States is held since World War II.
- 1971 – Khmer Rouge rebels intensify assaults on Cambodian government positions, forcing their retreat from Kompong Thmar and nearby Ba Ray.
- 1971 – The Indian Army occupies part of Kashmir.
- 1973 – Papua New Guinea gains self–government from Australia.
- 1974 – TWA Flight 514, a Boeing 727, crashes northwest of Dulles International Airport near Washington, DC, killing all 92 people on board.
- 1974 – Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 6231, a Boeing 727, crashes northwest of JFK International Airport outside New York City, killing all 3 crew members. There were no passengers on board at the time.
- 1976 – Angola joins the UN.
- 1981 – Inex–Adria Aviopromet Flight 1308, a McDonnell Douglas MD–80, crashes in Corsica, killing all 180 people on board.
- 1986 – The Musee d'Orsay art museum in Paris opens.
- 1988 – Benazir Bhutto becomes Prime Minister of Pakistan.
- 1989 – A right–wing rebel group attempts to remove then–President of the Philippines Corazon Aquino from power in a failed coup attempt.
- 1990 – Channel Tunnel sections started from the United Kingdom and France meet 40 meters beneath the seabed.
- 1991 – Cold War: Ukrainian voters overwhelmingly approve a referendum for independence from the Soviet Union.
- 2000 – Vicente Fox becomes President of Mexico.

### From 2001

- 2006 – Felipe Calderon becomes President of Mexico.
- 2006 – A typhoon causes landslides on the Mayon Volcano in the Philippines, burying about 1,000 people.
- 2009 – The European Union's Lisbon Treaty takes effect.
- 2012 – Enrique Peña Nieto becomes President of Mexico.
- 2013 – A train derails in the Bronx, New York City, on the banks of the Hudson River, killing four people and injuring around 60.
- 2014 – The Somali terrorist group Al-Shabaab rounds up and kills 36 Non–Muslims in northeastern Kenya.
- 2016 – Vajiralongkorn officially becomes King of Thailand.
- 2017 – Japanese Emperor Akihito's abdication date is set for April 30, 2019.
- 2017 – The groups are drawn for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.
- 2018 – Andrés Manuel López Obrador becomes President of Mexico.
- 2019 – Ursula von der Leyen takes office as the first female President of the European Commission.

### Up to 1900

- 1081 – Louis VI of France (d. 1137)
- 1083 – Anna Komnene, Byzantine princess and scholar (d. 1153)
- 1438 – Peter II, Duke of Bourbon (d. 1503)
- 1443 – Magdalena of France, French princess (d. 1495)
- 1521 – Takeda Shingen, Japanese daimyo (d. 1573)
- 1580 – Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc, French astronomer (d. 1637)
- 1690 – Philip Yorke, 1st Earl of Hardwicke, English lawyer and politician (d. 1764)
- 1709 – Franz Xaver Richter, Austrian–Moravian singer, violinist, composer and conductor (d. 1789)
- 1716 – Etienne Maurice Falconet, French sculptor (d. 1791)
- 1743 – Martin Heinrich Klaproth, German chemist (d. 1817)
- 1761 – Marie Tussaud, French creator of waxworks (d. 1850)
- 1766 – Nikolay Karamzin, Russian writer (d. 1826)
- 1785 – Victor de Broglie, French politician and diplomat (d. 1850)
- 1792 – Nikolai Lobachevsky, Russian mathematician (d. 1856)
- 1823 – Karl Schenk, Swiss politician (d. 1895)
- 1840 – Marie Bracquemond, French painter (d. 1916)
- 1844 – Alexandra of Denmark, queen consort of King Edward VII of the United Kingdom (d. 1925)
- 1847 – Julia Ann Moore, American poet (d. 1920)
- 1855 – John Evans, Australian politician, 21st Premier of Tasmania (d. 1943)
- 1864 – Carsten Borchgrevink, Norwegian polar explorer (d. 1934)
- 1867 – Ignacy Moscicki, Polish scientist and politician (d. 1946)
- 1869 – Eligiusz Niewiadomski, Polish painter and critic (d. 1923)
- 1873 – Valery Bryusov, Russian poet (d. 1924)
- 1873 – Viktor Chernov, Russian politician (d. 1952)
- 1884 – Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, German painter (d. 1976)
- 1886 – Rex Stout, American writer (d. 1975)
- 1895 – Henry Williamson, English writer (d. 1977)
- 1896 – Georgy Zhukov, Marshal of the Soviet Union (d. 1974)
- 1898 – Stuart Garson, Canadian politician, 12th Premier of Manitoba (d. 1977)

