December 1: Day of the year

December 1 is the 335th day of the year (336th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 30 days remaining until the end of the year.

Up to 1900

• 800 – Charlemagne judges the accusations against Pope Leo III in the Vatican.
• 1420 - Henry V of England enters Paris.
• 1640 – Portugal regains its independence from Spain.
• 1821 – The first constitution of Costa Rica is issued.
• 1822 – Emperor Pedro I of Brazil is crowned.
• 1824 - The United States House of Representatives is given the task to decide the winner of the US Presidential Election after no candidate got an overall majority of Electoral College votes.
• 1828 - Argentine general Juan Lavalle carries out a coup against Governor Manuel Dorrego, beginning the Decembrist revolution.
• 1835 – Hans Christian Andersen publishes his first book of fairy tales.
• 1864 - Great Fire of Brisbane.
• 1865 - Shaw University, the first historically black university in the Southern United States, is founded in North Carolina.
• 1885 - The fizzy drink Dr Pepper is first served at a drug store in Waco, Texas.

1901 – 1950

• 1913 – Ford Motor Company introduces the first moving assembly line.
• 1913 – Crete is annexed by Greece.
• 1913 - The Buenos Aires Metro opens to the public.
• 1918 – Iceland becomes a sovereign state, yet remains a part of the Danish kingdom.
• 1918 – The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later known as the Kingdom of Yugoslavia) is proclaimed.
• 1918 - Transylvania unites with the Kingdom of Romania.
• 1919 - Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor officially takes her seat in the House of Commons as the UK's first female Member of Parliament.
• 1923 – The dam of the Gleno Reservoir near Bergamo, Italy, bursts, killing around 600 people.
• 1934 - In the Soviet Union, Politburo member Sergey Kirov is shot dead by Leonid Nikolaev at Communist Headquarters in Leningrad.
• 1941 - World War II: Emperor Hirohito of Japan gives the final approval to begin war against the United States.
• 1941 - World War II: New York City Mayor Fiorello La Guardia signs the Administration Order No. 9, creating the Civil Air Patrol.
• 1948 - Taman Shud Case: The body of an unidentified man is found in Adelaide, South Australia, involving an undetectable poison and a secret code in a rare book. The case remains unsolved.

1951 – 2000

• 1953 - Hugh Hefner publishes the first edition of Playboy magazine.
• 1955 – In Montgomery, Alabama, seamstress Rosa Parks refuses to give her bus seat to a white man and is arrested for violating the city's racial segregation laws, an incident which leads to the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
• 1958 – Central African Republic becomes independent from France.
• 1958 - The Our Lady of the Angels school fire in Chicago kills 92 children and 3 nuns.
• 1959 – Cold War: Antarctic Treaty signed, which sets aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve and bans military activity on that continent.
• 1960 - Paul McCartney and Pete Best are arrested in Hamburg after being accused of attempted arson.
• 1961 – The independent Republic of West Papua is proclaimed in modern-day Western New Guinea.
• 1963 – Nagaland becomes the 16th state of India.
• 1964 – Malta, Malawi and Zambia join the UN.
• 1965 - India's Border Security Force is founded.
• 1966 – Kurt Georg Kiesinger succeeds Ludwig Erhard as Chancellor of West Germany.
• 1969 – Vietnam War: The first draft lottery in the United States is held since World War II.
• 1971 – Khmer Rouge rebels intensify assaults on Cambodian government positions, forcing their retreat from Kompong Thmar and nearby Ba Ray.
• 1971 – The Indian Army occupies part of Kashmir.
• 1973 – Papua New Guinea gains self-government from Australia.
• 1974 - TWA Flight 514, a Boeing 727, crashes northwest of Dulles International Airport near Washington, DC, killing all 92 people on board.
• 1974 - Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 6231, a Boeing 727, crashes northwest of JFK International Airport outside New York City, killing all 3 crew members. There were no passengers on board at the time.
• 1976 – Angola joins the UN.
• 1981 - Inex-Adria Aviopromet Flight 1308, a McDonnell Douglas MD-80, crashes in Corsica, killing all 180 people on board.
• 1986 - The Musee d'Orsay art museum in Paris opens.
• 1988 - Benazir Bhutto becomes Prime Minister of Pakistan.
• 1989 - A right-wing rebel group attempts to remove then-President of the Philippines Corazon Aquino from power in a failed coup attempt.
• 1990 – Channel Tunnel sections started from the United Kingdom and France meet 40 meters beneath the seabed.
• 1991 – Cold War: Ukrainian voters overwhelmingly approve a referendum for independence from the Soviet Union.
• 2000 – Vicente Fox becomes President of Mexico.

