Events in History
Music Recording
Dec 6 Thomas Edison records himself reciting "Mary had a little lamb"
Thomas Edison
- Dec 6 Washington Post publishes 1st edition
Thomas Edison's Phonograph
Dec 7 Thomas Edison demonstrates his phonograph (gramophone) to the editors of "Scientific American"
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- Dec 22 Thomas Edison's phonograph is announced by Scientific American
- Dec 24 Thomas Edison files a patents for the phonograph
- Dec 26 Socialist Labor Party of North America holds 1st national convention
- Dec 28 John Stevens, applies for a patent for his flour rolling mill
Birthdays in History
- Dec 31 Lawrence Beesley, English journalist and author, born in Wirksworth, United Kingdom (d. 1967)
Deaths in History
- Dec 7 Benjamin Huger, American Major General (Confederate Army), dies at 72
- Dec 10 Jared Kirtland, American physician, naturalist and reformed penitentiaries, dies at 84
- Dec 12 José de Alencar, Brazilian writer (O Guarani), dies at 48
- Dec 23 Thomas Wright, English antiquarian and writer, dies at 87
- Dec 24 Robert Parker Parrott, American inventor (developed the rifled cannon known as the Parrott gun), dies at 73
- Dec 27 Nikolay Alekseyevich Nekrasov, Russian poet, writer and publisher (Russkije Zjenjshiny), dies at 56
- Dec 29 Willem Sassen, Dutch attorney general on Curacao (Affair-S), dies
- Dec 31 Gustave Courbet, French realist painter (Demoiselles the la Seine), dies at 58