- Dec 1 Dentist Barney B Clark gets 1st artificial heart
- Dec 1 Miguel de la Madrid inaugurated as President of Mexico
Film Premier
Dec 1 "Tootsie" directed by Sydney Pollack and starring Dustin Hoffman and Jessica Lange premieres in Hollywood
- Dec 2 1st permanent artificial heart successfully implanted (U of Utah) in retired dentist Barney Clark; lived 112 days with Jarvic-7 heart
- Dec 3 35.7 cm rainfall at Big Fork, Arkansas (state record)
- Dec 3 77°F highest December temperature ever recorded in Cleveland, Ohio
- Dec 3 After losing his world welterweight boxing titles to Sugar Ray Leonard, Thomas Hearns wins WBC Super Welterweight crown in a majority points decision over Wilfred Benitez at Superdome, New Orleans
Film Release
Dec 3 "Frances", film depicting life of actress Frances Farmer and starring Jessica Lange, first released in the US
Jessica Lange
- Dec 4 48th Heisman Trophy Award: Herschel Walker, Georgia (RB)
- Dec 4 China adopts its constitution
- Dec 4 Police and racist demonstrators clash in Antwerp
- Dec 5 Cleveland Browns' Brian Sipe sets club record with 33 pass completions
- Dec 5 Ingrid Berghmans (Neth) retains judo's world championship
- Dec 5 Mel Gray ends NFL streak of 121 consecutive game receptions
- Dec 5 Seattle Univ Baptist Ch declares sanctuary for Cen Am refugees
- Dec 5 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
- Dec 5 15th NAACP Image Awards: "An Officer and a Gentleman" wins Outstanding Motion Picture
- Dec 5 Senior PGA Championship Men's Golf, PGA National GC: Don January wins his lone Champions Tour major title by 1 stroke over Julius Boros
- Dec 6 Droppin Well bombing: 11 British soldiers and 6 civilians are killed by an Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) time bomb at the Droppin’ Well Bar in Ballykelly, County Londonderry
- Dec 7 Suriname army under Desi Bouterse fires on radio station building
- Dec 7 In Texas, Charles Brooks, Jr. becomes the first person to be executed by lethal injection in the US.
- Dec 7 Dos Erres massacre in Guatemala during country's civil war, 171 people killed led by Santos López Alonzo
- Dec 8 "Herman Van Veen: All of Him" opens at Ambassador NYC for 6 performances
- Dec 8 Clark Gilles fails in 7th Islander penalty shot
- Dec 8 Suriname army leader Bouterse murders 15 opponents
- Dec 8 Norman Mayer holds Washington Monument hostage, demanding an end to nuclear weapons. Is killed by police after 10 hrs (he had no explosives)
Nobel Prize
Dec 8 Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez receives the Nobel Prize for Literature
Gabriel García Márquez
Film Release
Dec 8 "Sophie's Choice", directed by Alan J. Pakula and based on William Styton's 1979 novel of the same name, starring Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline, is released (Academy Awards Best Actress 1983)
Meryl Streep
Kevin Kline
- Dec 9 World Boxing Council first to reduce the length of championship fights from 15 to 12 rounds, and allows referees to order standing 8-count for fighters in trouble
Boxing Title Fight
Dec 10 Heavyweight Michael Doakes KOs Mike Weaver in 1:03 in Las Vegas
Mike Weaver
- Dec 10 Soyuz T-5 returns to Earth, 211 days after take-off
- Dec 10 CDC report on a transfusion recipient who developed AIDS symptoms
- Dec 12 "Herman Van Veen: All of Him" closes at Ambassador NYC after 6 performances
- Dec 12 $9,800,000 in cash stolen from money transport car in NYC
- Dec 12 The "Snowplow Game": when a snowstorm holds a New England vs Miami game scoreless, Mark Henderson, a convict on work release, on Patriots coach Ron Meyer order, clears the path for John Smith's attempt, which wins the game for the Patriots, 3-0
Tennis Open
Dec 12 Australian Open Women's Tennis: Chris Evert-Lloyd wins her first Australian title; beats Martina Navratilova 6-3, 2-6, 6-3
Chris Evert
Martina Navratilova
Event of Interest
Dec 14 Marcel Dionne, LA, becomes 9th NHLer to score 500 goals
Marcel Dionne
Event of Interest
Dec 15 Bill Parcells becomes 12th head coach of NY Giants
Bill Parcells
- Dec 15 Roy Williams, Teamsters pres, & 4 others convicted of bribery
- Dec 15 Sao Tome & Principe constitution approved
- Dec 15 Spain reopens border with Gibraltar
- Dec 16 The Federal Reserve announces that the operating capacity of factories has gone down to 67.8%.
- Dec 18 Flight readiness firing of Challenger's main engines; 20 seconds
- Dec 22 William Mastrosimone's play "Extremities" premieres in NYC
- Dec 23 The United States Environmental Protection Agency announces it has identified dangerous levels of dioxin in the soil of Times Beach, Missouri.
- Dec 24 Chaminade, with a student body of only 850 students, beats #1 ranked Virginia 77-72 in a Honolulu holiday basketball classic
Event of Interest
Dec 25 Mudassar Nazar scores century, then Imran Khan rips through Indians
Imran Khan
- Dec 26 TIME's Man of the Year is a computer
- Dec 26 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
- Dec 27 Imran Khan 8-60 to bring innings victory v India at Karachi
- Dec 28 Ballon d'Or: Juventus striker Paolo Rossi is named best European football player; beats Bordeaux midfielder Alain Giresse and Juventus' Polish midfielder Zbigniew Boniek
Event of Interest
Dec 29 Bob Marley postage stamp issued in Jamaica
Bob Marley
- Dec 29 Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant ends his career with Alabama (323 wins)
- Dec 30 Anthony Shaffer's "Whodunnit" premieres in NYC
- Dec 30 England defeat Australia by three runs at cricket MCG
- Dec 30 US Assay Office in New York City, NY closes
- Dec 31 CBS Mystery Theater final episode on radio after 8 years
- Dec 31 NBC radio cancels almost all of its network daily features
- Dec 31 TV soap "Doctors" ends 19 year run