Events in History
- Dec 1 Central African Republic made autonomous member of the French Community (National Day)
- Dec 1 Our Lady of Angels School fire kills 92 students & 3 nuns in Chicago, Illinois
- Dec 2 Benelux treaty signed by Belgium, Netherlands & Luxembourg
- Dec 3 Indonesian parliament accepts nationalisation of Dutch businesses
- Dec 4 American pilots Bob Timm and John Cook take off from Las Vegas, Nevada in "The Hacienda", their modified Cessna 172, in an attempt to break recently set airplane flight endurance record; effort succeeds almost 65 days later [1]
- Dec 4 Dahomey (Benin), Ivory Coast become autonomous within French Community
- Dec 4 Finnish government of Fagerholm resigns
Event of Interest
Dec 5 Subscriber Trunk Dialling (STD) is inaugurated in the UK by Queen Elizabeth II when she speaks to the Lord Provost in a call from Bristol to Edinburgh.
- Dec 5 The Preston bypass, the UK's first stretch of motorway, opens to traffic for the first time. It is now part of the M6 and M55 motorways.
- Dec 6 US lunar probe Pioneer 3 reaches 107,269 km, falls back
- Dec 7 Romulo Betancourt elected President of Venezuela
- Dec 9 Robert W. Welch Jr and 11 other men meet in Indianapolis to form the conservative and anti-Communist John Birch Society
- Dec 10 1st domestic (NY-Miami) passenger jet flight-National 707 flew 111
- Dec 10 U of Pitts agrees to buy Forbes Field from the Pirates
- Dec 11 4th (last) Dutch government of Drees falls
Theater Premiere
Dec 11 Archibald MacLeish's play "J.B." premieres in NYC
- Dec 11 Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso) gains autonomy from France
- Dec 12 Dutch social democratic party-ministers/premier Drees dismissed
- Dec 12 Indian leg spin bowler Subhash "Fergie" Gupte takes 9-102 v W Indies at Kanpur
- Dec 16 Bogota warehouse fire kills 82
- Dec 18 Niger gains autonomy within French Community (National Day)
- Dec 18 Project SCORE, world’s 1st communications satellite launched from Cape Canaveral
Historic Communication
Dec 19 1st radio broadcast from space, US President Dwight D. Eisenhower Christmas message "to all mankind, America's wish for peace on Earth and goodwill to men everywhere"
Event of Interest
Dec 21 Charles de Gaulle wins 7 year term as 1st President of the 5th Republic of France
Event of Interest
Dec 31 Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista tells his Cabinet he is fleeing the country
- Dec 31 International Geophyscial Year ends
Birthdays in History
- Dec 1 Gary Peters, American politician (Senator-D-Michigan 2015-, Rep-D-Michigan 2009-15), born in Pontiac, Michigan
- Dec 2 George Saunders, American writer (Lincoln in the Bardo), born in Amarillo, Texas
- Dec 20 Steve Sailer, American political commentator
- Dec 23 Paula-Mae Weekes, Trinidadian politician and jurist (1st female President of Trinidad and Tobago 2018-), born in Port of Spain, Trinidad
Michael Flynn (64 years old)
Dec 24 American general and National Security Advisor (2017), born in Middletown, Rhode Island
Deaths in History
- Dec 5 Ferdinand Bruckner, writer, dies at 67
- Dec 10 Adolfo Camarillo, American horse breeder (b.1864)
- Dec 10 Juliane Gabriels, Flemish physician (Artus Quellin), dies at 72
- Dec 12 Milutin Milanković, Serbian astronomer and geophysicist (linked long-term changes in climate to astronomical factors affecting the amount of solar energy received at Earth’s surface), dies at 79
- Dec 13 Ahmed Mukhtar Baban, premier of Iraq, executed
- Dec 13 Barhanuddin Bashajan, Iraqi minister of Foreign affairs, executed
- Dec 13 Rafiq Aref, Iraqi chief-staff Arabs Statenbond, executed
- Dec 15 Wolfgang Pauli, Swiss-American theoretical physicist (Pauli inhibition, Nobel 1945), dies at 58
- Dec 21 Lion Feuchtwanger, philosopher/writer (Der falsche Nero), dies at 74
- Dec 22 Fjodor W Gladkow, Russian author (Cement), dies at 75
Authors
Civil Rights Activists
Inventors
Kings
Revolutionaries
Scientists