December 4

Events 
 Up to 1900 
 771 – Austrasian King Carloman dies, leaving his brother Charlemagne King of the now complete Frankish Kingdom.
 963 – Pope Leo VIII is elected.
 1110 – First Crusade: The Crusaders conquer Sidon.
 1154 – Nicholas Breakspear is elected to become Pope Adrian IV, and is the only Englishman to have been Pope.
 1259 – Kings Louis IX of France and Henry III of England agree to the Treaty of Paris, in which Henry renounces his claims to French–controlled territory on continental Europe (including Normandy) in exchange for Louis withdrawing his support for English rebels.
 1563 – The final session of the Council of Trent is held (it opened on December 13, 1545).
 1619 – 38 colonists from Berkeley Parish in England disembark in Virginia and give thanks to God (this is considered to be the first Thanksgiving in the Americas).
 1639 – Jeremiah Horrocks made the first observation of a transit of Venus. (November 24 under the Julian calendar.)
 1674 – Father Jacques Marquette founds a mission on the shores of Lake Michigan to minister to the Illiniwek (the mission would later grow into the city of Chicago, Illinois).
 1676 – Battle of Lund: A Danish army under the command of King Christian V of Denmark engages the Swedish army commanded by Field Marshal Simon Grundel-Helmfelt.
 1745 – Charles Edward Stuart's army reaches Derby, its furthest point during the second Jacobite Rising.
 1783 – At Fraunces Tavern in New York City, United States General George Washington formally bids his officers farewell.
 1791 – The first issue of The Observer, the world's first Sunday newspaper, is published.
 1829 – In the face of fierce opposition, British governor Lord William Bentinck carries a regulation declaring that all who abetted suttee in India were guilty of culpable homicide.
 1864 – American Civil War: Sherman's March to the Sea – At Waynesboro, Georgia, forces under Union General Judson Kilpatrick prevent troops led by Confederate General Joseph Wheeler from interfering with Union General William T. Sherman's campaign destroying a wide swath of the South on his march to the Atlantic Ocean from Atlanta (Union forces did suffer more than three times the Confederate casualties, however).
 1867 – Former Minnesota farmer Oliver Hudson Kelley founds the Order of the Patrons of Husbandry (better known today as the Grange movement).
 1872 – The crewless American ship Mary Celeste is found by the British brig Dei Gratia (the ship was abandoned for 9 days but was only slightly damaged).
 1875 – Notorious New York City politician Boss Tweed escapes from prison and flees to Cuba, then Spain.
 1881 – The first edition of the Los Angeles Times is published.
 1893 – First Matabele War: A patrol of 34 British South African company soldiers is ambushed and wiped out by more than 3,000 Matabele warriors on the Shangani River in Matabeleland in present–day Zimbabwe.

 1901 – 1950 
 1906 – Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc., the first intercollegiate Greek–letter fraternity in the United States established for men of African descent, was founded at Cornell University.
 1909 – The Montreal Canadiens ice hockey team is founded.
 1918 – United States President Woodrow Wilson sails for the World War I peace talks in Versailles, becoming the first United States President to travel to Europe while in office.
 1921 – The Virginia Rappe manslaughter trial against Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle ends in a hung jury.
 1934 – Daisetzuan National Park is created in Japan.
 1937 – The first issue of the Dandy is published.
 1942 – Holocaust: In Warsaw, Zofia Kossak-Szczucka and Wanda Filipowicz set up Żegota.
 1943 – World War II: In Yugoslavia, resistance leader Marshal Tito proclaims a provisional democratic Yugoslav government in–exile.
 1943 – United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt closes the Works Progress Administration.
 1944 – World War II: An Allied air raid on the German city of Heilbronn kills 6,500 people.
 1945 – By a vote of 65 to 7, the United States Senate approves United States participation in the United Nations (the UN was established on October 24, 1945).

