December 1

Events
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 Pena 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 - Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador becomes President of Mexico.
2019 - Ursula von der Leyen takes office as the first female President of the European Commission.
Births
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 Pohl, 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)
1935 - Woody Allen, American director and actor
1936 - Maria 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 - Francois 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
Deaths
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 Tucking, 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
December 01