From 2001

• 2006 – Felipe Calderon becomes President of Mexico.
• 2006 – A typhoon causes landslides on the Mayon Volcano in the Philippines, burying about 1,000 people.
• 2009 – The European Union's Lisbon Treaty takes effect.
• 2012 - Enrique Peña Nieto becomes President of Mexico.
• 2013 - A train derails in the Bronx, New York City, on the banks of the Hudson River, killing four people and injuring around 60.
• 2014 - The Somali terrorist group Al-Shabaab rounds up and kills 36 Non-Muslims in northeastern Kenya.
• 2016 - Vajiralongkorn officially becomes King of Thailand.
• 2017 - Japanese Emperor Akihito's abdication date is set for April 30, 2019.
• 2017 - The groups are drawn for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.
• 2018 - Andrés Manuel López Obrador becomes President of Mexico.
• 2019 - Ursula von der Leyen takes office as the first female President of the European Commission.

Up to 1900

• 1081 – Louis VI of France (d. 1137)
• 1083 – Anna Komnene, Byzantine princess and scholar (d. 1153)
• 1438 - Peter II, Duke of Bourbon (d. 1503)
• 1443 - Magdalena of France, French princess (d. 1495)
• 1521 - Takeda Shingen, Japanese daimyo (d. 1573)
• 1580 - Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc, French astronomer (d. 1637)
• 1690 - Philip Yorke, 1st Earl of Hardwicke, English lawyer and politician (d. 1764)
• 1709 - Franz Xaver Richter, Austrian-Moravian singer, violinist, composer and conductor (d. 1789)
• 1716 - Etienne Maurice Falconet, French sculptor (d. 1791)
• 1743 – Martin Heinrich Klaproth, German chemist (d. 1817)
• 1761 – Marie Tussaud, French creator of waxworks (d. 1850)
• 1766 – Nikolay Karamzin, Russian writer (d. 1826)
• 1785 - Victor de Broglie, French politician and diplomat (d. 1850)
• 1792 - Nikolai Lobachevsky, Russian mathematician (d. 1856)
• 1823 - Karl Schenk, Swiss politician (d. 1895)
• 1840 - Marie Bracquemond, French painter (d. 1916)
• 1844 – Alexandra of Denmark, queen consort of King Edward VII of the United Kingdom (d. 1925)
• 1847 - Julia Ann Moore, American poet (d. 1920)
• 1855 - John Evans, Australian politician, 21st Premier of Tasmania (d. 1943)
• 1864 - Carsten Borchgrevink, Norwegian polar explorer (d. 1934)
• 1867 - Ignacy Moscicki, Polish scientist and politician (d. 1946)
• 1869 - Eligiusz Niewiadomski, Polish painter and critic (d. 1923)
• 1873 - Valery Bryusov, Russian poet (d. 1924)
• 1873 - Viktor Chernov, Russian politician (d. 1952)
• 1884 - Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, German painter (d. 1976)
• 1886 – Rex Stout, American writer (d. 1975)
• 1895 – Henry Williamson, English writer (d. 1977)
• 1896 – Georgy Zhukov, Marshal of the Soviet Union (d. 1974)
• 1898 - Stuart Garson, Canadian politician, 12th Premier of Manitoba (d. 1977)

