December 1

December 1 in recent years

2023 (Friday)

2022 (Thursday)

2021 (Wednesday)

2020 (Tuesday)

2019 (Sunday)

2018 (Saturday)

2017 (Friday)

2016 (Thursday)

2015 (Tuesday)

2014 (Monday)

December 1 is the 335th day of the year (336th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; 30 days remain until the end of the year.

Events

• 800 – Charlemagne judges the accusations against Pope Leo III in the Vatican.
• 1420 – Henry V of England enters Paris.
• 1577 – Francis Walsingham is knighted.
• 1640 – End of the Iberian Union: Portugal acclaims as King João IV of Portugal, ending 60 years of personal union of the crowns of Portugal and Spain and the end of the rule of the Philippine Dynasty.
• 1768 – The slave ship Fredensborg sinks off Tromøy in Norway.
• 1822 – Peter I is crowned Emperor of Brazil.
• 1824 – United States presidential election, 1824: Since no candidate received a majority of the total electoral college votes in the election, the United States House of Representatives is given the task of deciding the winner in accordance with the Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
• 1826 – French philhellene Charles Nicolas Fabvier forces his way through the Turkish cordon and ascends the Acropolis of Athens, which had been under siege.
• 1828 – Argentine general Juan Lavalle makes a coup against governor Manuel Dorrego, beginning the Decembrist revolution.
• 1834 – Slavery is abolished in the Cape Colony in accordance with the Slavery Abolition Act 1833.
• 1862 – In his State of the Union Address President Abraham Lincoln reaffirms the necessity of ending slavery as ordered ten weeks earlier in the Emancipation Proclamation.
• 1865 – Shaw University, the first historically black university in the southern United States, is founded in Raleigh, North Carolina.
• 1885 – First serving of the soft drink Dr Pepper at a drug store in Waco, Texas.
• 1913 – The Buenos Aires Metro, the first underground railway system in the southern hemisphere and in Latin America, begins operation.
• 1913 – The Ford Motor Company introduces the first moving assembly line.
• 1913 – Crete, having obtained self rule from Turkey after the First Balkan War, is annexed by Greece.
• 1918 – Transylvania unites with the Kingdom of Romania, following the incorporation of Bessarabia (March 27) and Bukovina (November 28), thus concluding the Great Union.
• 1918 – The Kingdom of 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.
• 1919 – Lady Astor becomes the first female Member of Parliament to take her seat in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. (She had been elected to that position on November 28.)
• 1919 – The first issue of Diário de Noite is published from Goa.
• 1934 – In the Soviet Union, Politburo member Sergei Kirov is shot dead by Leonid Nikolaev at the Communist Party headquarters in Leningrad.
• 1941 – World War II: Emperor Hirohito of Japan gives the final approval to initiate war against the United States.
• 1941 – World War II: Fiorello La Guardia, Mayor of New York City and Director of the Office of Civilian Defense, signs Administrative Order 9, creating the Civil Air Patrol.
• 1948 – Taman Shud Case: The body of an unidentified man is found in Adelaide, Australia, involving an undetectable poison and a secret code in a very rare book; the case remains unsolved and is "one of Australia's most profound mysteries."
