- Dec 1 Horace Chapman, South African cricket all-rounder (2 Tests), dies at 51
- Dec 1 Alva B. Adams, American politician (U.S. Senator from Colorado 1933-41), dies at 66
- Dec 3 Johann Christian August Sinding, composer, dies at 85
- Dec 3 Pavel Filonov, Russian painter (b. 1883)
- Dec 3 Christian Sinding, Norwegian composer (Rustle of Spring) dies at 85
- Dec 5 Amrita Sher-Gil, Hungarian-Indian painter described as the “Indian Frida Kahlo" and "one of the greatest avant-garde women artists of the early 20th century," dies of complications from a failed abortion at 28
- Dec 6 Oskar Ernst Bernhardt, German author (In the Light of Truth: The Grail Message), dies at 66
- Dec 7 Cecil Forsyth, English composer, dies at 71
- Dec 7 Iida, Japanese pilot/lt, dies in battle at 28
- Dec 7 Mervyn S. Bennion, United States Navy Captain, Medal of Honor recipient, killed in Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor (b. 1887)
- Dec 7 Herbert C. Jones, United States Navy, Medal of Honor recipient, killed in Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor (b. 1918)
- Dec 7 Thomas J. Reeves, United States Navy, Medal of Honor recipient, killed in Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor (b. 1895)
- Dec 7 Franklin Van Valkenburgh, United States Navy, Medal of Honor recipient, killed in Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor (b. 1888)
- Dec 9 Leonard "Leo" Polak, Dutch philosopher, dies in Sachsenhausen at 61
- Dec 9 Dmitry Merezhkovsky, Russian writer and philosopher (b. 1865)
- Dec 10 Colin Kelly, American B-17 Flying Fortress pilot and 1st US air hero during WW II, killed in action at 26 after ordering his crew to bail out shortly before his bomber exploded
- Dec 11 John Gillespie Magee, Jr., American poet and aviator (b. 1922)
- Dec 11 Charles Émile Picard, French mathematician, died at 85
- Dec 12 Cesar Basa, Philippine Air Force and World War II hero (b. 1915)
- Dec 19 L M Dovator, Russian general, dies in battle
- Dec 20 Igor Severyanin, Russian poet (b. 1887)
- Dec 21 Peetie Wheatstraw [William Bunch], American blues singer, songwriter, and piano player, dies on his 39th birthday when the car in which he was a passenger met a freight train
- Dec 22 Leopoldo Mugnone, composer, dies at 83
- Dec 24 Siegfried Alkan, German composer (b. 1858)
- Dec 30 El Lissitzky, Russian artist and architect (b. 1890)
- Dec 31 Sigwart Aspestrand, Norwegian composer, dies at 85