David Ben-Gurion
Dec 1 David Ben-Gurion, founding father of Israel, dies in Tel Aviv at 87
David Ben-Gurion
Robert Watson-Watt
Dec 5 Robert Watson-Watt, Scottish physicist (pioneered radar and radio direction finding), dies at 81
Robert Watson-Watt
- Dec 5 Sir Robert Alexander Watson-Watt, Scottish physicist and developer of the radar in WWII, dies at 81
- Dec 6 Justus Hermann Wetzel, composer, dies at 94
- Dec 10 Earle Foxe, actor (Dance Fools Dance), dies at 81
- Dec 13 Henry Green, English author (b. 1905)
- Dec 14 Yitzhak Edel, composer, dies at 77
- Dec 15 Orest Alexandrovich Evlahkov, composer, dies at 61
- Dec 16 Syd Barnes, cricketer (13 Tests for Australia 1938-48), dies
- Dec 17 Charles G Abbot, US astronomer (Sun Constant), dies at 101
- Dec 17 Patrick Hadley, composer, dies at 74
- Dec 18 Julio César Brero [or Giulio Cesare], Italian-born Argentine composer and lawyer (Novella), dies at 64
- Dec 18 Allama Rasheed Turabi, Pakistani scholar, orator and philosopher (b. 1908)
- Dec 20 Bobby Darin, singer (Mack the Knife), dies of heart failure at 37
- Dec 20 Luis Carrero Blanco, PM of Spain (1973), assassinated by ETA
- Dec 22 Domingo Julio Gomez Garcia, composer, dies at 87
- Dec 22 Irna Phillips, creator of 5 TV soap operas, dies at 72
- Dec 23 Arthur Richardson, cricketer (9 Tests 1924-26), dies
- Dec 24 Gerard Kuiper, Dutch/US astronomer after whom the Kuiper belt is named, dies at 68
- Dec 25 İsmet İnönü, Turkish statesman (b. 1884)
- Dec 25 Gabriel Voisin, French aviation pioneer (b. 1880)
- Dec 26 Harold B. Lee, American religious leader, Head of Mormon Church, dies at 74
- Dec 26 Steven Geray, American actor (French Line), dies at 69
- Dec 26 William Haines, US actor (Little Annie Rooney), dies of cancer at 73
- Dec 30 Henri-Paul Busser, composer, dies at 101