• 1952 – The New York Daily News reports the news of Christine Jorgensen, the first notable case of sexual reassignment surgery.
• 1955 – American Civil Rights Movement: In Montgomery, Alabama, seamstress Rosa Parks refuses to give up 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 – The Central African Republic attains self-rule within the French Union.
• 1958 – The Our Lady of the Angels School fire in Chicago kills 92 children and three nuns.
• 1959 – Cold War: Opening date for signature of the Antarctic Treaty, which sets aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve and bans military activity on the continent.
• 1960 – Paul McCartney and Pete Best are arrested (and later deported) from Hamburg, Germany, after accusations of attempted arson.
• 1963 – Nagaland becomes the 16th state of India.
• 1964 – Vietnam War: U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson and his top-ranking advisers meet to discuss plans to bomb North Vietnam.
• 1964 – Malawi, Malta and Zambia join the United Nations.
• 1965 – India's Border Security Force is established.
• 1966 – The first Gävle goat, an annual Swedish Yule Goat tradition, is erected in Gävle.
• 1969 – Vietnam War: The first draft lottery in the United States is held since World War II.
• 1971 – Cambodian Civil War: Khmer Rouge rebels intensify assaults on Cambodian government positions, forcing their retreat from Kompong Thmar and nearby Ba Ray.
• 1973 – Papua New Guinea gains self-governance from Australia.
• 1974 – TWA Flight 514, a Boeing 727, crashes northwest of Dulles International Airport, killing all 92 people on board.
• 1974 – Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 6231, another Boeing 727, crashes northwest of John F. Kennedy International Airport.
• 1976 – Angola joins the United Nations.
• 1981 – Inex-Adria Aviopromet Flight 1308, a McDonnell Douglas MD-80, crashes in Corsica, killing all 180 people on board.
• 1984 – NASA conducts the Controlled Impact Demonstration, wherein an airliner is deliberately crashed in order to test technologies and gather data to help improve survivability of crashes.
• 1988 – Benazir Bhutto is appointed Prime Minister of Pakistan.
• 1989 – 1989 Philippine coup attempt: The right-wing military rebel Reform the Armed Forces Movement attempts to oust Philippine President Corazon Aquino in a failed bloody coup d'état.
• 1989 – Cold War: East Germany's parliament abolishes the constitutional provision granting the Communist Party the leading role in the state.
• 1990 – Channel Tunnel sections started from the United Kingdom and France meet 40 metres beneath the seabed.
• 1991 – Cold War: Ukrainian voters overwhelmingly approve a referendum for independence from the Soviet Union.
• 1997 – In the Indian state of Bihar, Ranvir Sena attacked the CPI(ML) Party Unity stronghold Lakshmanpur-Bathe, killing 63 lower caste people.
• 2001 – Captain Bill Compton brings Trans World Airlines Flight 220, an MD-83, into St. Louis International Airport bringing to an end 76 years of TWA operations following TWA's purchase by American Airlines.
• 2009 – The Treaty of Lisbon, which amends the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty establishing the European Community, which together comprise the constitutional basis of European Union, comes into effect.
• 2013 – China launches Yutu or Jade Rabbit, its first lunar rover, as part of the Chang'e 3 lunar exploration mission.

