Events in History
- Dec 11 Mosconi Cup nine-ball pool, Las Vegas, Nevada: Team Europe retains trophy with an 11-7 win over US; MVP: Niels Feijen (Netherlands)
Event of Interest
Dec 15 Former French President Jacques Chirac is convicted of diverting public funds, receives a two-year suspended prison sentence
- Dec 18 The last US troops withdraw from Iraq, formally ending the Iraq War
Deaths in History
Christopher Hitchens (1949-2011)
Dec 15 English author and journalist (Vanity Fair, New Statesman), dies of oesophageal cancer aged 62
Kim Jong-il (1942-2011)
Dec 17 Supreme Leader of North Korea (1994-2011), dies of a suspected heart attack at 70
Václav Havel (1936-2011)
Dec 18 Czech politician (President of Czechoslovakia, 1990-2, Czech Republic, 1993-2003), dies at 75
- Dec 22 James Ramseur, one of Bernhard Goetz's assailants in 1984, overdoses on drugs at 45
- Dec 27 Helen Frankenthaler, American abstract expressionist artist (Arden), dies at 83
- Dec 30 Eva Zeisel, Hungarian-born ceramic designer, dies at 105
- Dec 30 Mirko Tremaglia, fiercely nationalist Italian politician, dies at 85
- Dec 30 Robert Horton, British businessman and CEO (BP), dies at 72
Authors
Civil Rights Activists
Inventors
Kings
Revolutionaries
Scientists