Events in History
- Dec 1 France performs nuclear test
- Dec 2 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
- Dec 3 Bhopal disaster: Union Carbide pesticide plant leak 45 tons of methyl isocyanate and other toxic compounds in Bhopal, India, kills 2,259 (official figure) - other estimates as high as 16,000 (including later deaths) and over half a million injured
- Dec 4 Hezbollah militants hijack a Kuwait Airlines plane, killing four passengers.
- Dec 5 French colonies killed 10 Kanaken in New Caledonia
- Dec 6 France performs nuclear test
- Dec 6 Hijackers aboard Kuwaiti jetliner kill 2nd hostage
- Dec 8 Europe & 64 developing countries sign Lome III treaty
- Dec 9 Great Britain performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- Dec 9 Iranian commandos end 5-day hijacking of Kuwaiti plane
- Dec 10 1st "planet" outside our solar system discovered
Nobel Prize
Dec 10 South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu is presented with his Nobel Peace Prize
- Dec 10 WNSY-AM in Newport News VA returns from WGH
- Dec 11 Mauretania military coup under Col Maawiya Ould Sid'ahmed Taya
- Dec 13 Artificial heart recipient William Schroeder suffers 1st stroke
- Dec 14 Sportscaster Howard Cosell retires from Monday Night Football
- Dec 15 USSR launches Vega 1 for rendezvous with Halley's Comet
- Dec 19 China performs nuclear test at Lop Nor, PRC
Treaty of Interest
Dec 19 Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher sign the Sino-British Joint Declaration to transfer Hong Kong back to China in 1997
- Dec 19 Fire at Wilberg Mine in central Utah killed 27 people
- Dec 20 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- Dec 21 Islander Kelly Hrudy's 1st shut-out win-Whalers 1-0
- Dec 21 USSR launches Vega 2 for fly-by of Halley's Come
- Dec 22 Bernhard Goetz shoots 4 black muggers on NYC subway train
- Dec 24 Palace coup in Mauritania
- Dec 28 Creosote bush determined to be 11,700 years old
Election of Interest
Dec 28 Rajiv Gandhi's Congress party wins the general election in India
Appointment of Interest
Dec 28 Ted Hughes is appointed British Poet Laureate by Queen Elizabeth II
- Dec 28 TV soap "Edge of Night" ends 28 year run
- Dec 28 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh, Semipalitinsk USSR
- Dec 29 5th United Negro College Fund
- Dec 29 Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi claims victory in parliamentary elections
- Dec 31 NYC subway gunman Bernhard Goetz surrenders to police in NH
- Dec 31 US leaves UNESCO
Birthdays in History
- Dec 2 Maryna Viazovska, Ukrainian mathematician (Fields Medal 2022, work on densest way to pack spheres in eight dimensions), born in Kyiv, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union
Weddings in History
- Dec 3 Oldest groom - Harry Stevens, 103, weds Thelma Lucas, 83, in Wisconsin
Deaths in History
- Dec 1 Roelof Frankot, Dutch painter (b. 1911)
- Dec 3 Virginia Lacy Jones, American librarian and presidential advisor, dies at 72
- Dec 3 Vladimir Abramovich Rokhlin, Russian mathematician (b. 1919)
- Dec 4 John Rock, American obstetrician and gynecologist who co-developed the 1st birth control pill, dies at 94
- Dec 5 Adam Malik, Third Vice President of Indonesia (b. 1917)
- Dec 8 Robert Jay Mathews, White Nationalist (b. 1953)
- Dec 11 Oskar Seidlin, German-born American scholar (b. 1911)
- Dec 14 Vicente Aleixandre, Spanish writer (Ambito, Bird of Paper, Nobel 1977), dies at 86
- Dec 15 Frank Spedding, Canadian chemist whose uranium extraction process helped make possible the first atomic bomb, dies at 82
- Dec 19 Joy Ridderhof, American missionary (b. 1903)
- Dec 23 Joan Lindsay, Australian author (Picnic at Hanging Rock), dies at 88
- Dec 29 Sidney Garfield, American physician and pioneer of health maintenance organizations (Kaiser Permanente), dies at 78
- Dec 30 Massa, oldest gorilla on record (b. 1930)
Authors
Civil Rights Activists
Inventors
Kings
Revolutionaries
Scientists