Historical Events
- Dec 9 Joseph Pulitzer buys St Louis Dispatch for $2,500
Anglo-Zulu War
Dec 11 Anglo-Zulu War: British high commissioner Henry Bartle Frere presents an ultimatum to the Zulu Kingdom to submit to British rule or face war
Learn MoreFamous Birthdays
- Dec 1 Arthur B Spingarn, US NAACP-chairman (1940-65)
- Dec 5 Arrigo Pedrollo, Italian composer, born in Montebello Vicentino, Veneto, Italy (d. 1964)
- Dec 7 Akiko Yosano, Japanese poet (Tangled Hair), born in Sakai, Ōsaka, Japan (d. 1942)
- Dec 10 C. Rajagopalachari, India's freedom fighter and the first Governor General of independent India, born in Thorapalli, Madras Presidency, British India (d. 1972)
- Dec 15 Hans Carossa, German writer, born in Tölz, Bavaria (d. 1956)
Joseph Stalin
Dec 18 Joseph Stalin, Dictator and General Secretary of the Soviet Union (1922-53), born in Gori, Tiflis Governorate, Russian Empire (d. 1953)

Joseph Stalin
- Dec 19 Anton Lajovic, Slovenian composer, born in Vače, Slovenia (d. 1960)
- Dec 21 Jan Łukasiewicz, Polish logician and philosopher, born in Lviv, Ukraine (d. 1956)
- Dec 23 Stephen Timoshenko, Ukrainian-born mechanical engineer (d. 1972)
- Dec 25 William Starling Burgess, American yacht designer (America Cup's Enterprise) and aviation pioneer, born in Boston Massachusetts (d. 1947)
- Dec 25 Louis Chevrolet, Swiss-born race car driver (d. 1941)
- Dec 26 Isaiah Bowman, American geography/co-founder (Geographical Review)
- Dec 30 William Aberhart, Canadian politician (d. 1943)
- Dec 31 Horacio Quiroga, Uruguayan playwright, poet, and short story writer (Anaconda, El Crimen del Otro), born in Salto, Uruguay (d. 1937)
- Dec 31 Elizabeth Arden, Canadian businesswoman, born in Woodbridge, Ontario (d. 1966)
Famous Weddings
Wedding of Interest
Dec 4 Novelist Bram Stoker (31) weds Florence Balcombe (20) in Dublin, Ireland

Bram Stoker
Famous Deaths
- Dec 10 Henry Wells, American businessman and founder (American Express Co & Wells Fargo & Co), dies at 72
- Dec 14 Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, Grand Duchess of Hesse, dies at 35
- Dec 19 Bayard Taylor, American author and poet (b. 1825)
- Dec 25 Anna Claypoole Peale, American painter of miniatures, dies
- Dec 28 José Bernardo Alcedo, Peruvian composer, dies at 90