page_title: December
section_title: Historical Events
hierarchical_section_title: December / Historical Events
caption_attribution_description: English: Neptune, natural color view, with Proteus (top), Larissa (lower right) and Despina (left), from Hubble space telescope.
context_page_description: December is the twelfth and last month of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 31 days, coming between November and January. With the name of the month coming from the Latin decem for "ten", it was the tenth month of the year before January and February were added to the Roman calendar.
  December always begins on the same day of the week as September, and ends on the same day of the week as April.
  December's flower is the Narcissus. Its birthstone is the turquoise. The meaning of the turquoise is prosperity.
  Some of the holidays celebrated in December are Christmas, New Year's Eve, Kwanzaa, and Hanukkah.
context_section_description: December 1, 1918 - The Kingdom of Yugoslavia is proclaimed. On the same day, Transylvania unites with Romania.
  December 1, 1918 - Iceland becomes independent, but remains under the Danish crown.
  December 1, 1955 - A protest by Rosa Parks on an Alabama bus starts the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
  December 2, 1804 - Napoleon Bonaparte crowns himself Emperor of France.
  December 2, 1942 - A team led by Enrico Fermi initiates the first nuclear chain reaction.
  December 3, 1984 - A deadly chemical leak in Bhopal, India, kills 8,000 people instantly.
  December 5, 2013 - Former South African President and Anti-Apartheid icon Nelson Mandela dies aged 95.
  December 6, 1917 - Finland declares independence from Russia.
  December 7, 1941 - During World War II, The Japanese attack Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, US.
  December 8, 1980 - John Lennon is shot dead by Mark David Chapman.
  December 9, 1961 - Tanganyika becomes independent. It later merges with Zanzibar to form Tanzania.
  December 10, 1901 - The first Nobel Prizes are awarded.
  December 11, 1936 - King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom abdicates from the throne.
  December 12, 1911 - Delhi becomes the capital city of India.
  December 12, 1963 - Kenya becomes independent from the United Kingdom.
  December 14, 1861 - Albert, Prince Consort of Great Britain and Ireland dies aged 42, placing Queen Victoria in a state of mourning his loss for the rest of her life.
  December 14, 1911 - A Norwegian expedition led by Roald Amundsen reaches the South Pole, where previously no human had ever been.
  December 15, 1891 - James Naismith introduces basketball.
  December 16, 1920 - An earthquake in Gansu province, China, kills around 200,000 people.
  December 16, 1991 - Kazakhstan declares independence from the Soviet Union.
  December 17, 1903 - The Wright brothers make their first flight in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
  December 17, 1907 - Ugyen Wangchuck becomes King of Bhutan.
  December 17, 2010 - Start of the Arab Spring, a series of uprisings across North Africa and the Middle East.
  December 19, 1783 - William Pitt the Younger becomes the youngest Prime Minister of Great Britain.
  December 20, 1999 - Portugal gives control of Macau to the People's Republic of China.
  December 21, 1898 - Marie and Pierre Curie announce their discovery of radium.
  December 21, 1913 - The first crossword puzzle is published.
  December 21, 1988 - A terrorist bomb explodes on Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, southern Scotland, killing 270 people.
  December 21, 2012 - End of the Mayan long-count calendar.
  December 22, 1989 - The Brandenburg Gate is re-opened.
  December 22, 1990 - Lech Walesa becomes President of Poland.
  December 23, 1972 - A major earthquake strikes Nicaragua, killing thousands of people.
  December 24, 1818 - The Christmas carol Silent Night is first performed at a church in Austria.
  December 24, 1914 - The World War I Christmas truce takes place.
  December 24, 1951 - Libya becomes independent.
  December 24, 1968 - Apollo 8 orbits the Moon, and a stunning photograph of the Earth rising is taken.
  December 25, 800 - Charlemagne is crowned Holy Roman Emperor.
  December 25, 1066 - William the Conqueror is crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey.
  December 26, 2004 - An earthquake off Sumatra, Indonesia, leads to tsunamis that kill over 300,000 people on Indian Ocean coasts, with nearby Sumatra being worst affected.
  December 27, 531 - Inauguration of the Hagia Sophia as a church in what was then called Byzantium.
  December 27, 1949 - Queen Juliana of the Netherlands officially recognizes Indonesia's independence.
  December 28, 1612 - Galileo Galilei observes the planet Neptune, though there is dispute as to whether he mistook it for a star.
  December 28, 1879 - The Tay Rail Bridge disaster on the east coast of Scotland kills 75 people.
  December 28, 1895 - The Lumiere brothers open their first cinema in Paris.
  December 29, 1911 - Mongolia becomes independent.
  December 30, 1922 - The USSR is founded.
  December 30, 2011 - This date is skipped in Samoa as the International Date Line is shifted.
  December 31, 1857 - Ottawa is chosen as capital ci
caption: The planet Neptune was observed by Galileo on December 28, 1612.
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