- 749 Saint John of Damascus, Syrian monk, priest and theologian, dies
- 765 Jafar al-Sadiq, Muslim scholar and scientist, dies at 63
- 811 Charles The Younger, King the of Franks, son of the Emperor Charlemagne, dies at about 39
- 1075 Archbishop Anno II of Cologne
- 1123 Omar Khayyám, Persian poet, astronomer, mathematician, and philosopher (b. 1048)
- 1137 Lotharius III of Supplinburg, emperor (1125, 33-37), dies at 67
- 1182 Henry, earl of Gelre/Zutphen (1141/79-82), dies
- 1214 William I "the Lion", King of Scotland (1165-1214)
- 1270 Theobald V of Champagne, King of Navarre
- 1334 Pope John XXII (1316-1334) (b. 1249)
- 1340 Henry Burghersh, English bishop and chancellor (b. 1292)
- 1371 Reinald III, the Fat Duke, duke of Gelre (1343-61), dies at 38
- 1371 Stefanus X Uros V, king of Serbia (1355-71), dies
- 1459 Adolf VIII, Duke of Southern Jutland (b. 1401)
- 1514 Richard Hunne, English "heretic", commits suicide(?)
- 1576 Rheticus, mathematician, dies
- 1585 John Willock, Scottish reformer
- 1603 Maarten de Vos, Flemish painter, dies at about 71
- 1642 Armand-Jean Duplessis Richelieu, bishop of Lucon, dies at about 57
- 1649 Outgert Arisz Akersloot, Dutch silversmith, dies at about 73
- 1649 William Drummond of Hawthornden, Scottish poet, dies at 63
Thomas Hobbes
1679 Thomas Hobbes, English philosopher (Leviathan), dies of a stroke at 91
Thomas Hobbes
Robert Jenkinson
1828 Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (Tory: 1812-27), dies of a stroke at 58
Robert Jenkinson
- 1893 Allan Wilson, British/Rhodesian Major, dies in battle against the Ndebeles during First Matabele War
- 1893 John Tyndall, Irish physicist who demonstrated why the sky is blue and proved that the Earth's atmosphere has a greenhouse effect, dies at 73
- 1893 Heinrich Göbel, German-born mechanic and inventor, dies at 75
- 1902 Charles Dow, American journalist and economist (co-founded Dow Jones and 1st editor of Wall St Journal), dies at 51
- 1909 Paul-Albert Besnard, French painter and graphic artist (Elle), dies at 60
- 1926 Ivana Kobilca, Slovenian-born painter (b. 1861)
- 1932 Gustav Meyrink, writer, dies at 64
- 1933 Stefan George, German poet (Das neue Reich), dies at 65
- 1943 Carlo Mierendorff, German politician and anti-fascist, dies at 46
- 1945 Thomas Hunt Morgan, American evolutionary biologist, geneticist and embryologist (Nobel Prize 1933), dies at 79
- 1948 Karl Bonhoeffer, German psychiatrist/neurologist, dies
- 1951 Pedro Salinas, Spanish writer (Generation of 1927), dies at 61
- 1952 Karen Horney, German-American neo freudian psycho analyst, dies at 67
- 1956 Alexander Rodchenko, Russian painter and photographer, dies at 64
- 1959 Rosetta Duncan, (Duncan Sisters), dies in an auto accident at 58
- 1969 Fred Hampton, US Black-Panther leader, murdered
- 1971 Shunryu Suzuki, Zen teacher, founder of San Francisco Zen Center, dies
Hannah Arendt
1975 Hannah Arendt, German/US political theorist and historian, dies at 69
Hannah Arendt
- 1976 W. F. McCoy, Northern Irish politician (b. 1886)
- 1978 Samuel Abraham Goldsmith, Neth/US phycists, dies at 76
- 1980 Francisco Sá Carneiro, 109th Prime Minister of Portugal, dies at 46
- 1984 John Rock, American obstetrician and gynecologist who co-developed the 1st birth control pill, dies at 94
- 1986 Reuben Nakian, US sculptor, dies at 89
- 1988 Osman Achmatowicz, Polish chemist, dies at 89
- 1993 Frank Sturgis, watergate burglar, dies at 68
- 1993 Hetty de Boer-Jongkind, Dutch medical astrologist, dies at 42
- 1993 Margaret Landon, American author (Anna & the King of Siam), dies at 90
- 1994 Geoffery Rudolph Elton, historiographer, dies at 73
- 1994 Jacob Kaplan, French Grand Rabbi (1955-81), dies at 99
- 1994 Julio Ramon Ribeyro, Peruvian playwright, dies at 66
- 1994 Robert Jesse Charleston, museum curator, dies at 78
- 1994 Thomas Roy Garrett, museum curator, dies at 63
- 1995 Adrianne Jones, killed by David Graham & Diane Zamora, at 16
- 1996 Basil Nield, British judge and politician (Conservative Party), dies at 83
- 1996 Muriel Monkhouse, Red Cross worker, dies at 86
- 1997 David Abell Wood, priest, dies at 72
- 1997 Joseph Wolpe, South African psychotherapist, dies at 82
- 1999 Rose Elizabeth Bird, California Supreme Court Justice (1977-87), dies at 63
- 2000 H. C. Artmann, Austrian writer, dies at 79
- 2005 Errol Brathwaite, New Zealand author (b. 1924)
- 2007 Norval Morrisseau, Canadian artist (b. 1932)
- 2007 Chip Reese, American professional poker player (b. 1951)
- 2012 Vasily Belov, Russian author, dies at 80
- 2012 Jack Brooks, American politician, dies at 89
- 2012 Besse Cooper, American supercentenarian and world
- 2017 Ali Abdullah Saleh, Yemeni politician and 1st President of Yemen (1990-2012), is killed during the Battle of Sana'a at 75
- 2017 Mary Louise Hancock, American politician and activist, dies at 97
December in History
How the First Sherlock Holmes Story was Sold for a Song
How did an English publisher most famous for giving the world Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management come to publish the first Sherlock Holmes story?
December 1, 1887Fish Dish Finishes Off a King
Doctors warned King Henry I against eating lampreys. But he enjoyed the slippery fish and happily devoured a plateful of them leading to his death on this day.
December 1, 1135Mozart, the Incomparable Musical Genius
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, a musical genius who composed over 600 works in his short lifetime, died mysteriously on this day and was buried unceremoniously.
December 5, 1791Real-life Tragedy for Theatrical Family
On this day a tragedy engulfed one of Britain’s noted theatrical families of the early 20th century.
December 8, 1926