### 1901 – 1950

- 1901 – Ilona Feher, Hungarian violinist (d. 1988)
- 1901 – Jane Gray, Scottish–Australian supercentenarian (d. 2014)
- 1905 – Clarence Zener, American physicist (d. 1993)
- 1910 – Alicia Markova, British ballet dancer (d. 2004)
- 1911 – Franz Binder, Austrian footballer (d. 1989)
- 1911 – Walter Alston, American baseball player and manager (d. 1984)
- 1911 – Calvin Griffith, Canadian–American businessman (d. 1999)
- 1912 – Minoru Yamasaki, American architect (d. 1986)
- 1913 – Mary Martin, American actress (d. 1990)
- 1916 – Wan Li, Chinese politician (d. 2015)
- 1922 – Vsevolod Bobrov, Soviet ice hockey player (d. 1979)
- 1923 – Morris, Belgian cartoonist (d. 2001)
- 1923 – Stansfield Turner, American admiral (d. 2018)
- 1925 – Martin Rodbell, American scientist (d. 1998)
- 1926 – Keith Michell, Australian actor (d. 2015)
- 1928 – Emily McLaughlin, American actress (d. 1991)
- 1928 – Malachi Throne, American actor (d. 2013)
- 1929 – Alfred Moisiu, former President of Albania
- 1929 – Karl Otto Pöhl, German economist (d. 2014)
- 1929 – David Doyle, American actor (d. 1997)
- 1930 – Marie Bashir, 37th Governor of New South Wales
- 1930 – Matt Monro, English singer (d. 1985)
- 1931 – Jimmy Lyons, American saxophonist (d. 1986)
- 1931 – George Maxwell Richards, President of Trinidad and Tobago (d. 2018)
- 1933 – Fujiko Fujio, Japanese writer and illustrator (d. 1996)
- 1933 – Lou Rawls, American singer-songwriter, producer and actor (d. 2006)
- 1933 – Violette Verdy, French ballerina (d. 2016)
- 1933 – James Wolfensohn, 9th President of the World Bank
- 1934 – Billy Paul, American singer (d. 2016)
- 1936 – María Romilda Servini, Argentine lawyer and judge
- 1936 – Igor Rodionov, Russian general and politician (d. 2014)
- 1937 – Vaira Vike-Freiberga, former President of Latvia
- 1938 – Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui, Pakistani politician, Governor of Sindh (d. 2017)
- 1939 – Lee Trevino, American golf player
- 1940 – Richard Pryor, American actor and comedian (d. 2005)
- 1942 – Mohamed Kamel Amr, Egyptian diplomat
- 1943 – Finn E. Kydland, Norwegian economist
- 1943 – Kenny Moore, American runner and journalist
- 1944 – Pierre Arditi, French actor
- 1944 – A. B. M. Mohiuddin Chowdhury, Bangladeshi politician (d. 2017)
- 1944 – Michael Hagee, American general
- 1944 – Tahar Ben Jelloun, Moroccan–French poet
- 1944 – Daniel Pennac, French writer
- 1944 – John Densmore, American musician
- 1945 – Bette Midler, American singer and actress
- 1946 – Gilbert O'Sullivan, Irish singer
- 1947 – Alain Bashung, French singer (d. 2009)
- 1948 – Luciano Re Cecconi, Italian footballer (d. 1977)
- 1948 – Neil Warnock, English footballer and manager
- 1948 – Themba Dlamini, Prime Minister of Swaziland
- 1948 – Sarfraz Nawaz, Pakistani cricketer
- 1949 – Pablo Escobar, Colombian druglord (d. 1993)
- 1949 – Sebastian Pinera, President of Chile; 2010 – 2014, and since 2018
- 1950 – Ueli Maurer, Swiss politician
- 1950 – Seiichi Sakiya, Japanese footballer
- 1950 – Keith Thibodeaux, American actor and drummer