Births

• 1081 – Louis VI of France (d. 1137)
• 1083 – Anna Komnene, Greek physician (d. 1153)
• 1521 – Takeda Shingen, Japanese warlord (d. 1573)
• 1525 – Tadeáš Hájek, Czech physician and astronomer (d. 1600)
• 1580 – Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc, French astronomer (d. 1637)
• 1690 – Philip Yorke, 1st Earl of Hardwicke, English lawyer and politician, Lord Chancellor (d. 1764)
• 1709 – Franz Xaver Richter, Austrian-Moravian singer, violinist, composer, and conductor (d. 1789)
• 1716 – Étienne Maurice Falconet, French sculptor (d. 1791)
• 1743 – Martin Heinrich Klaproth, German chemist (d. 1817)
• 1761 – Marie Tussaud, French sculptor, founded Madame Tussauds Wax Museum (d. 1850)
• 1792 – Nikolai Lobachevsky, Russian mathematician (d. 1856)
• 1844 – Alexandra of Denmark, Danish wife of Edward VII (d. 1925)
• 1847 – Julia Ann Moore, American poet (d. 1920)
• 1869 – Eligiusz Niewiadomski, Polish painter and critic, assassin of Gabriel Narutowicz (d. 1923)
• 1873 – Valery Bryusov, Russian poet (d. 1924)
• 1884 – Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, German painter (d. 1976)
• 1886 – Rex Stout, American author (d. 1975)
• 1895 – Henry Williamson, English author (d. 1977)
• 1896 – Georgy Zhukov, Russian general (d. 1974)
• 1897 – Cyril Ritchard, English actor (d. 1977)
• 1898 – Stuart Garson, Canadian lawyer and politician, 12th Premier of Manitoba (d. 1977)
• 1901 – Ilona Fehér, Hungarian violinist (d. 1988)
• 1902 – Rudolf Loo, Estonian wrestler (d. 1983)
• 1905 – Alex Wilson, Canadian sprinter (d. 1994)
• 1910 – Alicia Markova, English ballerina and choreographer (d. 2004)
• 1911 – Walter Alston, American baseball player and manager (d. 1984)
• 1911 – Calvin Griffith, Canadian-American businessman (d. 1999)
• 1912 – Minoru Yamasaki, American architect, designed the World Trade Center (d. 1986)
• 1913 – Mary Martin, American actress and singer (d. 1990)
• 1916 – Wan Li, Chinese politician
• 1917 – Thomas Hayward, American tenor (d. 1995)
• 1917 – Marty Marion, American baseball player and manager (d. 2011)
• 1921 – Vernon McGarity, American sergeant, Medal of Honor recipient (d. 2013)
• 1922 – Vsevolod Bobrov, Russian ice hockey player (d. 1979)
• 1922 – Miroslav Kluc, Czech ice hockey player (d. 2012)
• 1922 – Paul Picerni, American actor (d. 2011)
• 1923 – Morris, Belgian cartoonist (d. 2001)
• 1923 – William F. House, American physician (d. 2012)
• 1923 – Stansfield Turner, American admiral, 12th Director of Central Intelligence
• 1925 – Martin Rodbell, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1998)
• 1926 – Keith Michell, Australian actor
• 1926 – Robert Symonds, American actor (d. 2007)
• 1926 – Colin Tennant, 3rd Baron Glenconner, Scottish businessman (d. 2010)
• 1928 – Emily McLaughlin, American actress (d. 1991)
• 1928 – Malachi Throne, American actor (d. 2013)
• 1929 – David Doyle, American actor (d. 1997)
• 1930 – Marie Bashir, Australian doctor and politician, 37th Governor of New South Wales
• 1930 – Joachim Hoffmann, German historian (d. 2002)
• 1930 – Matt Monro, English singer (d. 1985)
• 1931 – Norman Browse, English doctor and politician, President of the States of Alderney (2002-2011)
• 1931 – Jimmy Lyons, American saxophonist (d. 1986)
• 1931 – Jim Nesbitt, American singer-songwriter (d. 2007)
• 1933 – Lou Rawls, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actor (d. 2006)
• 1933 – Curro Romero, Spanish former bullfighter
• 1934 – Billy Paul, American singer
• 1935 – Woody Allen, American screenwriter, director, and actor
• 1937 – Muriel Costa-Greenspon, American soprano (d. 2005)
• 1937 – Gordon Crosse, English composer
• 1937 – Chuck Low, American actor
• 1937 – Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga, Latvian politician, 6th President of Latvia