1901 – 1950

• 1901 - Ilona Feher, Hungarian violinist (d. 1988)
• 1901 - Jane Gray, Scottish-Australian supercentenarian (d. 2014)
• 1905 – Clarence Zener, American physicist (d. 1993)
• 1910 – Alicia Markova, British ballet dancer (d. 2004)
• 1911 – Franz Binder, Austrian footballer (d. 1989)
• 1911 - Walter Alston, American baseball player and manager (d. 1984)
• 1911 - Calvin Griffith, Canadian-American businessman (d. 1999)
• 1912 - Minoru Yamasaki, American architect (d. 1986)
• 1913 – Mary Martin, American actress (d. 1990)
• 1916 - Wan Li, Chinese politician (d. 2015)
• 1922 – Vsevolod Bobrov, Soviet ice hockey player (d. 1979)
• 1923 – Morris, Belgian cartoonist (d. 2001)
• 1923 - Stansfield Turner, American admiral (d. 2018)
• 1925 – Martin Rodbell, American scientist (d. 1998)
• 1926 - Keith Michell, Australian actor (d. 2015)
• 1928 - Emily McLaughlin, American actress (d. 1991)
• 1928 - Malachi Throne, American actor (d. 2013)
• 1929 – Alfred Moisiu, former President of Albania
• 1929 - Karl Otto Pöhl, German economist (d. 2014)
• 1929 - David Doyle, American actor (d. 1997)
• 1930 - Marie Bashir, 37th Governor of New South Wales
• 1930 – Matt Monro, English singer (d. 1985)
• 1931 - Jimmy Lyons, American saxophonist (d. 1986)
• 1931 - George Maxwell Richards, President of Trinidad and Tobago (d. 2018)
• 1933 - Fujiko Fujio, Japanese writer and illustrator (d. 1996)
• 1933 - Lou Rawls, American singer-songwriter, producer and actor (d. 2006)
• 1933 - Violette Verdy, French ballerina (d. 2016)
• 1933 - James Wolfensohn, 9th President of the World Bank
• 1934 – Billy Paul, American singer (d. 2016)
• 1935 – Woody Allen, American director and actor
• 1936 - María Romilda Servini, Argentine lawyer and judge
• 1936 - Igor Rodionov, Russian general and politician (d. 2014)
• 1937 – Vaira Vike-Freiberga, former President of Latvia
• 1938 - Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui, Pakistani politician, Governor of Sindh (d. 2017)
• 1939 – Lee Trevino, American golf player
• 1940 – Richard Pryor, American actor and comedian (d. 2005)
• 1942 - Mohamed Kamel Amr, Egyptian diplomat
• 1943 - Finn E. Kydland, Norwegian economist
• 1943 - Kenny Moore, American runner and journalist
• 1944 - Pierre Arditi, French actor
• 1944 - A. B. M. Mohiuddin Chowdhury, Bangladeshi politician (d. 2017)
• 1944 - Michael Hagee, American general
• 1944 - Tahar Ben Jelloun, Moroccan-French poet
• 1944 - Daniel Pennac, French writer
• 1944 – John Densmore, American musician
• 1945 – Bette Midler, American singer and actress
• 1946 – Gilbert O'Sullivan, Irish singer
• 1947 – Alain Bashung, French singer (d. 2009)
• 1948 – Luciano Re Cecconi, Italian footballer (d. 1977)
• 1948 – Neil Warnock, English footballer and manager
• 1948 - Themba Dlamini, Prime Minister of Swaziland
• 1948 - Sarfraz Nawaz, Pakistani cricketer
• 1949 – Pablo Escobar, Colombian druglord (d. 1993)
• 1949 – Sebastian Pinera, President of Chile; 2010 - 2014, and since 2018
• 1950 - Ueli Maurer, Swiss politician
• 1950 - Seiichi Sakiya, Japanese footballer
• 1950 - Keith Thibodeaux, American actor and drummer

1951 – 1975

• 1951 – Jaco Pastorius, American musician (d. 1987)
• 1951 - Treat Williams, American actor
• 1952 - Stephen Poliakoff, British playwright and television dramatist
• 1952 - Ellen McLain, American opera singer and voice actress
• 1952 - Pegi Young, American singer, songwriter, environmentalist, educator and philanthropist (d. 2019)
• 1954 - Viv Albertine, Australian-British singer and songwriter
• 1954 - Medha Patkar, Indian activist
• 1954 - François Van der Elst, Belgian footballer (d. 2017)
• 1956 - Julee Cruise, American singer-songwriter and actress
• 1956 - Billy Stark, Scottish footballer
• 1957 - Chris Poland, American guitarist
• 1957 - Deep Roy, Kenyan actor
• 1958 – Javier Aguirre, Mexican footballer and manager
• 1958 - Candace Bushnell, American author, journalist and television producer
• 1958 - Lisa Fischer, American singer-songwriter
• 1958 - Charlene Tilton, American actress
• 1959 - Billy Childish, English singer and musician
• 1960 – Carol Alt, American supermodel
• 1961 – Jeremy Northam, British actor
• 1961 - Armin Meiwes, German cannibal and murderer
• 1962 - Pamela McGee, American basketball player and coach
• 1963 - Arjuna Ranatunga, Sri Lankan cricketer and politician
• 1964 – Salvatore Schillaci, Italian footballer
• 1965 - Peter Greste, Australian journalist
• 1966 - Andrew Adamson, New Zealand movie director
• 1966 - Katherine LaNasa, American actress
• 1966 - Larry Walker, Canadian baseball player
• 1967 - Nestor Carbonell, American actor, director and screenwriter
• 1968 - Justin Chadwick, English actor and director
• 1968 - Anders Holmertz, Swedish swimmer
• 1968 - Stephan Beckenbauer, German footballer (d. 2015)
• 1970 – Sarah Silverman, American comedienne
• 1971 – Emily Mortimer, English actress
• 1971 – Mika Pohjola, Finnish jazz pianist and composer
• 1971 - Melanie Peres, German-Israeli model, actress and singer
• 1974 – Costinha, Portuguese footballer
• 1974 - Simon Donnelly, Scottish footballer and manager
• 1974 - Isaiah "Ikey" Owens, American keyboardist and producer (d. 2014)

