December 2012 in History

Events in History

Dec 1 8 people are killed and 36 injured after a bus overturns in Bolivia

Event of Interest

Dec 1 Enrique Peña Nieto sworn in as President of Mexico

Dec 2 9 people are killed after 30 cars are trapped in Sasago Tunnel, Japan
Dec 2 Borut Pahor is elected President of Slovenia
Dec 2 Pier Luigi Bersani is elected Italian Prime Minister
Dec 4 29 people are killed by a mortar attack in Bteeha, Syria
Dec 4 Typhoon Bopha makes landfall in the Philippines, killing at least 81 people
Dec 5 8 people are killed and 12 injured by a magnitude 5.6 earthquake in South Korea
Dec 5 In his Autumn Statement, Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne cuts the UK growth forecast for 2013 to 1.2% from the 2% forecast in the budget
Dec 6 7 people are killed and 770 injured during Egyptian protests
Dec 6 A 243 million year old Nyasasaurus fossil is discovered in Tanzania
Dec 6 Typhoon Bopha’s death toll rise to 418 with 318 missing and 179,000 displaced
Dec 8 UN climate conference agrees to extend the Kyoto Protocol to 2020
Dec 9 13 people are killed and 10 are injured after a bus rolls of a cliff and falls 100 meters in Taiwan
Dec 9 6 people are killed and 41 are injured after a bus plunges 30 metres down a gorge in Guatemala
Dec 9 Incumbent Ghanaian president John Mahama wins the general election amidst allegations of fraud
Dec 9 The Social Liberal Union Party and Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta win by a landslide in the parliamentary elections
Dec 10 11 people are killed and 23 are injured after a bus falls into a roadside pond in Minquan County, China
Dec 10 9 people are killed and 32 are wounded after a bus falls of a 300 meter cliff in Columbia
Dec 10 Google begins selling US$99 laptops
Dec 10 Japan is again in recession as the GDP figures for the second quarter of 2012 are revised to show a contraction of 0.03% and the third quarter figures fall by a further 0.9%
Dec 11 125 people are killed and 200 are injured by bombings in Aqrab, Syria

Event of Interest

Dec 11 British physicist, Stephen Hawking, wins the $3 million Fundamental Physics Prize, the most lucrative academic prize in the world

Dec 11 HSBC bank settles with US authorities to pay $1.9 billion for drug cartel money laundering
Dec 13 A car bombing in Qatana, outside Damascus, kills 16 people and injures 12
Dec 13 Japan scrambles fighter jets in response to a Chinese plane in the Senkaku Islands dispute
Dec 13 Mosconi Cup nine-ball pool, London, England: Team Europe win for 3rd consecutive year beating US, 11-9; MVP: Chris Melling (England)
Dec 14 28 people, including 20 children, are shot to death at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut
Dec 14 Australian Joel Parkinson wins the 2012 ASP World Tour
Dec 14 Gene Wolfe wins the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award
Dec 15 18 Asylum seekers drown in the Aegean Sea on the way to Greece from Turkey
Dec 16 4 people are killed after Cyclone Evan strikes Fiji
Dec 16 A gang rape of a woman on a bus in India that resulted in her death leads to national and international outrage
Dec 17 10 girls collecting firewood are killed by a mine blast in east Afghanistan
Dec 17 17 people are killed and 70 are injured by a blast in a market in the Khyber Agency, Pakistan
Dec 17 18 people drown after an overloaded boat sinks in Cotonou, Benin
Dec 17 Jiroemon Kimura of Japan becomes the world's oldest verified man at 116 years old
Dec 17 NASA completes a successful mission to map the Moon’s gravity field
Dec 18 4 people are killed and 11 are injured after an apartment block collapses in Palermo, Italy

Polio

Dec 18 6 health workers dispensing polio vaccinations are gunned down in Pakistan

Dec 18 Canadian police begin arresting 17 people for 'the Great Maple Syrup Heist', for stealing 3,000 tonnes from a storage facility in Quebec
Dec 18 The Seleka rebel coalition kills 15 people during its capture of Bria, the Central African Republic

Election of Interest

Dec 19 Park Geun-hye wins the South Korean presidential election to become the nation’s first female president

