Events in History
Nobel Prize
Dec 10 Rudyard Kipling receives the Nobel prize for literature, the first English-language writer to do so
- Dec 10 The worst night of the Brown Dog riots in London, when 1,000 medical students clash with 400 police officers over the existence of a memorial for animals who have been vivisected.
- Dec 11 New Zealand Parliament Buildings almost completely destroyed by fire
- Dec 13 George Gunn scores 119 on Test debut v Australia SCG
Historic Event
Dec 13 German Emperor Wilhelm II visits Amsterdam
- Dec 14 The schooner Thomas W. Lawson runs aground and founders near the Hellweather's Reef within the Scilly Isles in a gale. The pilot and 15 seamen die.
- Dec 15 In Persia, the Shah leads a coup de'etat against the liberal Prime Minister Nasir ul-Mulk and imprisons him, but a popular uprising forces the Shah to restore Nasir ul-Mulk soon after
- Dec 16 Eugenia Farrar is the 1st to sing over a wireless radio broadcast, at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, New York
Great White Fleet
Dec 16 As a gesture of the US's new presence as a world power, President Theodore Roosevelt sends the 'Great White Fleet' on a round-the-world cruise, visiting ports internationally
- Dec 17 Ugyen Wangchuck became 1st hereditary king of Bhutan
- Dec 19 239 workers died in a coal mine explosion in Jacobs Creek, Pennsylvania
- Dec 20 Explosion at Yolande Alabama, coal mine kills 91
- Dec 21 Dutch government of De Master falls due to war budget
- Dec 22 Saint-Saëns'/Fokine's ballet "Le Cygne" premieres in St Petersburg
- Dec 23 1st all-steel passengar railroad coach completed, Altoona, Pennsylvania
- Dec 31 For 1st time, a ball drops at Times Square to signal the New Year
Birthdays in History
- Dec 3 Andrew Hutchings, British trade union leader (d. 1996)
- Dec 4 Jo Boer, Dutch painter and author (Catharina & the Magnolias), born in Surabaya, Indonesia (d. 1993)
- Dec 5 Lin Biao, Chinese Communist Marshal during the Civil War and party leader, born in Huanggang, Hubei, Qing Empire (d. 1971)
- Dec 5 Giuseppe Occhialini, Italian physicist (Contribution to the discovery of the pion or pi-meson decay), born in Fossombrone, Pesaro, Italy (d. 1993)
- Dec 9 Noel Walton Bott, engineer
- Dec 10 Rumer Godden, English author (Thursday's Children), born in Eastbourne, Sussex, England (d. 1998)
- Dec 12 Frederik van Heek, Dutch sociologist, born in Enschede, Netherlands (d. 1987)
Oscar Niemeyer
Dec 15 Oscar Niemeyer, Brazilian architect (Brasilia), born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (d. 2012)
- Dec 16 Ray C Bliss, (R) Ohio State Republican Chairman
- Dec 18 Christopher Fry, English playwright (Ring Around the Moon), born in Bristol, England (d. 2005)
- Dec 21 Garmt Stuiveling, Dutch poet & literary (Poet in Love), born in Stroobos, Netherlands (d. 1985)
- Dec 23 Manuel Lopes, Cape Verdean writer and poet (d. 2005)
- Dec 23 Avraham Stern, Polish-born Zionist leader (d. 1942)
- Dec 24 I. F. Stone, American journalist (IF Stone's Weekly), born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (d. 1989)
- Dec 25 Glenn McCarthy, American oil tycoon and businessman (d. 1988)
- Dec 27 Emile de Strijker, Belgian philosopher
- Dec 27 Sebastian Haffner, German journalist and writer (d. 1999)
- Dec 27 Conrad L. Raiford, Goodwill Ambassador (d. 2002)
- Dec 29 James Gardner, British museum & exhibition designer, born in Hendon, London (d. 1995)
- Dec 30 Robert Grant Ferris, British politician (d. 1996)
Deaths in History
William Thomson
Dec 17 William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, Irish-Scottish mathematical physicist (Kelvin Scale) and engineer (transatlantic telegraph), dies of a chill at 83
- Dec 21 Oskar Lassar, German dermatologist (public baths), dies at 58
- Dec 23 Pierre Janssen, French astronomer, discovered helium, dies at 83
- Dec 24 Isidor Feinstein "Izzy" Stone, journalist (IF Stone's Weekly), dies
- Dec 31 Jules de Trooz, Belgium politician, Prime Minister of Belgium (1907), dies in office at 63
Authors
Civil Rights Activists
Inventors
Kings
Revolutionaries
Scientists