Historical Events
- Dec 4 Whig party holds its first national convention, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Van Buren Elected
Dec 7 Martin Van Buren elected the 8th President of the United States
- Dec 10 Emory College (now Emory University) is chartered in Oxford, Georgia
- Dec 14 The Toledo War unofficially ends, boundary dispute between Ohio state and territory of Michigan
- Dec 15 Patent Office burns in Washington, D.C.
- Dec 17 Colonel William Light chooses the site for the settlement of Adelaide in South Australia
- Dec 27 Worst English avalanche kills 8 of 15 buried (Lewes Sussex)
- Dec 28 Proclamation of South Australia as a British Province. Formal proclamation was read out near The Old Gum Tree, in what is now the Adelaide suburb of Glenelg North, by Captain (later Rear Admiral, Governor, Sir) John Hindmarsh
- Dec 28 Spain recognizes the independence of Mexico
- Dec 30 Lehman Theater in St Petersburg catches fire; 100s die
Famous Birthdays
- Dec 13 Franz von Lenbach, German painter, born in Schrobenhausen, Bavaria (d. 1904)
- Dec 15 Edmond Picard, French-Belgian lawyer and writer (La forge Roussel), born in Brussels, Belgium (d. 1924)
- Dec 19 Maria Sanford, American pioneering educator and professor, born in Saybrook, Connecticut (d. 1920)
Famous Deaths
Stephen F. Austin (1793-1836)
Dec 27 Founded and helped colonize the US state of Texas, dies of pneumonia at 43
- Dec 29 Johann Baptist Schenk, Austrian composer, dies at 83