• 1938 – Sandy Nelson, American drummer
• 1939 – Lee Trevino, American golfer
• 1940 – Mike Denness, Scottish-English cricketer and referee (d. 2013)
• 1940 – Richard Pryor, American comedian and actor (d. 2005)
• 1940 – Tasso Wild, German footballer
• 1942 – Mohamed Kamel Amr, Egyptian diplomat, Foreign Minister of Egypt (2011-2013)
• 1942 – John Crowley, American author
• 1943 – Kenny Moore, American runner and journalist
• 1944 – Pierre Arditi, French actor
• 1944 – Eric Bloom, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Blue Öyster Cult)
• 1944 – John Densmore, American drummer and songwriter (The Doors and The Butts Band)
• 1944 – Michael Hagee, American general, 33rd Commandant of the Marine Corps
• 1944 – Tahar Ben Jelloun, French poet
• 1944 – Werner Scholz, German footballer
• 1945 – Bette Midler, American singer, producer, and actress
• 1946 – Kemal Kurspahić, Bosnian journalist
• 1946 – Gilbert O'Sullivan, Irish-English singer-songwriter and pianist
• 1947 – Alain Bashung, French singer-songwriter and actor (d. 2009)
• 1947 – Bob Fulton, English-Australian rugby player
• 1947 – Stephen Lowe, English playwright and director
• 1948 – George Foster, American baseball player
• 1948 – Sarfraz Nawaz, Pakistani former cricketer
• 1948 – John Roskelley, American mountaineer
• 1948 – Neil Warnock, English football manager
• 1948 – N. T. Wright, English scholar and former Anglican bishop
• 1948 – Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa, Nigerian politician, Governor of Kaduna State (d. 2012)
• 1949 – Jan Brett, American author and illustrator
• 1949 – Pablo Escobar, Colombian drug lord (d. 1993)
• 1949 – Jake Hartford, American radio host (d. 2013)
• 1949 – Sebastián Piñera, Chilean businessman and politician, 35th President of Chile
• 1949 – Colleen Brennan, American porn actress
• 1950 – Filippos Petsalnikos, Greek politician, Speaker of the Hellenic Parliament (2009-2012)
• 1950 – Keith Thibodeaux, American actor and drummer (David and the Giants)
• 1951 – Obba Babatundé, American actor
• 1951 – Albert Ho, Hong Kong politician
• 1951 – Jaco Pastorius, American bass player, songwriter, and producer (Weather Report, Trio of Doom, and Blood, Sweat & Tears) (d. 1987)
• 1951 – Treat Williams, American actor
• 1952 – Stephen Poliakoff, English playwright and TV dramatist
• 1954 – Bob Goen, American television host
• 1954 – Judith Hackitt, English chemical engineer, Chair of the UK Health and Safety Executive
• 1954 – Annette Haven, American porn actress
• 1955 – Verónica Forqué, Spanish actress
• 1955 – Pat Spillane, Gaelic footballer
• 1955 – Mark Thompson, American radio host and actor
• 1956 – Julee Cruise, American singer-songwriter and actress
• 1957 – Chris Poland, American guitarist (Megadeth, Circle Jerks, Damn the Machine, and OHM)
• 1957 – Vesta Williams, American singer-songwriter and actress (d. 2011)
• 1958 – Javier Aguirre, Mexican footballer and coach
• 1958 – Candace Bushnell, American author
• 1958 – Lisa Fischer, American singer-songwriter
• 1958 – Charlene Tilton, American actress
• 1958 – Gary Peters, American politician
• 1959 – Billy Childish, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and painter (The Medway Poets, Thee Mighty Caesars, and Thee Headcoats)
• 1959 – Wally Lewis, Australian rugby player
• 1960 – Carol Alt, American model and actress
• 1960 – Jane Turner, Australian actress
• 1961 – Safra A. Catz, Israeli-born American businesswoman
• 1961 – Armin Meiwes, German cannibal and murderer
• 1961 – Jeremy Northam, English actor
• 1962 – Sylvie Daigle, Canadian speed skater
• 1962 – Pamela McGee, American former basketball player and assistant coach
• 1963 – Marco Greco, Brazilian race car driver
