Historical Events
- Dec 8 20th Roman Catholic ecumenical council, Vatican I, opens in Rome
- Dec 8 Timothy Eaton founds T. Eaton Co. Limited in Toronto, Canada.
- Dec 9 Noble Order of Knights of Labor founded, Philadelphia
- Dec 10 The first American chapter of Kappa Sigma is founded at the University of Virginia.
- Dec 10 Women suffrage (right to vote) granted in Wyoming Territory (US 1st)
- Dec 18 Canada's Hamilton Football Club plays its 1st game
- Dec 28 William Finley Semple of Mount Vernon, Ohio, patents chewing gum
- Dec 30 Philadelphia Knights of Labor forms
Famous Birthdays
- Dec 1 Eligiusz Niewiadomski, Polish assassin of Gabriel Narutowicz (d. 1923)
- Dec 2 Jonas Cohn, German philosopher (Theory of the Dialects), born in Görlitz, Germany (d. 1947)
- Dec 5 Ellis Parker Butler, American author (Pigs is Pigs), born in Muscatine, Iowa (d. 1937)
- Dec 7 Frank Laver, Australian cricket medium pace bowler (15 Tests, 37 wickets, BB 8/31) and baseball player (first Australian national team), born in Castlemaine, Australia (d. 1919)
- Dec 16 Albert F Pollard, British historian (Dict of natural biography)
- Dec 16 Alfred Hill, Australian-New Zealand composer and conductor (Hinemoa), born in Melbourne, Australia (d. 1960)
- Dec 16 Hristo Tatarchev, Bulgarian revolutionary (d. 1952)
- Dec 17 Nikolai Ivanovich Kazanli, Russian composer, born in Tiraspol, Russian Empire (now Moldova) (d. 1916)
- Dec 19 Eduard Hermann, Coburg Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, German linguist (Homer)
- Dec 20 Charley Grapewin, American actor (The Wizard of Oz; Libeled Lady), born in Xenia, Ohio (d. 1956)
- Dec 22 Dmitri Egorov, Russian-Soviet mathematician, born in Moscow, Russia (d. 1931)
- Dec 22 Edwin Arlington Robinson, American poet (Richard Corey), born in Head Tide, Maine (d. 1935)
- Dec 23 Hugh Allen, British organist, conductor (Bach Choir; Leeds Festival), and educator (Oxford, 1918-46-; Royal College of Music, 1918-37), born in Reading, Berkshire, England (d. 1946)
- Dec 24 Henriette Roland Holst, Dutch poet (Women in Forest), born in Noordwijk, Netherlands (d. 1952)
- Dec 26 Harry Redman, American composer, writer, and artist, born in Illinois (d. 1958)
- Dec 29 Bill Howell, Australian cricketer (Australian bowler at turn of century), born in Penrith, New South Wales (d. 1940)
- Dec 30 Adolphe Max, Belgian Rep (Lib)
- Dec 30 Stephen Leacock, Canadian economist/humorist/professor
Henri Matisse (1869-1954)
Dec 31 French impressionist painter (Odalisque), born in Le Cateau-Cambresis, France
Famous Deaths
Edwin Stanton (1814-1869)
Dec 24 US Secretary of War during most of the American Civil War (1861-65) and US Attorney General (1860-61), dies at 55
- Dec 26 Jean Léonard Marie Poiseuille, French physician and physiologist (blood pressure), dies at 72