From 1976

• 1976 – Laura Ling, American journalist
• 1976 - Matthew Shepard, American murder victim (d. 1998)
• 1977 - Brad Delson, American guitarist and producer
• 1977 - Akiva Schaffer, American actor, rapper, director, producer and screenwriter
• 1979 - Shinji Murai, Japanese footballer
• 1981 - Park Hyo-shin, South Korean singer-songwriter
• 1982 - Alfredo Pacheco, El Salvadorean footballer (d. 2015)
• 1985 – Emiliano Viviano, Italian footballer
• 1985 - John Coughlin, American figure skater
• 1985 - Chanel Preston, American pornographic actress
• 1986 - DeSean Jackson, American football player
• 1988 – Jay Simpson, English footballer
• 1988 – Zoe Kravitz, American actress
• 1989 - Barry Bannan, Scottish footballer
• 1990 - Chanel Iman, American model
• 1991 - Sun Yang, Chinese swimmer
• 1991 - Dion Waiters, American basketball player
• 1992 - Masahudu Alhassan, Ghanaian footballer
• 1992 - Marco van Ginkel, Dutch footballer
• 1995 - Eva Boto, Slovenian singer
• 2001 – Aiko, Princess Toshi of Japan
• 2001 - Savannah McReynolds, American actress
• 2001 - Alice Robinson, New Zealand alpine ski racer

Up to 1900

• 660 - Saint Eligius (b. c. 588)
• 1135 – Henry I, King of England (b. 1068)
• 1241 – Isabella of England, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1214)
• 1377 – King Magnus II of Sweden (b. 1316)
• 1433 – Emperor Go-Komatsu of Japan (b. 1377)
• 1455 - Lorenzo Ghiberti, Italian sculptor (b. 1378)
• 1521 – Pope Leo X (b. 1475)
• 1530 - Margaret of Austria, Duchess of Savoy (b. 1480)
• 1580 - Giovanni Morone, Italian cardinal (b. 1509)
• 1581 - Alexander Briant, English priest, martyr and saint (b. 1556)
• 1581 - Edmund Campion, English priest, martyr and saint (b. 1540)
• 1581 - Ralph Sherwin, English priest, martyr and saint (b. 1550)
• 1602 - Kobayakawa Hideaki, Japanese warlord (b. 1582)
• 1633 - Isabella Clara Eugenia, Spanish consort of Albert VII, Archduke of Austria (b. 1566)
• 1640 - Miguel de Vasconcelos, Portuguese politician (b. 1590)
• 1660 - Pierre d'Hozier, French genealogist (b. 1592)
• 1750 - Johan Gabriel Doppelmayr, German mathematician, astronomer and cartographer (b. 1671)
• 1755 - Maurice Greene, English composer (b. 1696)
• 1825 – Tsar Alexander I of Russia (b. 1777)
• 1830 – Pope Pius VIII (b. 1761)
• 1864 - William L. Dayton, American politician (b. 1807)
• 1866 – George Everest, Welsh surveyor (b. 1790)
• 1884 - William Swainson, English-New Zealand lawyer and politician (b. 1809)
• 1886 – Emil Hartwich, German lawyer (b. 1843)