• 1963 – Nathalie Lambert, Canadian speed skater
• 1963 – Arjuna Ranatunga, Sri Lankan cricketer
• 1964 – Salvatore Schillaci, Italian footballer
• 1964 – Jo Walton, Welsh-Canadian science fiction and fantasy author
• 1966 – Andrew Adamson, New Zealand director, producer, and screenwriter
• 1966 – Katherine LaNasa, American actress
• 1966 – Ali Mosaffa, Iranian actor and director
• 1966 – Larry Walker, Canadian baseball player
• 1967 – Nestor Carbonell, American actor
• 1967 – Reggie Sanders, American baseball player
• 1968 – Justin Chadwick, English actor and director
• 1968 – Anders Holmertz, Swedish swimmer
• 1969 – Richard Carrier, American author/blogger and notable supporter of the Christ myth theory
• 1970 – Jouko Ahola, Finnish strongman and actor
• 1970 – Golden Brooks, American actress
• 1970 – Jonathan Coulton, American singer-songwriter
• 1970 – Lembit Rajala, Estonian footballer
• 1970 – Kirk Rueter, American baseball player
• 1970 – Sarah Silverman, American comedian, actress, and singer
• 1971 – Stephanie Finochio, American wrestler and stuntwoman
• 1971 – Emily Mortimer, English actress
• 1971 – Melanie Peres, German-Israeli model, actress, and singer
• 1971 – Mika Pohjola, Finnish-Swedish pianist and composer
• 1971 – John Schlimm, American author
• 1971 – Dolgorsürengiin Serjbüdee, Mongolian wrestler
• 1971 – Peter Van de Veire, Belgian radio host
• 1973 – Steve Gibb, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Black Label Society and Crowbar)
• 1973 – Jon Theodore, American drummer (One Day as a Lion, The Mars Volta, and Golden)
• 1974 – Costinha, Portuguese footballer
• 1974 – Isaiah "Ikey" Owens, American keyboardist (The Mars Volta, De Facto, and Free Moral Agents)
• 1975 – Matt Fraction, American author
• 1975 – Sophia Skou, Danish swimmer
• 1976 – Tomasz Adamek, Polish boxer
• 1976 – Laura Ling, American journalist
• 1976 – Dean O'Gorman, New Zealand actor
• 1976 – Evangelos Sklavos, Greek basketball player
• 1976 – Matthew Shepard, American murder victim (d. 1998)
• 1977 – Brad Delson, American guitarist and producer (Linkin Park)
• 1977 – Jared Fogle, American commercial spokesman (Subway)
• 1977 – Lee McKenzie, Scottish journalist
• 1977 – Nate Torrence, American actor
• 1978 – Mat Kearney, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
• 1979 – Angelique Bates, American actress
• 1979 – Ryan Malone, American ice hockey player
• 1980 – Mohammad Kaif, Indian cricketer
• 1980 – Roger Peterson, Aruban-Dutch singer-songwriter (Intwine)
• 1981 – Park Hyo-shin, South Korean singer-songwriter
• 1981 – Luke McPharlin, Australian footballer
• 1982 – Riz Ahmed, British Pakistani actor and rapper
• 1982 – Lloyd Doyley, English footballer
• 1982 – Christos Kalantzis, Greek footballer
• 1982 – Christos Melissis, Greek footballer
• 1985 – John Coughlin, American figure skater
• 1985 – Philip DeFranco, American video blogger
• 1985 – Janelle Monáe, American singer-songwriter
• 1985 – Emiliano Viviano, Italian footballer
• 1985 – Chanel Preston, American porn actress
• 1986 – DeSean Jackson, American football player
• 1987 – Tabarie Henry, U.S. Virgin Islander sprinter
• 1987 – Brett Williams, English footballer
• 1988 – Zoë Kravitz, American actress and singer
• 1988 – Dan Mavraides, Greek-American basketball player
• 1990 – Chanel Iman, American model
• 1990 – Tomáš Tatar, Slovak ice hockey player
• 1991 – Hilda Melander, Swedish tennis player
• 1992 – Masahudu Alhassan, Ghanaian footballer
• 1992 – Linos Chrysikopoulos, Greek Basketball Player
• 1992 – Marco van Ginkel, Dutch footballer
• 1993 – Reena Pärnat, Estonian archer
• 1995 – Agnė Čepelytė, Lithuanian tennis player
• 1995 – Eva Boto, Slovenian singer
• 2001 – Aiko, Princess Toshi of Japan
• 2001 – Savannah McReynolds, American actress

