December 1, 1640 – A nationalist revolution in Portugal led to independence from Spain as the Spanish garrisons were driven out of Portugal.
December 1, 1918 – Iceland was granted independence by the Danish parliament.
December 1, 1988 – Benazir Bhutto was nominated to become prime minister of Pakistan, the first woman to govern a Muslim nation.
December 1, 1989 – Mikhail Gorbachev became the first Soviet Russian leader to visit the Vatican and meet the Pope, thus ending 72 years of strict atheist policy in Communist Russia.
December 2, 1804 – Napoleon Bonaparte was crowned Emperor of France by Pope Pius VII in Paris.
December 2, 1805 – Napoleon defeated Russia and Austria in the Battle of Austerlitz.
December 2, 1852 – The Second Empire was proclaimed in France with Napoleon III as emperor.
December 2, 1971 – The United Arab Emirates was formed, consisting of seven Arab kingdoms on the eastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula including the former Trucial states Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm al Qaiwain and Fujairah. Ras al-Khaimah became a member in 1972.
December 2, 1982 – The first permanent artificial heart was implanted in 61-year-old Barney C. Clark by Dr. William De Vries at the University of Utah Medical Center in Salt Lake City. Clark, who was near death at the time of the operation, survived 112 days after the implantation.
Birthday – French painter Georges Seurat (1859-1891) was born in Paris. He was a leader in the neo-impressionist movement of the late 19th Century.
December 3, 1967 – The first successful heart transplant was performed by Dr. Christiaan Barnard at Cape Town, South African, on Louis Washkansky, who lived for 18 days.
December 3, 1984 – A deadly gas leak (of methyl isocyanate) at a Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India, killed at least 3,000 persons and injured more than 200,000.
December 4, 1791 – The Observer, now the oldest Sunday newspaper in the world, was first published in Britain.
December 4, 1918 – The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was proclaimed.
December 5, 1492 – Haiti was discovered by Christopher Columbus.
Birthday – Walt Disney (1901-1966) was born in Chicago, Illinois. As a little boy, he liked to draw farm animals and eventually got a job as an artist. He opened the Disneyland amusement park in Anaheim, California, in 1955.
December 6, 1492 – The island of Hispaniola was discovered by Christopher Columbus. Today the island is divided between Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
December 6, 1877 – At his laboratory in West Orange, New Jersey, Thomas Edison spoke the children’s verse “Mary had a Little Lamb…” while demonstrating his newly invented phonograph which utilized a revolving cylinder wrapped in tinfoil to record sounds.
December 6, 1917 – Two ships collided at Halifax, Nova Scotia, resulting in an explosion that killed more than 1,500 persons and injured 8,000.
December 6, 1921 – The Irish Free State became an independent member of the British Commonwealth.
December 6, 1971 – The Democratic Republic of Bangladesh, formerly East Pakistan, was recognized by India. Pakistan then broke off diplomatic relations with India.
December 7, 1941 – The U.S. Naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, was attacked by nearly 200 Japanese aircraft in a raid that lasted just over one hour and left nearly 3,000 Americans dead.
December 8, 1941 – A day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States and Britain declared war on Japan.
December 8, 1980 – Former Beatle musician John Lennon was assassinated in New York City.
December 9, 1941 – During World War II, China issued a formal declaration of war against Japan, Germany and Italy.
December 9, 1992 – Buckingham Palace announced the separation of Prince Charles and Princess of Wales, Dianna.
December 9, 1993 – A five-day repair job in space on the $3 billion Hubble Space Telescope was finished by U.S. astronauts.
December 9, 1994 – Sinn Fein, the Irish Republican Army’s political wing, held its first formal talks with Britain in over 70 years.
December 10, 1898 – The Treaty of Paris was signed between American and Spanish representatives following Spain’s defeat in the Spanish-American War.
December 11, 1901 – The first transatlantic radio signal was transmitted by Guglielmo Marconi from Cornwall, England, to St. John’s, Newfoundland.
December 11, 1994 – Russia sent tanks and troops into Chechnya to end the rebel territory’s three-year drive for independence.
December 13, 1642 – New Zealand was discovered by Dutch navigator Abel Tasman of the Dutch East India Company.
December 14, 1799 – George Washington died at Mount Vernon.
December 14, 1911 – Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen became the first person to reach the South Pole.
December 14, 1927 – Britain recognized independent Iraq and supported Iraqi admission to the League of Nations.
December 14, 1939 – The League of Nations expelled Soviet Russia for its aggression against Finland.
December 15, 1840 – Napoleon was buried in Les Invalides in Paris. He had died in exile on the island of Saint Helena after his fall from power.
December 15, 1964 – Canada adopted a new national flag featuring a red maple leaf on a white background.
December 15, 1993 – The GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) Treaty was approved by delegations from 117 countries.
December 15, 1995 – European Union leaders announced their new currency would be known as the Euro.
December 16, 1773 – The Boston Tea Party occurred
December 16, 1969 – The British House of Commons voted 343-185 to abolish the death penalty in England.
December 17, 1971 – The war between India and Pakistan over East Pakistan (later Bangladesh) ended as 90,000 Pakistani troops surrendered.
December 18, 1956 – Japan was admitted to the United Nations.
December 21st – Winter begins in the Northern Hemisphere. In the Southern Hemisphere today is the beginning of summer.
December 21, 1846 – Anesthesia was used for the first time in Britain during an operation at University College Hospital in London performed by Robert Liston who amputated the leg of a servant.
December 21, 1993 – The KGB (Soviet Secret Police) organization was abolished by Russian President Boris Yeltsin.
December 23, 1888 – Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh cut off his left ear during a fit of depression.
December 23, 1947 – The transistor was invented at Bell Laboratories by John Bardeen,
December 24, 1814 – The Treaty of Ghent between America and Britain was signed, officially ending the War of 1812.
December 24, 1942 – The first surface-to-surface guided missile, later known as the V-1 Flying Bomb, was launched by German rocket engineer Wernher von Braun. Called “Buzz Bombs”
December 25th – Christmas Day, commemorating the birth of Jesus of Nazareth.
December 25, 1926 – Hirohito became Emperor of Japan.
Birthday – Isaac Newton (1642-1727) was born in Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, England. .
Birthday – Mao Tse Tung (1893-1976) was born in Hunan Province, China.
December 27, 1927 – Josef Stalin consolidated his power in Soviet Russia by expelling rival Leon Trotsky from the Soviet Communist Party.
December 27, 1945 – The International Monetary Fund was established in Washington, D.C.
December 30, 1862 – During the American Civil War, the Union ironclad ship USS Monitor sank off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, during a storm, resulting in the loss of sixteen crewmen.
December 30, 1903 – In Chicago, a fire inside the Iroquois Theater killed 588 persons, eventually resulting in new fire safety codes for theaters.
December 30, 1922 – The USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) was established through the confederation of Russia, Byelorussia, Ukraine and the Transcaucasian Federation.
December 30, 1947 – King Michael of Romania was forced to abdicate after the Communists seized power.
December 30, 1993 – Israel and the Vatican signed an agreement on mutual recognition, seeking to end 2,000 years of unfriendly Christian-Jewish relations.
December 31st – New Year’s Eve, the final evening of the Gregorian calendar year, traditionally a night for merry-making to welcome in the new year.