### 1951 – 1975

- 1951 – Jaco Pastorius, American musician (d. 1987)
- 1951 – Treat Williams, American actor
- 1952 – Stephen Poliakoff, British playwright and television dramatist
- 1952 – Ellen McLain, American opera singer and voice actress
- 1952 – Pegi Young, American singer, songwriter, environmentalist, educator and philanthropist (d. 2019)
- 1954 – Viv Albertine, Australian–British singer and songwriter
- 1954 – Medha Patkar, Indian activist
- 1954 – François Van der Elst, Belgian footballer (d. 2017)
- 1956 – Julee Cruise, American singer-songwriter and actress
- 1956 – Billy Stark, Scottish footballer
- 1957 – Chris Poland, American guitarist
- 1957 – Deep Roy, Kenyan actor
- 1958 – Javier Aguirre, Mexican footballer and manager
- 1958 – Candace Bushnell, American author, journalist and television producer
- 1958 – Lisa Fischer, American singer-songwriter
- 1958 – Charlene Tilton, American actress
- 1959 – Billy Childish, English singer and musician
- 1960 – Carol Alt, American supermodel
- 1961 – Jeremy Northam, British actor
- 1961 – Armin Meiwes, German cannibal and murderer
- 1962 – Pamela McGee, American basketball player and coach
- 1963 – Arjuna Ranatunga, Sri Lankan cricketer and politician
- 1964 – Salvatore Schillaci, Italian footballer
- 1965 – Peter Greste, Australian journalist
- 1966 – Andrew Adamson, New Zealand movie director
- 1966 – Katherine LaNasa, American actress
- 1966 – Larry Walker, Canadian baseball player
- 1967 – Nestor Carbonell, American actor, director and screenwriter
- 1968 – Justin Chadwick, English actor and director
- 1968 – Anders Holmertz, Swedish swimmer
- 1968 – Stephan Beckenbauer, German footballer (d. 2015)
- 1970 – Sarah Silverman, American comedienne
- 1971 – Emily Mortimer, English actress
- 1971 – Mika Pohjola, Finnish jazz pianist and composer
- 1971 – Melanie Peres, German–Israeli model, actress and singer
- 1974 – Costinha, Portuguese footballer
- 1974 – Simon Donnelly, Scottish footballer and manager
- 1974 – Isaiah "Ikey" Owens, American keyboardist and producer (d. 2014)

### From 1976

- 1976 – Laura Ling, American journalist
- 1976 – Matthew Shepard, American murder victim (d. 1998)
- 1977 – Brad Delson, American guitarist and producer
- 1977 – Akiva Schaffer, American actor, rapper, director, producer and screenwriter
- 1979 – Shinji Murai, Japanese footballer
- 1981 – Park Hyo-shin, South Korean singer–songwriter
- 1982 – Alfredo Pacheco, El Salvadorean footballer (d. 2015)
- 1985 – Emiliano Viviano, Italian footballer
- 1985 – John Coughlin, American figure skater
- 1985 – Chanel Preston, American pornographic actress
- 1986 – DeSean Jackson, American football player
- 1988 – Jay Simpson, English footballer
- 1988 – Zoe Kravitz, American actress
- 1989 – Barry Bannan, Scottish footballer
- 1990 – Chanel Iman, American model
- 1991 – Sun Yang, Chinese swimmer
- 1991 – Dion Waiters, American basketball player
- 1992 – Masahudu Alhassan, Ghanaian footballer
- 1992 – Marco van Ginkel, Dutch footballer
- 1995 – Eva Boto, Slovenian singer
- 2001 – Aiko, Princess Toshi of Japan
- 2001 – Savannah McReynolds, American actress
- 2001 – Alice Robinson, New Zealand alpine ski racer

### Up to 1900

- 660 – Saint Eligius (b. c. 588)
- 1135 – Henry I, King of England (b. 1068)
- 1241 – Isabella of England, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1214)
- 1377 – King Magnus II of Sweden (b. 1316)
- 1433 – Emperor Go-Komatsu of Japan (b. 1377)
- 1455 – Lorenzo Ghiberti, Italian sculptor (b. 1378)
- 1521 – Pope Leo X (b. 1475)
- 1530 – Margaret of Austria, Duchess of Savoy (b. 1480)
- 1580 – Giovanni Morone, Italian cardinal (b. 1509)
- 1581 – Alexander Briant, English priest, martyr and saint (b. 1556)
- 1581 – Edmund Campion, English priest, martyr and saint (b. 1540)
- 1581 – Ralph Sherwin, English priest, martyr and saint (b. 1550)
- 1602 – Kobayakawa Hideaki, Japanese warlord (b. 1582)
- 1633 – Isabella Clara Eugenia, Spanish consort of Albert VII, Archduke of Austria (b. 1566)
- 1640 – Miguel de Vasconcelos, Portuguese politician (b. 1590)
- 1660 – Pierre d'Hozier, French genealogist (b. 1592)
- 1750 – Johan Gabriel Doppelmayr, German mathematician, astronomer and cartographer (b. 1671)
- 1755 – Maurice Greene, English composer (b. 1696)
- 1825 – Tsar Alexander I of Russia (b. 1777)
- 1830 – Pope Pius VIII (b. 1761)
- 1864 – William L. Dayton, American politician (b. 1807)
- 1866 – George Everest, Welsh surveyor (b. 1790)
- 1884 – William Swainson, English–New Zealand lawyer and politician (b. 1809)
- 1886 – Emil Hartwich, German lawyer (b. 1843)