Deaths

• 1135 – Henry I of England (b. 1068)
• 1241 – Isabella of England, English wife of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1214)
• 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, Austrian noblewoman, Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands (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 wife of Albert VII, Archduke of Austria (b. 1566)
• 1640 – Miguel de Vasconcelos, Portuguese politician, Secretary of State of Portugal (b. 1590)
• 1660 – Pierre d'Hozier, French genealogist (b. 1592)
• 1707 – Jeremiah Clarke, English composer (b. 1674)
• 1709 – Abraham a Sancta Clara, Austrian monk (b. 1644)
• 1723 – Susanna Centlivre, English actress and playwright (b. 1667)
• 1729 – Giacomo F. Maraldi, French-Italian astronomer (b. 1665)
• 1750 – Johan Gabriel Doppelmayr, German mathematician, astronomer, and cartographer (b. 1671)
• 1755 – Maurice Greene, English composer (b. 1696)
• 1767 – Henry Erskine, 10th Earl of Buchan, Scottish politician (b. 1710)
• 1825 – Alexander I of Russia (b. 1777)
• 1830 – Pope Pius VIII (b. 1761)
• 1865 – Abraham Emanuel Fröhlich, Swiss poet (b. 1796)
• 1866 – George Everest, Welsh geographer and surveyor, namesake of Mt. Everest (b. 1790)
• 1884 – William Swainson, English-New Zealand lawyer and politician (b. 1809)
• 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)
• 1923 – Virginie Loveling, Belgian author and poet (b. 1836)
• 1928 – José Eustasio Rivera, Colombian lawyer and poet (b. 1888)
• 1934 – Sergey Kirov, Russian politician (b. 1886)
• 1935 – Bernhard Schmidt, German optician (b. 1879)
• 1943 – Damrong Rajanubhab, Thai historian (b. 1862)
• 1947 – Aleister Crowley, English occultist and author (b. 1875)
• 1947 – G. H. Hardy, English mathematician (b. 1877)
• 1950 – E. J. Moeran, English composer (b. 1894)
• 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)
• 1968 – Darío Moreno, Turkish singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor (b. 1921)
• 1969 – Magic Sam, American guitarist and singer (b. 1937)
• 1973 – David Ben-Gurion, Polish-Israeli politician, 1st Prime Minister of Israel (b. 1886)
• 1975 – Nellie Fox, American baseball player (b. 1927)
• 1975 – Anna Roosevelt Halsted, American writer, daughter of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt (b. 1906)
• 1981 – Russ Manning, American comic book and comic strip artist, created Magnus, Robot Fighter (b. 1929)
• 1984 – Roelof Frankot, Dutch painter (b. 1911)
• 1986 – Frank McCarthy, American army officer and film producer (b. 1912)
• 1987 – James Baldwin, American author, poet, and critic (b. 1924)
• 1987 – Punch Imlach, Canadian ice hockey coach (b. 1918)
• 1989 – Alvin Ailey, American dancer and choreographer (b. 1931)
• 1990 – Carla Lehmann, Canadian film and television actress (b. 1917)
• 1991 – George Stigler, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1911)
• 1993 – Ray Gillen, American singer-songwriter (Badlands, Black Sabbath, Blue Murder, and Sun Red Sun) (b. 1959)
• 1995 – Hopper Levett, English cricketer (b. 1908)
• 1995 – Colin Tapley, New Zealand-English actor (b. 1907)
• 1995 – Maxwell R. Thurman, American general (b. 1931)
• 1996 – Peter Bronfman, Canadian businessman (b. 1928)
• 1997 – Michel Bélanger, Canadian businessman and banker (b. 1929)
• 1997 – Stéphane Grappelli, French violinist (Quintette du Hot Club de France) (b. 1908)
