Events in History
- Dec 1 Dentist Barney B Clark gets 1st artificial heart
- Dec 1 Miguel de la Madrid inaugurated as President of Mexico
- 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 35.7 cm rainfall at Big Fork, Arkansas (state record)
- Dec 3 77°F highest December temperature ever recorded in Cleveland, Ohio
- Dec 4 China adopts its constitution
- Dec 4 Police and racist demonstrators clash in Antwerp
- Dec 5 Seattle Univ Baptist Ch declares sanctuary for Cen Am refugees
- Dec 5 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
- 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 Dos Erres massacre in Guatemala during country's civil war, 171 people killed led by Santos López Alonzo
- Dec 7 In Texas, Charles Brooks, Jr. becomes the first person to be executed by lethal injection in the US.
- Dec 7 Suriname army under Desi Bouterse fires on radio station building
- Dec 8 Clark Gilles fails in 7th Islander penalty shot
Nobel Prize
Dec 8 Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez receives the Nobel Prize for Literature
- 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)
- Dec 8 Suriname army leader Desi Bouterse murders 15 opponents
- Dec 10 CDC report on a transfusion recipient who developed AIDS symptoms
- Dec 10 Soyuz T-5 returns to Earth, 211 days after take-off
- Dec 12 $9,800,000 in cash stolen from money transport car in NYC
- 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 15 Sao Tome & Principe constitution approved
- Dec 15 Spain reopens border with Gibraltar
- Dec 15 Teamsters president Roy Williams and 4 others convicted of bribery
- 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 play "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 26 TIME's Man of the Year is a computer
- Dec 26 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
- Dec 30 Anthony Shaffer's "Whodunnit" premieres in NYC
- Dec 30 US Assay Office in New York City, NY closes
- Dec 31 TV soap "Doctors" ends 19 year run
Birthdays in History
- Dec 8 Noelle Pikus-Pace, American skeleton racer, born in Provo, Utah
- Dec 17 Craig Kielburger, Canadian labour activist
- Dec 17 Ryan Moats, National Football League runningback
- Dec 21 Erica America Hayden, American journalist and radio personality, born in Long Island, New York
- Dec 26 Kenneth Darby, American National Football League player, born in Huntsville, Alabama
Divorces in History
- Dec 6 US Senator Ted & Joan Kennedy divorce
Deaths in History
- Dec 7 Charlie Brooks Jr, convicted murderer became 1st US prisoner to be executed by lethal injection, at a prison in Huntsville, Texas
- Dec 7 George Kistiakowsky, Ukrainian-American chemist who helped develop the first atomic bomb (Manhattan Project) but later opposed nuclear weapons, dies at 82
- Dec 8 Bram Behr, Suriname journalist and pro-democracy advocate murdered by the military
- Dec 8 Cyrill Daal, Suriname worker's union leader, and pro-democracy advocate murdered by the military
- Dec 8 Frank Wijngaarde, Suriname journalist and pro-democracy advocate murdered by the military
- Dec 8 Gerard Leckie, Suriname scholar and pro-democracy advocate murdered by the military at 39
- Dec 8 Harald Riedewald, Suriname attorney and pro-democracy advocate murdered by the military
- Dec 8 John Baboeram, Suriname lawyer and pro-democracy advocate murdered by the military
- Dec 8 Jozef Slagveer, Suriname journalist, and pro-democracy advocate murdered by the military
- Dec 8 Kenneth Goncalves, Suriname deacon and pro-democracy advocate murdered by the military
- Dec 8 Leslie Rahman, Suriname journalist, and pro-democracy advocate murdered by the military
- Dec 8 Surendre Rambocus, Suriname army lieutenant, and pro-democracy advocate murdered by the military at 29
- Dec 9 Fritz Usinger, German writer (Song Against Death), dies at 87
- Dec 9 Leon Jaworski, American Watergate scandal special prosecutor, dies at 77
- Dec 16 Colin Chapman, English engineer and automobile manufacturer, founder of Lotus Cars, dies at 54
- Dec 17 Homer S. Ferguson, American politician (b. 1889)
- Dec 18 Hans-Ulrich Rudel, German Combat pilot and highest-decorated German soldier of WWII, dies at 66
- Dec 19 Dwight Macdonald, American social critic (b. 1906)
- Dec 24 Louis Aragon, French poet and writer (Les Lettres françaises, Pour un réalisme socialiste), dies at 85
- Dec 27 John Leonard Swigert Jr., American astronaut (Apollo 13), dies of cancer at 51
- Dec 30 Alberto Vargas, Peruvian-American painter, primarily of "pin-up girls", dies at 86
- Dec 31 Kurt Otto Friedrichs, German-American mathematician, and educator (Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences), dies at 82
Authors
Civil Rights Activists
Inventors
Kings
Revolutionaries
Scientists