### 1901 – 2000

- 1913 – Juhan Liiv, Estonian poet and writer (b. 1864)
- 1914 – Alfred Thayer Mahan, American captain and historian (b. 1840)
- 1916 – Charles de Foucauld, French priest (b. 1858)
- 1917 – John January, American soccer player (b. 1882)
- 1934 – Sergey Kirov, Soviet politician (b. 1886)
- 1941 – Alva B. Adams, American politician (b. 1875)
- 1943 – Damrong Rajanubhab, Thai historian (b. 1862)
- 1947 – Aleister Crowley, English occultist and writer (b. 1875)
- 1947 – G.H. Hardy, English mathematician (b. 1877)
- 1954 – Fred Rose, American pianist, songwriter and publisher (b. 1898)
- 1964 – J. B. S. Haldane, English–Indian geneticist (b. 1892)
- 1964 – Charilaos Vasilakos, Greek runner (b. 1877)
- 1968 – Nicolae Bretan, Romanian opera singer, composer and conductor (b. 1887)
- 1969 – Magic Sam, American guitarist and singer (b. 1937)
- 1972 – Antonio Segni, Prime Minister of Italy (b. 1891)
- 1973 – David Ben-Gurion, Prime Minister of Israel (b. 1886)
- 1975 – Anna Roosevelt Halsted, American writer (b. 1906)
- 1981 – Russ Manning, American comic book artist (b. 1929)
- 1987 – James Baldwin, American writer (b. 1924)
- 1987 – Punch Imlach, Canadian ice hockey player, coach and manager (b. 1918)
- 1990 – Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, Indian politician and diplomat (b. 1900)
- 1991 – George J. Stigler, American economist (b. 1911)
- 1993 – Ray Gillen, American singer-songwriter (b. 1959)
- 1995 – Maxwell R. Thurman, American general (b. 1931)
- 1997 – Stephane Grappelli, French violinist (b. 1908)
- 1997 – Endicott Peabody, 62nd Governor of Massachusetts (b. 1920)
- 1998 – Bertil Nordahl, Swedish footballer (b. 1917)

### From 2001

- 2001 – Roger Leach, British actor (b. 1948)
- 2004 – Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands (b. 1911)
- 2005 – Jack Colvin, American actor (b. 1934)
- 2006 – Claude Jade, French actress (b. 1948)
- 2007 – Ken McGregor, Australian tennis player (b. 1929)
- 2008 – Mikel Laboa, Basque singer and songwriter (b. 1934)
- 2010 – Adriaan Blaauw, Dutch astronomer (b. 1914)
- 2011 – Christa Wolf, German writer (b. 1929)
- 2012 – Mitchell Cole, English footballer (b. 1985)
- 2012 – Phil Taylor, English footballer (b. 1917)
- 2012 – Jovan Belcher, American football player (b. 1987)
- 2013 – Heinrich Boere, German Nazi war criminal (b. 1922)
- 2013 – Lino Grech, Maltese actor (b. 1930)
- 2013 – Edward Heffron, American World War II veteran (b. 1923)
- 2014 – Sita Murt, Spanish fashion designer and businesswoman (b. 1946)
- 2014 – Mario Abramovich, Argentine violinist and composer (b. 1926)
- 2014 – Roberto Sagastume Pinto, Guatemalan politician (b. 1944)
- 2015 – Joseph Engelberger, American engineer (b. 1925)
- 2015 – Robert E. Glennen, American academic (b. 1933)
- 2015 – Jim Loscutoff, American basketball player (b. 1930)
- 2017 – Adarsh Sein Anand, former Chief Justice of India (b. 1936)
- 2017 – Philipp Graf Lerchenfeld, German politician (b. 1952)
- 2017 – Fredy Schmidtke, German cyclist (b. 1961)
- 2017 – Arif Dirlik, Turkish–born American historian (b. 1940)
- 2017 – Les Whitten, American investigative reporter (b. 1928)
- 2018 – Ken Berry, American actor (b. 1933)
- 2018 – Ennio Fantastichini, Italian actor (b. 1955)
- 2018 – Anwar Hossain, Bangladeshi photographer and cinematographer (b. 1948)
- 2018 – Scott Stearney, American Vice Admiral (b. 1960)
- 2018 – Stefanie Tücking, German television presenter (b. 1962)
- 2018 – Shoucheng Zhang, Chinese–American physicist (b. 1963)
- 2019 – Henri Biancheri, French footballer (b. 1932)
- 2019 – Shelley Morrison, American actress (b. 1936)
- 2019 – Lil Bub, American–bred celebrity cat (b. 2011)
- 2019 – Paul Sirba, American Roman Catholic prelate (b. 1960)
- 2019 – Pat Sullivan, American football player (b. 1950)

## Holidays and observances

- World AIDS Day
- Portugal – Restoration of Independence Day
- Costa Rica – Military Abolition Day
- Romania – The National Day of Romania, Union of Transylvania with Romania
- Angola's Pioneers' Day
- Australia – First day of Summer
- Iceland – Self–governance Day
- Teachers' Day (Panama)
- Chad – Freedom and Democracy Day
- Mexico – Traditionally the date the President is sworn into office every six years, last in 2012
- Saint Eligius in Western Christianity