• 1997 – Endicott Peabody, American politician, 62nd Governor of Massachusetts (b. 1920)
• 1998 – Freddie Young, English cinematographer (b. 1902)
• 2001 – Ellis R Dungan, American-Indian director (b. 1909)
• 2002 – Edward L. Beach, Jr., United States Navy submarine officer and author (b. 1918)
• 2002 – Dave McNally, American baseball player (b. 1942)
• 2003 – Clark Kerr, American academic (b. 1911)
• 2003 – Eugenio Monti, Italian bobsledder (b. 1928)
• 2004 – Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld, German-Dutch general, husband of Juliana of the Netherlands (b. 1911)
• 2005 – Gust Avrakotos, American CIA officer (b. 1938)
• 2005 – Mary Hayley Bell, English actress and playwright (b. 1911)
• 2005 – Freeman V. Horner, American army officer (b. 1922)
• 2006 – Claude Jade, French actress (b. 1948)
• 2006 – Bruce Trigger, Canadian archaeologist (b. 1937)
• 2007 – Ken McGregor, Australian tennis player (b. 1929)
• 2007 – Anton Rodgers, English actor and director (b. 1933)
• 2008 – Paul Benedict, American actor (b. 1938)
• 2008 – Mikel Laboa, Spanish singer-songwriter (b. 1934)
• 2008 – Joseph B. Wirthlin, American businessman and religious leader (b. 1917)
• 2009 – Gustavo Adolfo Palma, Guatemalan tenor and actor (b. 1920)
• 2010 – Hillard Elkins, American theatre and film producer (b. 1929)
• 2010 – Adriaan Blaauw, Dutch astronomer (b. 1914)
• 2011 – Christa Wolf, German author (b. 1929)
• 2012 – Jovan Belcher, American football player (b. 1987)
• 2012 – Arthur Chaskalson, South African judge (b. 1931)
• 2012 – Mitchell Cole, English footballer (b. 1985)
• 2012 – Steve Fox, English footballer (b. 1958)
• 2012 – Rick Majerus, American basketball coach (b. 1948)
• 2012 – Gerard Parker, American tribal leader, Chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (b. 1936)
• 2012 – Edgar Price, American politician (b. 1918)
• 2012 – Bhim Bahadur Tamang, Nepali politician (b. 1933)
• 2012 – Phil Taylor, English footballer (b. 1917)
• 2012 – Yoshinori Watanabe, Japanese mobster (b. 1941)
• 2012 – Reinhold Weege, American screenwriter, and producer (b. 1949)
• 2012 – James R. Whelan, American journalist (b. 1933)
• 2013 – Walter E. Ellis, American serial killer (b. 1960)

Holidays and observances

• Christian Feast Day:
  • Castritian
  • Eligius
  • Edmund Campion
  • Nicholas Ferrar (Episcopal Church (United States))
  • December 1 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

• Damrong Rajanubhab Day (Thailand)
• Earliest day on which Farmer's Day can fall, while December 7 is the latest; celebrated on the first Friday in December. (Ghana)
• Earliest day on which Good Neighborliness Day can fall, while December 7 is the latest; celebrated on the first Sunday in December. (Turkmenistan)
• First President Day (Kazakhstan)
• Freedom and Democracy Day (Chad)
• Great Union Day, celebrates the Union of Transylvania with Romania in 1918; since 1990, National Day (Romania)
• Military Abolition Day (Costa Rica)
• National Day (Burma)
• Republic Day (Central African Republic)
• Restoration of Independence (Portugal)
• Rosa Parks Day (United States)
• Self-governance Day or Fullveldisdagurinn (Iceland)
• Teachers' Day (Panama)
• World AIDS Day (International)

External links

• BBC: On This Day
• The New York Times: On This Day
• On This Day in Canada