Historical Events
- Dec 1 "The Great Train Robbery" the 1st Western film, released starring Justus D. Barnes and G. M. Anderson
- Dec 3 The Sultanate of Aceh's Panglima Polim surrenders to Dutch Army Captain Hendrikus Colijn at Atjeh
- Dec 6 Sumatra Atjehs guerilla leader Panglima Polim surrenders
- Dec 9 Norwegian parliament votes unanimiously for female suffrage
Curies Awarded Nobel
Dec 10 Nobel Prize for physics awarded to Pierre and Marie Curie for their study of spontaneous radiation
- Dec 11 British forces under MacDonald & Younghusband march into Tibet
- Dec 12 Roger Casement completes report about abuses in Belgian Congo
- Dec 14 England cricket batsman R. E. Foster completes 287 on debut in 1st Test against Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground
- Dec 14 The Wright brothers attempt to fly the Wright Flyer for the first time at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina
- Dec 15 NY Wall Street vendor Italo Marchiony [Marcioni] granted patent for a mound for making ice cream cones
- Dec 16 Majestic Theater, NYC, becomes 1st in US to employ women ushers
- Dec 16 The Taj Mahal Palace & Tower hotel opens its doors to guests for the first time, in Bombay, British India
Wright Brother's 1st Flight
Dec 17 The Wright brothers make the first sustained motorized aircraft flight at 10:35 AM, piloted by Orville Wright at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina
"Glad of It"
Dec 28 Clyde Fitch's play "Glad of It" premieres in NYC
- Dec 29 French Equatorial Africa separates into Gabon, Chad and Ubangi-Shari (Central African Republic)
- Dec 30 American Political Science Association founded at New Orleans
- Dec 30 Electric arc lamp sets fire to Iroquois Theatre in Chicago, Illinois, leaving 602 dead in one of the deadliest single-building blazes in American history
Famous Birthdays
- Dec 4 A. L. Rowse, British author and historian, born in Tregonissey, St Austell, Cornwall (d. 1997)
- Dec 4 Al Leader, Canadian-American Hockey Hall of Fame player, referee and administrator (Western Hockey League), born in Barnsley, Manitoba (d. 1982)
- Dec 4 Cornell Woolrich, American writer (El Angel Negro), born in New York City (d. 1968)
- Dec 4 Siro Cisilino, Italian composer and musicologist, born in Mereto di Tomba, Italy (d. 1987)
Cecil Frank Powell (1903-1969)
Dec 5 English physicist who discovered pion (pi-meson), a subatomic particle (Nobel 1950), born in Tonbridge, England
Tony Lazzeri (1903-1946)
Dec 6 American Baseball HOF second baseman (World Series x 5; only player to complete natural cycle with grand slam; NY Yankees), born in San Francisco, California
- Dec 7 Danilo Blanuša, Croatian mathematician, born in Osijek, Austria-Hungary (d. 1987)
- Dec 8 Adele Simpson, American fashion designer (Neiman-Marcus Award-1946), born in New York City (d. 1995)
- Dec 8 Irene Eisinger, German-British singer, born in Cosel, German Empire (d. 1994)
- Dec 8 Kitty Muggeridge, British author and translator, born in Chateau d'Oex, Switzerland (d. 1994)
- Dec 8 Zoltán Székely, Hungarian violinist and composer, born in Kocs, Hungary (d. 2011)
- Dec 10 George J. Lewis, Mexican actor (Don-Zorro), born in Guadalajara, Mexico (d. 1995)
- Dec 10 Una Merkel, American actress (42nd Street, Abraham Lincoln), born in Covington, Kentucky (d. 1986)
- Dec 10 William Plomer, South African-British author (Paper Houses, I Speak of Africa), born in Transvaal, South Africa (d. 1973)
- Dec 12 Enid Balint-Edmonds, British psychoanalyst, born in London (d. 1994)
- Dec 13 Carlos Montoya, Spanish-American flamenco guitarist (Suite Flamenca), born in Madrid, Spain (d. 1993)