1st Female President of South Korea Park Geun-hye

Dec 19 UBS bank is fined $1.5 billion for its role in manipulating the Libor rate
Dec 20 Apple is denied a patent for mobile pinch-to-zoom gestures by the US patent authorities
Dec 20 Intercontinental Exchange purchases the New York Stock Exchange, the largest in the world, for $8 billion
Dec 21 39 people are killed in violent clashes in Kenya
Dec 21 The Mesoamerican Long Count calendar reaches the date 13.0.0.0.0
Dec 22 6 people are killed by a car bomb in Damascus
Dec 22 8 people are killed by a suicide bomber in Peshawar, Pakistan
Dec 23 200 civilians are killed by Syrian government warplanes in Helfaya, Syria
Dec 23 The Seleka rebel coalition takes over Bambari, the third largest town in the Central African Republic
Dec 24 11 kindergarten children are killed after a minivan plunges into a roadside pond in Jiangxi, China
Dec 25 27 people are killed after an Antonov An-72 plane crashes near Shymkent, Kazakhstan
Dec 25 8 people are killed and thousands left homeless after two fires strike Manila, Philippines
Dec 26 China opens the world’s longest high speed rail route from Beijing to Guangzhou
Dec 27 NASA unveils plans to capture a 500 ton asteroid in 2025
Dec 28 13 people are killed and 19 are injured after a bus plunges into a river in western Nepal

Event of Interest

Dec 28 Vladimir Putin signs into law a ban on US adoption of Russian children

Dec 29 200 people are executed by the Syrian army in Homs
Dec 29 21 security personnel are killed by Pakistani Taliban near Peshawar
Dec 29 5 people are killed in a Tupolev Tu-204 plane crash in Moscow
Dec 30 19 people are killed by a suicide bomber in Balochistan, Pakistan
Dec 30 9 people are killed and 26 are injured in a tour bus crash off interstate 84, Oregon, US
Dec 30 The opening of Line 6 of the Beijing subway makes it the longest metro network in the world at 442km

Weddings in History

Dec 1 "The Bachelorette" reality star Ashley Hebert weds J.P. Rosenbaum at the Langham Huntington Hotel in Pasadena, California
Dec 1 Congressman Joseph Kennedy III (32) weds Lauren Anne Birchfield (28) at the Community Church in Corona del Mar, California
Dec 4 "Teen Mom 2" star Jenelle Evans (21) weds Courtland Rogers (26) at a courthouse in Brunswick County, North Carolina
Dec 21 "Good Morning America" weather anchor Sam Champion (51) weds fine-arts photographer Rubem Robierb (35) at the couple's apartment in Manhattan

Divorces in History

Buzz Aldrin

Dec 28 Astronaut Buzz Aldrin (82) divorces Lois Driggs Cannon due to irreconcilable differences after 23 years of marriage

Deaths in History

Dec 2 Israel Keyes, American serial killer, commits suicide awaiting trial at 34
Dec 4 Besse Cooper, American supercentenarian and world's oldest living person (June 21, 2011 - December 4, 2012)
Dec 4 Jack Brooks, American politician, dies at 89
Dec 4 Vasily Belov, Russian author, dies at 80

Oscar Niemeyer (1907-2012)

Dec 5 Brazilian architect (Brasilia), dies from a respiratory infection at 104

Dec 7 Saul Steinberg, American businessman, founder of Leasco and CEO of Reliance Insurance Company, dies at 73
Dec 9 Norman Joseph Woodland, American inventor (barcode), dies at 91
Dec 9 Sir Patrick Moore, English amateur astronomer and author, dies from an infection at 89
Dec 10 Iajuddin Ahmed, Bangladeshi President, dies from heart surgery complications at 81
Dec 17 Colin Spedding, British biologist and animal welfare advocate, dies at 87
Dec 17 Daniel K. Inouye, American politician (US Senator, 1963-2012), dies from respiratory complications at 88
Dec 18 Marcus Worsley, British Lord-Lieutenant of North Yorkshire, dies at 87
Dec 19 Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, Israeli military leader, dies from cancer at 68
Dec 19 Piet de Visser, Dutch politician (PvdA), dies at 81
Dec 19 Robert Bork, American lawyer, government official (US Solicitor General, 1973-77), jurist (US Court of Appeals, 1982-88), rejected Supreme Court nominee (1987), and professor (Yale),dies from heart disease at 85
Dec 19 Sir Lawrence "Lawrie" Barratt, British businessman and housing developer (Barratt Developments), dies at 85
Dec 25 Frank Calabrese Sr [Frankie Breeze], American mafia hitman, dies at 75