 1951 – 2000 
 1951 – Mir Waiz Maulvi Muhammad Yusouf appointed President of Azad Kashmir Government.
 1952 – Great Smog of 1952: A cold fog descends upon London, combining with air pollution and killing up to 12,000 in the weeks and months that follow.
 1954 – The first Burger King opens in Miami, Florida.
 1958 – Dahomey (present–day Benin) becomes a self–governing country within the French Community.
 1967 – Vietnam War: US and South Vietnamese forces engage NLF troops in the Mekong Delta.
 1969 – Black Panther members Fred Hampton and Mark Clark are shot and killed in their sleep during a raid by 14 Chicago, Illinois police officers.
 1969 – Surfer Greg Noll rides a 65–foot wave on the North Shore of Oahu, still the highest ever recorded.
 1971 – UN Security Council calls emergency session to consider deteriorating situation between India and Pakistan.
 1971 – The Montreux Casino in Switzerland is set ablaze by someone wielding a flare gun during a Frank Zappa concert.
 1974 – A Dutch Douglas DC–8 airliner, carrying Indonesian pilgrims to Mecca, crashes in Colombo, Sri Lanka, killing all 191 people on board.
 1975 – Suriname joins the UN.
 1977 – Jean-Bédel Bokassa, president of the Central African Republic, crowns himself Emperor Bokassa I of the Central African Empire.
 1977 – Malaysia Airlines Flight 653 is hijacked and crashes in Tanjong Kupang, Johor, killing 100.
 1978 – Following the murder of Mayor George Moscone, Dianne Feinstein becomes San Francisco, California's first woman mayor (she served until January 8, 1988).
 1979 – The Hastie fire in Hull, kills three schoolboys and eventually leads police to arrest Bruce George Peter Lee.
 1980 – The rock group Led Zeppelin formally announce their breakup.
 1981 – South Africa grants "homeland" Ciskei independence (not recognized outside South Africa).
 1982 – The People's Republic of China adopts its current constitution.
 1984 – Sri Lankan Civil War: Sri Lankan army soldiers kill between 107 and 150 civilians.
 1984 – Hezbollah militants hijack a Kuwaiti Airlines plane, killing 4 passengers.
 1991 – Journalist Terry Anderson is released after 7 years in captivity as a hostage in Beirut (he was the last and longest–held American hostage in Lebanon).
 1991 – United States airline Pan Am ends operations.
 1992 – Somali Civil War: President George H. W. Bush orders 28,000 US troops to Somalia.
 1993 – A truce is concluded between the government of Angola and UNITA rebels.
 1994 – Pakistan wins World Hockey Championship after 12 years, beating the Netherlands by four goals to three, in Sydney.
 1998 – Unity, the second module of the International Space Station, is launched.

 From 2001 
 2001 – Lisa Beamer, wife of Todd Beamer, through the Todd M. Beamer Foundation, registers  the trademark "Let's Roll" with the United States Patent and Trademark Office less than three months after his death in the September 11 attacks in the United States.
 2005 – Tens of thousands of people in Hong Kong protested for democracy and called on the Government to allow universal and equal suffrage.
 2006 – An adult giant squid is caught on video for the first time near the Ogasawara Islands of Japan.
 2009 – A fire in a night club in Perm, Russia, kills 113 people.
 2016 – Alexander Van der Bellen defeats Norbert Hofer in the re–run of Austria's presidential election.
 2016 – Constitutional reform is rejected by a majority in a national referendum in Italy, leading to Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's announcement that he is to resign from office.