- Dec 13 John Piper, British writer (US Churches in WWI) and official war painter, born in Epsom, Surrey, England (d. 1992)
- Dec 13 Yevgeny Petrov [Yevgeny Petrovich Kataev], Soviet writer, born in Odessa, Ukraine (d. 1942)
- Dec 15 Tamanishiki San'emon, Japanese sumo wrestler (32nd yokozuna; winner 9 top division yūshō), born in Kōchi, Japan (d. 1938)
- Dec 16 Hardie Albright, American actor (Silver Streak, Scarlet Letter), born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (d. 1975)
- Dec 16 Rafael Alberti, Spanish poet (El hombre deshabitado, one of the Generation of 27), born in El Puerto de Santa María, Spain (d. 1999) [1]
- Dec 17 Erskine Caldwell, American novelist (Tobacco Road, God's Little Acre), born in Moreland, Georgia (d. 1987)
- Dec 17 Ray Noble, English bandleader, comedian and actor (The Very Thought of You), born in Brighton, Sussex, England (d. 1978)
- Dec 19 Cyril Dean Darlington, English biologist and geneticist who discovered the mechanics of chromosomal crossover and its role in inheritance and evolution, born in Chorley, England (d. 1981)
- Dec 19 George Davis Snell, American geneticist (1980 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, H-2 gene), born in Bradford, Massachusetts (d. 1996)
- Dec 19 Theo Harych, German writer, born in Doruchow, Posen (d. 1958)
- Dec 22 Barbara Moore, Russian-born British engineer (walked across US in 86 days in 1960), born in Russia (d. 1977)
Haldan Keffer Hartline (1903-1983)
Dec 22 American biophysicist (Nobel 1967), born in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania
- Dec 22 Marc Lavry [Levin], Latvian-Israeli composer (Emek; Independence Symphony; Song of Songs], and conductor, born in Riga, Latvia (d. 1967) [1]
- Dec 23 (Fredericka) "Fredi" Washington, American stage and screen actress (Black & Tan), writer, and civil rights activist, born in Savannah, Georgia (d. 1994)
- Dec 23 Michael Kalatozov, Russian director and cinematographer (When the Cranes Fly), born in Tiflis, Russian Empire (d. 1973)
- Dec 25 Antiochos Evanghelatos, Greek classical composer, born in Lixouri, Cefalonia, Greece (d. 1981)
- Dec 25 Corry Lievens [Isabella MJ Adriaens], Flemish actress (Blue Bird), born in Antwerpen, Flanders, Belgium (d. 1968)
- Dec 25 J Edward Bromberg, Hungarian actor (The Mark of Zorro, Under 2 Flags), born in Temesvár, Austria-Hungary (d. 1951)
- Dec 26 Elisha Cook Jr, American actor (Maltese Falcon, Shane, Magnum PI), born in San Francisco, California (d. 1995)
- Dec 28 Earl "Fatha" Hines, American jazz pianist and bandleader (Deep Forest), born in Duquesne, Pennsylvania (d. 1983)
- Dec 28 John von Neumann, mathematician and astronomer (Bocher Award 1938), born in Budapest, Austria-Hungary (d. 1957)
- Dec 29 Clyde McCoy, American jazz trumpeter ("Sugar Blues"; the wah-wah sound), bandleader and co-founder of "Down Beat" magazine, born in Ashland, Kentucky (d. 1990)
- Dec 29 George Elrick, Scottish-British singer ("I Like Bananas Because They Have No Bones"), and broadcaster known as 'The Smiling Voice of Radio' (BBC's "Housewives' Choice"), born in Aberdeen, Scotland (d. 1999)
Famous Deaths
Herbert Spencer (1820-1903)
Dec 8 British philosopher (Social Statics) and sociologist, dies at 83
- Dec 11 Patrick McShane, Australian cricket player and umpire (1884-85 Ashes series), dies at 45
- Dec 20 Gavriil Musicescu, Romanian composer of choral music, conductor, and musicologist, dies at 56
- Dec 28 George Gissing, British novelist (New Grub Street, Charles Dickens: A Critical Study), dies from a chill at 46