1901 – 2000

• 1913 - Juhan Liiv, Estonian poet and writer (b. 1864)
• 1914 - Alfred Thayer Mahan, American captain and historian (b. 1840)
• 1916 - Charles de Foucauld, French priest (b. 1858)
• 1917 - John January, American soccer player (b. 1882)
• 1934 – Sergey Kirov, Soviet politician (b. 1886)
• 1941 - Alva B. Adams, American politician (b. 1875)
• 1943 - Damrong Rajanubhab, Thai historian (b. 1862)
• 1947 – Aleister Crowley, English occultist and writer (b. 1875)
• 1947 – G.H. Hardy, English mathematician (b. 1877)
• 1954 - Fred Rose, American pianist, songwriter and publisher (b. 1898)
• 1964 - J. B. S. Haldane, English-Indian geneticist (b. 1892)
• 1964 - Charilaos Vasilakos, Greek runner (b. 1877)
• 1968 - Nicolae Bretan, Romanian opera singer, composer and conductor (b. 1887)
• 1969 - Magic Sam, American guitarist and singer (b. 1937)
• 1972 – Antonio Segni, Prime Minister of Italy (b. 1891)
• 1973 – David Ben-Gurion, Prime Minister of Israel (b. 1886)
• 1975 - Anna Roosevelt Halsted, American writer (b. 1906)
• 1981 - Russ Manning, American comic book artist (b. 1929)
• 1987 – James Baldwin, American writer (b. 1924)
• 1987 - Punch Imlach, Canadian ice hockey player, coach and manager (b. 1918)
• 1990 - Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, Indian politician and diplomat (b. 1900)
• 1991 – George J. Stigler, American economist (b. 1911)
• 1993 - Ray Gillen, American singer-songwriter (b. 1959)
• 1995 - Maxwell R. Thurman, American general (b. 1931)
• 1997 – Stephane Grappelli, French violinist (b. 1908)
• 1997 - Endicott Peabody, 62nd Governor of Massachusetts (b. 1920)
• 1998 – Bertil Nordahl, Swedish footballer (b. 1917)

From 2001

• 2001 - Roger Leach, British actor (b. 1948)
• 2004 – Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands (b. 1911)
• 2005 - Jack Colvin, American actor (b. 1934)
• 2006 – Claude Jade, French actress (b. 1948)
• 2007 - Ken McGregor, Australian tennis player (b. 1929)
• 2008 – Mikel Laboa, Basque singer and songwriter (b. 1934)
• 2010 – Adriaan Blaauw, Dutch astronomer (b. 1914)
• 2011 – Christa Wolf, German writer (b. 1929)
• 2012 - Mitchell Cole, English footballer (b. 1985)
• 2012 - Phil Taylor, English footballer (b. 1917)
• 2012 - Jovan Belcher, American football player (b. 1987)
• 2013 - Heinrich Boere, German Nazi war criminal (b. 1922)
• 2013 - Lino Grech, Maltese actor (b. 1930)
• 2013 - Edward Heffron, American World War II veteran (b. 1923)
• 2014 - Sita Murt, Spanish fashion designer and businesswoman (b. 1946)
• 2014 - Mario Abramovich, Argentine violinist and composer (b. 1926)
• 2014 - Roberto Sagastume Pinto, Guatemalan politician (b. 1944)
• 2015 - Joseph Engelberger, American engineer (b. 1925)
• 2015 - Robert E. Glennen, American academic (b. 1933)
• 2015 - Jim Loscutoff, American basketball player (b. 1930)
• 2017 - Adarsh Sein Anand, former Chief Justice of India (b. 1936)
• 2017 - Philipp Graf Lerchenfeld, German politician (b. 1952)
• 2017 - Fredy Schmidtke, German cyclist (b. 1961)
• 2017 - Arif Dirlik, Turkish-born American historian (b. 1940)
• 2017 - Les Whitten, American investigative reporter (b. 1928)
• 2018 - Ken Berry, American actor (b. 1933)
• 2018 - Ennio Fantastichini, Italian actor (b. 1955)
• 2018 - Anwar Hossain, Bangladeshi photographer and cinematographer (b. 1948)
• 2018 - Scott Stearney, American Vice Admiral (b. 1960)
• 2018 - Stefanie Tücking, German television presenter (b. 1962)
• 2018 - Shoucheng Zhang, Chinese-American physicist (b. 1963)
• 2019 - Henri Biancheri, French footballer (b. 1932)
• 2019 - Shelley Morrison, American actress (b. 1936)
• 2019 - Lil Bub, American-bred celebrity cat (b. 2011)
• 2019 - Paul Sirba, American Roman Catholic prelate (b. 1960)
• 2019 - Pat Sullivan, American football player (b. 1950)

• World AIDS Day
• Portugal – Restoration of Independence Day
• Costa Rica – Military Abolition Day
• Romania – The National Day of Romania, Union of Transylvania with Romania
• Angola's Pioneers' Day
• Australia – First day of Summer
• Iceland - Self-governance Day
• Teachers' Day (Panama)
• Chad - Freedom and Democracy Day
• Mexico - Traditionally the date the President is sworn into office every six years, last in 2012
• Saint Eligius in Western Christianity