- Dec 1 Dentist Barney B Clark gets 1st artificial heart
- Dec 1 Miguel de la Madrid inaugurated as President of Mexico
Film Premiere
Dec 1 "Tootsie" directed by Sydney Pollack and starring Dustin Hoffman and Jessica Lange premieres in Hollywood
Boxing Title Fight
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
- 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 NFL 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 PGA Seniors' 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
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)
- 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
- 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
Australian Open Women's Tennis
Dec 12 Australian Open Women's Tennis: Chris Evert-Lloyd wins her first Australian title; beats Martina Navratilova 6-3, 2-6, 6-3
Sports History
Dec 14 LA Kings' Marcel Dionne becomes 9th NHLer to score 500 goals
Sports History
Dec 15 Bill Parcells becomes 12th head coach of NY Giants
- Dec 15 Teamsters president Roy Williams and 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
Sports History
Dec 25 Mudassar Nazar scores 119 in Pakistan's 2nd innings 452 before Imran Khan takes 6 Indian wickets in 2nd Test in Karachi; he finished with 8/60 on the final day
- 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
Music History
Dec 29 Bob Marley postage stamp issued in Jamaica
- Dec 29 American college football coach Paul "Bear" Bryant ends his career with University of 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