- Dec 1 Dentist Barney B Clark gets 1st artificial heart
Album Release
Dec 1 "Thriller", 6th studio album by Michael Jackson is released (Grammy Award Album of the Year 1984, best-selling album of all time, Billboard Album of the Year 1983)
Michael Jackson
- 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 1st NJ Devil hat-trick (Steve Tambellini) defeat Hartford 5-4
- 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 NJ Devils 1st hat trick (Steve Tambellini)
- Dec 3 Tommy Hearns wins WBC Welterweight title in decision over Benitez
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 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 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
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 Joanne Carner and John Mahaffey wins LPGA J C Penney Golf Classic
- 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
- Dec 13 Earthquake hits Northern Yemen; 2,000 die
- Dec 13 71st Men's Australian Open: Johan Kriek beats Steve Denton (6-3, 6-3, 6-2)
Tennis Open
Dec 13 71st Women's Australian Open: Chris Evert-Lloyd 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 Chicago White Sox starter Tom Seaver pitches the complete game in his 300th MLB career victory, a 4-1 win at Yankee Stadium
- 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 "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
- Dec 25 Mudassar Nazar scores century, then Imran Khan rips through Indians
- 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
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