Historical Events
- Dec 3 First US mutual fire insurance company issues first policy (Rhode Island)
- Dec 5 - 10th: Assault on Mexican-held San Antonio by Texan rebels
- Dec 7 Bavarian Ludwig railway opens - first German steam railway
- Dec 16 Fire consumes over 600 buildings in NYC
HMS Beagles Reaches NZ
Dec 19 HMS Beagle with Charles Darwin aboard arrives in New Zealand
Trail of Tears
Dec 29 Treaty of New Echota is signed between the US government and representatives of a minority Cherokee political faction to cede all lands of the Cherokee east of the Mississippi River to the United States
Famous Birthdays
- Dec 1 Micah Jenkins, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), born in Edisto Island, South Carolina (d. 1864)
- Dec 4 Samuel Butler, English author (Erewhom, Way of All Flesh), born in Langar, Nottinghamshire, England (d. 1902)
- Dec 6 Rudolf Fittig, German chemist (synthesizing organic compounds), born in Hamburg, Germany (d. 1910)
- Dec 7 Dom Joseph Pothier, French monk and musicologist, born in Bouzemont, France (d. 1923)
- Dec 11 Adolf Stoecker, German conservative politician, and reformer who founded the German Christian Social Party, born in Halberstadt, Germany (d. 1909)
- Dec 12 Georges Jean Pfeiffer, French composer, born in Versailles, France (d. 1908)
- Dec 13 Phillips Brooks, American Episcopal bishop and composer (Little Town of Bethlehem), born in Boston, Massachusetts (d. 1893)
- Dec 17 Alexander Agassiz, American biologist and geologist, born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland (d. 1910)
- Dec 18 George Dashiell Bayard, American Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Seneca Falls, New York (d. 1862)
- Dec 18 Lyman Abbott, American theologian and author, born in Roxbury, Massachusetts (d. 1922)
- Dec 28 Archibald Geikie, Scottish geologist (Scenery of Scotland), born in Edinburgh, Scotland (d. 1924)
20-29
30-39
40-49
50-59
80-89
Over 90