December 31

Arthur Guinness signs a 9,000 year lease, begins brewing at Dublin's St. James's Gate (1759); Thomas Edison demonstrates incandescent lighting in public for first time (1879); First New Year's Eve celebration held in Times Square (1907); The country of Kiribati skips the day altogether (1994).

December 29

President Andrew Johnson born (1808); Texas becomes the 28th US state (1845); US Army kills over 250 Lakota people at Wounded Knee (1890); Actress Mary Tyler Moore born (1936).

December 28

President Woodrow Wilson born (1856); Comic book writer Stan Lee born (1922); HBD British actress Dame Maggie Smith (1934); HBD Denzel Washington (1954); Indonesia AirAsia flight crashes, killing 162 (2014).

December 27

Chemist Louis Pasteur born (1822); Actress and singer Marlene Dietrich born (1901); Radio City Music Hall opens in New York City (1932); Benazir Bhutto assassinated (2007); RIP Carrie Fisher (2016).

December 23

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints founder Joseph Smith born (1805); Businesswoman Madam C.J. Walker born (1867); Vincent van Gogh cuts off his ear (1888); Voyager aircraft is first to fly around the world without refueling (1986).

December 22

Beethoven’s "Fifth Symphony" premieres (1808); Former first lady Lady Bird Johnson born (1912); Maurice and Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees born (1949); Colo becomes first gorilla born in captivity (1956); “Don’t ask, don’t tell” military policy repealed (2010).

December 21

"Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" premieres (1937); HBD actress Jane Fonda (1937); RIP F. Scott Fitzgerald (1940); HBD French President Emmanuel Macron (1977); Bomb explodes on Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 (1988).

December 20

Louisiana Purchase finalized (1803); RIP Sacagawea (1812); "It’s a Wonderful Life" released (1946); RIP astronomer Carl Sagan (1996); Space Force becomes sixth US armed forces branch (2019).

December 17

Wright Brothers make first successful airplane flight (1903); HBD Pope Francis (1936); "The Simpsons" makes television debut (1989); RIP American actress Jennifer Jones (2009); North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il dies (2011).

December 16

Ludwig van Beethoven born (1770); Boston Tea Party occurs (1773); Author Jane Austen born (1775); Anthropologist Margaret Mead born (1901); World War II’s Battle of the Bulge begins (1944).

December 15

US Bill of Rights ratified, becomes law (1791); Eiffel Tower builder Gustave Eiffel born (1832); Hunkpapa Lakota leader Sitting Bull killed (1890); RIP Walt Disney (1966); RIP actress Joan Fontaine (2013).

December 14

President George Washington dies (1799); Author Shirley Jackson born (1916); Actress Patty Duke born (1946); Eugene Cernan is last person to walk on the moon (1972); 20 children and six staff murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary School (2012).

December 13

Diplomat George Shultz born (1920); HBD actor Dick Van Dyke (1925); HBD Jamie Foxx (1967); HBD Taylor Swift (1989); 10 new countries announced to join European Union (2002); Saddam Hussein captured by American forces (2003).

December 10

Poet Emily Dickinson born (1830); Spanish-American War ends (1898); First Nobel Prize ceremony held (1901); RIP comedian Richard Pryor (2005); Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet dies (2006).

December 9

Actor Kirk Douglas born (1916); HBD actress Dame Judi Dench (1934); “A Charlie Brown Christmas” debuts (1965); RIP diplomat and Nobel Peace Prize winner Ralph Bunche (1971); Smallpox declared eradicated (1979).

December 8

Mary, Queen of Scots born (1542); The US declares war on Japan (1941); Musician Jim Morrison born (1943); John Lennon murdered outside his residence in New York City (1980); North American Free Trade Agreement, NAFTA, signed into law (1993); RIP astronaut and senator John Glenn (2016).

December 7

HBD Oscar, Emmy, and Tony Award winner Ellen Burstyn (1932); Pearl Harbor naval base bombed by Japan, killing 2,403 (1941); HBD basketball legend Larry Bird (1956); Apollo 17, the final Apollo moon mission, is launched (1972); RIP sound barrier-breaking pilot Chuck Yeager (2020).

December 6

13th Amendment of US Constitution is ratified, abolishing slavery (1865); Washington Monument completed (1884); Hollywood actress Agnes Moorehead born (1900); RIP folk music legend Lead Belly (1949); NASA photographs suggest presence of liquid on Mars (2006).

December 3

RIP novelist Robert Louis Stevenson (1894); HBD rock star Ozzy Osbourne (1948); HBD actress Julianne Moore (1960); First human heart transplant carried out (1967); Mikhail Gorbachev and George H.W. Bush declare end to Cold War (1989).

December 2

RIP abolitionist John Brown (1859); US Environmental Protection Agency formed (1970); HBD Britney Spears (1981); Benazir Bhutto becomes first female prime minister of Pakistan (1988); Colombia drug lord Pablo Escobar is killed (1993).

December 1

First moving assembly line introduced by Ford Motor Company (1913); Rosa Parks arrested in Alabama for refusing to give up her bus seat (1955); RIP author and activist James Baldwin (1987); World AIDS Day commemorated for first time (1988).