 Births 
 Up to 1900 
 34 – Persius, Roman poet (d. 62)
 1555 – Heinrich Meibom, German poet and historian (d. 1625)
 1585 – John Cotton, English clergyman (d. 1652)
 1595 – Jean Chapelain, French poet (d. 1674)
 1647 – Daniel Eberlin, German composer and conductor (d. 1715)
 1670 – John Aislabie, English politician (d. 1742)
 1711 – Barbara of Portugal, Queen of Spain (d. 1758)
 1713 – Gasparo Gozzi, Italian critic and playwright (d. 1785)
 1791 – Jane Franklin, British adventurer (d. 1875)
 1795 – Thomas Carlyle, Scottish writer and historian (d. 1881)
 1798 – Jules Armand Dufaure, 33rd Prime Minister of France (d. 1884)
 1808 – Duke Maximilian Joseph in Bavaria (d. 1888)
 1817 – Nikoloz Baratashvili, Georgian poet (d. 1845)
 1835 – Samuel Butler, English writer (d. 1902)
 1844 – Franz Xavier Wernz, German religious leader (d. 1914)
 1849 – Crazy Horse, Native American leader (d. 1877)
 1852 – Orest Khvolson, Russian physicist (d. 1934)
 1861 – Hannes Hafstein, 1st Prime Minister of Iceland (d. 1922)
 1861 – Lillian Russell, American actress and singer (d. 1922)
 1865 – Edith Cavell, British nurse (d. 1915)
 1875 – Rainer Maria Rilke, Austrian poet and writer (d. 1926)
 1878 – Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia (d. 1918)
 1881 – Erwin von Witzleben, German general and Resistance activist (d. 1944)
 1889 – Lloyd Bacon, American actor and director (d. 1955)
 1892 – Liu Bocheng, Chinese military commander (d. 1986)
 1892 – Francisco Franco, dictator of Spain (d. 1975)
 1893 – Herbert Read, English art historian and philosopher (d. 1968)
 1895 – Fung Yu-lan, Chinese philosopher (d. 1990)
 1899 – Charlie Spencer, English footballer and manager (d. 1953)

 1901 – 1950 
 1908 – Alfred Hershey, American bacteriologist (d. 1997)
 1909 – Archduke Karl Pius of Austria, Prince of Tuscany (d. 1953)
 1910 – R. Venkataraman, 8th President of India (d. 2009)
 1913 – Robert Adler, American physicist and inventor (d. 2007)
 1913 – Mark Robson, Canadian–American movie director, producer and editor (d. 1978)
 1914 – Claude Renoir, French cinematographer (d. 1993)
 1917 – Movita Castaneda, American actress and singer (d. 2016)
 1918 – Robert Ettinger, American academic and pioneer of Cryonics (d. 2011)
 1919 – I. K. Gujral, Prime Minister of India (d. 2012)
 1920 – Nadir Afonso, Portuguese painter (d. 2013)
 1921 – Deanna Durbin, Canadian actress (d. 2013)
 1921 – Carlos Franqui, Cuban writer and journalist (d. 2010)
 1923 – Charles Keating, American lawyer, financier and real estate developer (d. 2014)
 1923 – Demmus Hentze, Faroese politician (d. 2016)
 1923 – John Krish, British screenwriter and director (d. 2016)
 1925 – Lino Lacedelli, Italian mountain climber (d. 2009)
 1926 – Shigeo Sugimoto, Japanese footballer (d. 2002)
 1926 – Monty M. Wyche, American judge (d. 2014)
 1927 – Gae Aulenti, Italian architect and designer (d. 2012)
 1927 – Rafael Sánchez Ferlosio, Spanish writer (d. 2019)
 1930 – Ronnie Corbett, Scottish actor and comedian (d. 2016)
 1930 – Jim Hall, American jazz guitarist, composer and arranger (d. 2013) 
 1931 – Alex Delvecchio, Canadian ice hockey player
 1932 – Roh Tae-woo, former President of South Korea
 1933 – Horst Buchholz, German actor (d. 2003)
 1935 – Paul Henry O'Neill, 72nd United States Secretary of the Treasury
 1939 – Freddy Cannon, American rock musician
 1939 – Stephen W. Bosworth, American diplomat (d. 2016)
 1939 – Etienne Mourrut, French politician (d. 2014)
 1940 – Gary Gilmore, American murderer (d. 1977)
 1942 – Gemma Jones, English actress
 1944 – Anna McGarrigle, Canadian folk musician, singer and songwriter
 1944 – Dennis Wilson, American musician (d. 1983)
 1944 – Chris Hillman, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
 1945 – Roberta Bondar, Canadian astronaut
 1949 – Jeff Bridges, American actor
 1949 – Pamela Stephenson, New Zealand–born actress and psychologist

