Skip to Main Content
It looks like you're using Internet Explorer 11 or older. This website works best with modern browsers such as the latest versions of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge. If you continue with this browser, you may see unexpected results.
Ask Us

Featured Collections: December

On this day... December

1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31

December 1

2003 "The Return of the King", 3rd and final film in the Lord of the Rings series, directed by Peter Jackson and starring Elijah Wood and Ian McKellen premieres in Wellington, New Zealand

December 2

1986 Dow-Jones index hits record 1,955.57

December 3

1989 Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and US President George H. W. Bush, declare the Cold War over

December 4

1961 Museum of Modern Art hangs Matisse's Le Bateau upside down for 47 days

December 5

1941 US aircraft carrier Lexington and 5 heavy cruisers leave Pearl Harbor

December 6

2010 Record price for a printed book when a first edition of "The Birds of America" by John James Audubon auctioned at Sotheby's, London, England, for £7,321,250

December 7

2015 Beijing issues its 1st ever red alert for pollution

December 8

1941 US President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivers "Day of Infamy" speech to US Congress a day after the bombing of Pearl Harbor

December 9

2015 German Chancellor Angela Merkel named Time Magazine's Person of the Year, for her handling of debt and refugee crises

December 10

2013 Uruguay becomes the first country to legalize the growth, sale, and use of marijuana

December 11

2001 The People's Republic of China joins the World Trade Organization.

December 12

2015 First women ever elected in Saudi Arabia in municipal council elections

December 13

2017 Salma Hayek accuses Harvey Weinstein of sexual harassment and threatening to kill her

December 14

1995 AIDS patient Jeff Getty receives baboon bone marrow transplant

December 15

1939 1st commercial manufacture of nylon yarn in Seaford, Delaware

December 16

1982 The Federal Reserve announces that the operating capacity of factories has gone down to 67.8%.

December 17

1969 USAF closes Project Blue Book, concluding no evidence of extraterrestrial spaceships behind thousands of UFO sightings

December 18

1997 HTML 4.0 is published by the World Wide Web Consortium

December 19

1985 Mary Lund is 1st woman to receive a Jarvik VII artificial heart at Abbott Northwestern Hospital, Minneapolis

December 20

2017 Lady Gaga signs Las Vegas residency deal for $75m at MGM Park Theatre

December 21

1991 Soviet Union formally dissolves as 11 of 12 republics sign treaty forming Commonwealth of Independent States

December 22

1965 Great Britain sets national maximum road speed at 70 miles per hour

December 23

1921 Gangster Carlo Gambino enters the United States as an illegal immigrant on the SS Vincenzo Florio

December 24

2001 "Time Magazine" names New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani 'Person of the Year', for leadership after 9/11 attacks

December 25

274 Roman Emperor Aurelian dedicates a temple to Sol Invictus on the supposed day of the winter solstice and day of rebirth of the Sun.

December 26

1941 Winston Churchill becomes first British Prime Minister to address a joint meeting of the US Congress, warning that Axis would "stop at nothing"

December 27

1986 "Les Miserables" opens at Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C.

December 28

1981 1st American test-tube baby, Elizabeth Jordan Carr is born in Norfolk, Virginia

December 29

1997 Hong Kong begins slaughtering all its chickens to prevent bird flu

December 30

1953 The first ever NTSC color television sets go on sale for about USD at $1,175 each from RCA.

December 31

1997 More Swedes died than were born in 1997, 1st time since 1809