Events in History
- Dec 1 Bell Labs tests coaxial cable for TV use
- Dec 1 EW Brundin & FF Lyon obtain patent on soilless culture of plants
- Dec 5 Armenian SSR, Azerbaijan SSR, Georgian SSR, Kazakh SSR & Kirghiz SSR becomes constituent republics of Soviet Union
- Dec 8 Anastasio Somoza García elected President of Nicaragua
- Dec 8 NAACP files suit to equalize salaries of black & white teachers
- Dec 10 Stockholm: physicist PBJ Debije receives Nobel prize for chemistry
Event of Interest
Dec 10 Britain replaces King Edward VIII stamp series with King George VI
George VI
Edward VIII
King Abdicates for Love of Wallis Simpson
Dec 10 Edward VIII signs Instrument of Abdication, giving up the British throne to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson
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Nobel Prize
Dec 10 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Carlos Saavedra Lamas for mediating end to Chaco War between Paraguay and Bolivia, 1st Latin American to win
Carlos Saavedra Lamas
Event of Interest
Dec 11 Edward VIII announces in a radio broadcast that he is abdicating the British throne to marry Wallis Simpson
Wallis Simpson
Edward VIII
Declaration of War
Dec 12 Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek declares war on Japan
Chiang Kai-shek
- Dec 15 KVL-AM in Seattle Washington changes call letters to KEEN (now KING)
- Dec 18 Su-Lin, 1st giant panda to come to US from China, arrives in San Francisco
- Dec 22 1st common carrier license issued by ICC, Scranton, Pa
- Dec 23 Colombia becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty
- Dec 24 1st radioactive isotope medicine administered in Berkeley, California
- Dec 25 Belgian bishops condemn fascism & communism
- Dec 25 Ron Hamence scores 104 for SA v Queensland before 4,865
- Dec 30 United Auto Workers stage 1st sit-down strike, at Fisher Body Plant
Birthdays in History
- Dec 5 James Lee Burke, American writer (Dave Robicheaux series), born in Houston, Texas
- Dec 6 Kenneth Copeland, American televangelist (Kenneth Copeland Ministries), born in Lubbock, Texas
- Dec 7 Martha Layne Collins, American businesswoman and politician (56th Governor of Kentucky), born in Bagdad, Kentucky
- Dec 8 Brad Jurjens, Estonian director (The Bank Job), born in Viljandi, Estonia
- Dec 11 Hans van den Broek, Dutch politician (Minister of Foreign Affairs), born in Paris
- Dec 11 Taku Yamasaki, Japanese politician (Minister of Construction), born in Dalian, Kwantung Leased Territory, China
- Dec 13 Karim Aga Khan, Imam of Nizari-Ismaili Shia Islam, born in Geneva, Switzerland
- Dec 14 Robert Alan Ridley Parker, American PhD/astronaut (STS 9, STS 35), born in NYC, New York
- Dec 16 Morris Dees, founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center
- Dec 17 Frank Martinus Arion, [F Efraim M], Antilles, writer (Double Play)
Pope Francis
Dec 17 Pope Francis [Jorge Mario Bergoglio], Catholic Pope (2013-) 1st Jesuit pope, 1st from the Americas and 1st non-European pope since Syrian Gregory III in 741, born in Buenos Aires, Argentina
Pope Francis
Weddings in History
Wedding of Interest
Dec 24 Paleoanthropologist Mary Nicol (23) weds archaeologist Louis Leakey (33) in England
Mary Leakey
Louis Leakey
- Dec 28 British best-selling romantic author Barbara Cartland (35) marries 2nd husband Hugh McCorquodale
Deaths in History
- Dec 2 John Ringling, American circus owner (b. 1866)
- Dec 10 Luigi Pirandello, Italian writer (Six Characters in Search of An Author-Nobel 1934), dies at 69
- Dec 18 Andrija Mohorovičić, Austro-Hungarian-born Yugoslav seismologist (b. 1857)
- Dec 20 Baron De Borchgrave, Belgian ambassador, murdered in Madrid
- Dec 24 Dragutin Gorjanovic-Kramberger, Croatian paleontologist (discovery and descriptions of the Neandertal remains from the Huŝnjakova rock shelter at Krapina in northwestern Croatia), dies at 80
- Dec 27 Hans von Seeckt, German general and advisor of Chiang Kai-shek, dies at 70
- Dec 31 Miguel de Unamuno Jugo, Span philosopher/poet (Cancionero), dies at 72
- Dec 31 William FA Ellison, Irish clergyman/astronomer, dies at 72