 1951 – 1975 
 1951 – Gary Rossington, American musician (Lynyrd Skynyrd)
 1951 – Patricia Wettig, American actress and playwright
 1953 – Jean-Marie Pfaff, Belgian footballer
 1954 – Tony Todd, American actor and movie producer
 1955 – Philip Hammond, British politician
 1955 – Cassandra Wilson, American singer
 1956 – Bernard King, American basketball player
 1956 – Nia Griffith, Welsh politician
 1957 – Eric S. Raymond, American computer programmer and author
 1959 – Christa Luding-Rothenburger, German speed skater
 1960 – Glynis Nunn, Australian athlete
 1962 – Nixon Kiprotich, Kenyan middle–distance runner
 1963 – Sergey Bubka, Ukrainian pole vaulter
 1964 – Sertab Erener, Turkish singer
 1964 – Marisa Tomei, American actress
 1965 – Carlos Carvalhal, Portuguese footballer and manager
 1965 – Alex de la Iglesia, Spanish movie director, screenwriter and producer
 1965 – Ulf Kirsten, German footballer
 1966 – Fred Armisen, American actor, writer, producer, director, musician and comedian
 1969 – Jay-Z, American rapper
 1970 – Kevin Sussman, American actor
 1972 – Jassen Cullimore, Canadian ice hockey player
 1973 – Tyra Banks, American model
 1974 – Tadahito Iguchi, Japanese baseball player

 From 1976 
 1976 – Mbo Mpenza, Belgian footballer
 1979 – Jay DeMerit, American footballer
 1982 – Waldo Ponce, Chilean footballer
 1984 – Lindsay Felton, American actress
 1984 – Lauren London, American actress
 1984 – Brooke Adams, American wrestler and model
 1985 – Krista Siegfrids, Finnish singer
 1986 – Kaija Udras, Estonian skier
 1987 – Orlando Brown, American actor
 1988 – Andriy Pylyavskyi, Ukrainian footballer
 1988 – Mario Maurer, Thai actor and singer
 1990 – Igor Sjunin, Estonian triple jumper
 1990 – Lukman Haruna, Nigerian footballer
 1992 – Jean-Claude Iranzi, Rwandan footballer
 1992 – Guan Xueting, Chinese ice dancer
 1995 – Dina Asher-Smith, English track–and–field athlete
 1996 – Diogo Jota, Portuguese footballer

 Deaths 
 Up to 1900 
 749 – John of Damascus, Syrian monk, priest and saint (b. 676)
 771 – Carloman, Frankish ruler
 1075 – Anno II, Archbishop of Cologne (b. 1010)
 1123 – Omar Khayyam, Persian poet, philosopher, astronomer and mathematician (b. 1048)
 1214 – William the Lion, King of Scotland (b. 1143)
 1334 – Pope John XXII (b. 1249)
 1576 – George Joachim Rheticus, Austrian–Slovakian mathematician (b. 1544)
 1609 – Alexander Hume, Scottish poet (b. 1560)
 1642 – Cardinal Richelieu (b. 1885)
 1679 – Thomas Hobbes, English philosopher (b. 1588)
 1680 – Thomas Bartholin, Danish physician, mathematician and theologian (b. 1616)
 1696 – Empress Meisho of Japan (b. 1624)
 1798 – Luigi Galvani, Italian physicist (b. 1737)
 1828 – Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1770)
 1850 – William Sturgeon, British physicist and inventor (b. 1783)
 1891 – Frederick Whitaker, Prime Minister of New Zealand (b. 1812)
 1893 – John Tyndall, Irish physicist (b. 1820)
 1894 – Leon Ribbett, Governor of New Jersey (b. 1836)
 1897 – Griffith Rhys Jones, Welsh conductor (b. 1834)

 1901 – 2000 
 1902 – Charles Dow, American journalist (b. 1851)
 1916 – Preston Lea, Governor of New Jersey (b. 1841)
 1926 – Ivana Kobilca, Slovenian poet (b. 1861)
 1935 – Charles Robert Richet, French physiologist, won the 1913 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1850)
 1935 – Johan Halvorsen, Norwegian violinist, composer and conductor (b. 1864)
 1937 – Wilbur L. Adams, Governor of Delaware (b. 1884)
 1938 – Tamanishiki San'emon, Japanese sumo wrestler (b. 1903)
 1942 – Juhan Kukk, Estonian politician (b. 1885)
 1945 – Thomas Hunt Morgan, American geneticist and embryologist (b. 1866)
 1967 – Bert Lahr, American actor and singer (b. 1895)
 1971 – Shunryu Suzuki, Japanese–American spiritual teacher (b. 1904)
 1975 – Hannah Arendt, German philosopher (b. 1906)
 1976 – Benjamin Britten, English composer (b. 1913)
 1976 – Tommy Bolin, American guitarist (b. 1951)
 1980 – Francisco Sá Carneiro, Prime Minister of Portugal (b. 1934)
 1980 – Stanislawa Walasiewicz, Polish athlete (b. 1911)
 1984 – Jack Mercer, American animator, screenwriter, voice actor and singer (b. 1910)
 1987 – Rouben Mamoulian, Armenian–American movie director (b. 1897)
 1993 – Frank Zappa, American musician (b. 1940)
 2000 – Henck Arron, 1st Prime Minister of Suriname (b. 1936)

 From 2001 
 2004 – Elizabeth Azcona Cranwell, Argentine poet and translator (b. 1933)
 2007 – Pimp C, American rapper (b. 1973)
 2008 – Forrest J Ackerman, American science fiction publisher (b. 1916)
 2009 – Eddie Fatu, professional wrestler better known as Umaga (b. 1973)
 2011 – Dev Anand, Indian actor, director and producer (b. 1923)
 2011 – Socrates, Brazilian footballer (b. 1954)
 2011 – Hubert Sumlin, American blues guitarist (b. 1931)
 2011 – Matti Yrjana Joensuu, Finnish crime fiction writer (b. 1948)
 2012 – Miguel Calero, Colombian footballer (b. 1971)
 2012 – Besse Cooper, American supercentenarian, oldest person in the world from June 21, 2011 (b. 1896)
 2013 – Joana Raspall i Juanola, Catalan writer (b. 1913)
 2014 – Claudia Emerson, American poet (b. 1957)
 2014 – V. R. Krishna Iyer, Indian judge (b. 1914)
 2014 – Lynne Kosky, Australian politician (b. 1958)
 2014 – Jeremy Thorpe, English politician (b. 1929)
 2015 – Bill Bennett, Canadian politician, Premier of British Columbia (b. 1932)
 2015 – Robert Loggia, American actor (b. 1930)
 2015 – Yossi Sarid, Israeli politician (b. 1940)
 2015 – Dag Skogheim, Norwegian writer (b. 1928)
 2015 – Erik De Vlaeminck, Belgian cyclist (b. 1945)
 2016 – Gotlib, French comics artist (b. 1934)
 2017 – Jimmy Hood, Scottish politician (b. 1948)
 2017 – Shashi Kapoor, Indian actor (b. 1938)
 2017 – Christine Keeler, English model (b. 1942)
 2017 – Manuel Marín, Spanish politician (b. 1949)
 2017 – Ali Abdullah Saleh, President of Yemen (b. 1942)
 2017 – Carles Santos, Spanish pianist (b. 1940)
 2017 – Rudolph G. Wilson, American professor, storyteller, writer and public speaker (b. 1935)
 2018 – Kadyrzhan Batyrov, Kyrgyz businessman and political activist (b. 1956)
 2018 – Selma Engel-Wijnberg, Dutch Holocaust survivor (b. 1922)
 2018 – Nika Rurua, Georgian politician (b. 1968)
 2019 – Thomas Elsaesser, German film historian and critic (b. 1943)
 2019 – Leonard Goldberg, American film and television producer (b. 1934)
 2019 – Rosa Morena, Spanish flamenco pop singer and actress (b. 1941)
 2019 – Margaret Morgan Lawrence, American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst (b. 1914)
 2019 – Bob Willis, English cricketer (b. 1949)

 Observances 
 Navy Day (India and Italy)
 Miners' Day (Poland)
 Thai Environment Day
 Tupou I Day (Tonga)
 St. Barbara – Christian Saint

December 04