Historical Events
Ford's Peace Ship
Dec 4 Henry Ford's peace ship, Oscar II, sails for Europe 'to get the boys out of the trenches by Christmas'
- Dec 4 Ku Klux Klan receives charter from Fulton County, Georgia
- Dec 4 Panama-Pacific International Exposition closes in San Francisco
Sibelius' 5th Symphony
Dec 8 Jean Sibelius' 5th Symphony in E premieres
In Flanders Fields
Dec 8 John McCrae's poem "In Flanders Fields" appears anonymously in "Punch" magazine
- Dec 12 1st all-metal aircraft (Junkers J-1) test flown at Dessau, Germany
French War Government Forms
Dec 12 Aristide Briand forms French war government
- Dec 12 Russian troops overrun Hamadan, Persia
Gallipoli: Guts, Glory and Defeat
Dec 15 WWI: ANZAC forces begin their withdrawal from the Gallipoli Peninsula after Ottoman forces successfully defend access to Constantinople
- Dec 20 Russian troops overrun Qom, Persia
- Dec 20 WWI: ANZAC troops complete their withdrawal from Anzac Cove on the Gallipoli Peninsula
- Dec 21 10.17" (25.83 cm) of rainfall, Glenora, Oregon (state record until 2006)
- Dec 22 Organized baseball and Federal League sign a peace treaty at Cincinnati; Federal Baseball League dissolves
"Very Good Eddie"
Dec 23 Jerome Kern and Schuyler Greene's musical farce "Very Good Eddie" premieres at the Princess Theatre, NYC; runs for 341 performances
"Stop! Look! Listen!"
Dec 25 Irving Berlin & Harry B Smith's musical revue "Stop! Look! Listen!" premieres at the Globe Theater, NYC; runs for 105 performances
- Dec 27 US Iron and Steel workers begin a 3-week strike in Ohio for an eight-hour-day; they are successful as the US needs steel for armaments
- Dec 28 San Francisco City Hall dedicated by Mayor James Rolph
- Dec 28 Today the British Cabinet recognizes the true nature of the war by deciding to institute compulsory military service, with single men to be conscripted before married ones
- Dec 30 Cromarty Harbour, Scotland - British cruiser Natal explodes: 405 die
Famous Birthdays
- Dec 1 Johnny Johnston, American singer (Make that Spare), born in St Louis, Missouri (d. 1996)
- Dec 2 Nico Richter, Dutch composer, born in Amsterdam, Netherlands (d. 1945)
- Dec 2 Randolph Apperson Hearst, American newspaper publisher (Hearst Newspapers), born in New York City (d. 2000)
- Dec 4 Allan Jackson, American newscaster (Youth Takes a Stand), born in Hot Springs, Arkansas (d. 1976)
- Dec 4 Eddie Heywood, American jazz pianist and composer ("Canadian Sunset", "Soft Summer Breeze"), born in Atlanta, Georgia (d. 1989)
- Dec 5 Carl Donnell "Kansas" Fields, American jazz drummer, born in Chapman, Kansas (d. 1995)
- Dec 7 Eli Wallach, American actor (Magnificent 7; The Misfits; The People Next Door), born in Brooklyn New York, (d. 2014)
- Dec 7 Leigh Brackett, American sci-fi author (Ginger Star), Los Angeles, California (d. 1978)
- Dec 8 Ernest Lehman, American screenwriter (North by Northwest), born in New York City (d. 2005)
- Dec 8 George Scheuer, Austrian writer and journalist, born in Vienna, Austria (d. 1996)
- Dec 9 Colin McCool, Australian cricket all-rounder (14 Tests, 1 x 100, HS 104no, 36 wickets, BB 5/41; NSW, Queensland, Somerset CCC), born in Sydney, Australia (d. 1986)
- Dec 9 Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Austro-British soprano (Der Rosenkavalier), born in Jarotschin, German Empire (d. 2006)
- Dec 9 Herbert Huncke, American writer and poet, born in Greenfield, Massachusetts (d. 1996)
- Dec 11 Anna van Beers [Graeve], Dutch actress (A Woman like Eve, Diary of a Hooker), born in Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands (d. 2011)
Frank Sinatra (1915-1998)
Dec 12 American singer (Strangers in the Night; My Way; The Summer Wind) and actor (From Here to Eternity; Guys and Dolls), known as the "Chairman of the Board" and "Ol' Blue Eyes", born in Hoboken, New Jersey
- Dec 13 Balthazar Johannes Vorster, Prime Minister of South Africa (1966-77), born in Uitenhage, Eastern Cape, South Africa (d. 1983)
- Dec 13 Curd Jürgens [Curt Jurgens], German-born Austrian actor (Enemy Below, Longest Day), born in Solln, Munich, Bavaria, Germany (d. 1982)
- Dec 13 Ross MacDonald [Kenneth Millar], American-Canadian detective novelist (Goodbye Look), born in Los Gatos, California (d. 1983)
- Dec 13 Yitzhak Zuckerman [Itzhak Zuckerman], Jewish resistance hero in World War II and one of the few survivors of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, born in Vilnius, Lithuania (d. 1981)
- Dec 14 Clay Warnick, American choral director (Your Show Of Shows), born in Tacoma, Washington (d. 1995)
- Dec 14 Daniel "Dan" Dailey, American dancer and actor (You're My Everything, Governor & J.J.), born in New York City (d. 1978)
- Dec 14 Ruth Railton, British musical director (National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, 1948-65), born in Kent, England (d. 2001)
- Dec 15 Isabel Crook (née Brown), Canadian-British anthropologist, author (Prosperity's Predicament), and professor (Beijing Foreign Studies University. 1947-81), born in Chengdu, Sichuan, China (d. 2023) [1]
- Dec 15 José Toribio Merino, Chilean admiral (one of the principal leaders of the 1973 Chilean coup d'état), born in La Serena, Chile (d. 1996)
- Dec 16 Georgy Sviridov, Soviet Russian neo-romantic composer (The Blizzard; Time; Forward!), born in Fatezh, Kursk Governorate, Russian Empire (d. 1998)
- Dec 16 Melvin "Turk" Murphy, American Dixieland jazz trombonist, born in Palermo, California (d. 1987)
- Dec 17 André Claveau, French pop singer and actor (Dors, mon amour), born in Paris; (d. 2003)
- Dec 18 Dario Mangiarotti, Italian fencer (1 Olympic gold, 2 silver 1948, 52), born in Milan, Italy (d. 2010)
Edith Piaf (1915-1963)
Dec 19 French chanteuse (Little Sparrow, Le Vie En Rose), born in Paris, France
- Dec 20 Aziz Nesin, Turkish writer and humorist, born in Heybeliada, Ottoman Empire (d. 1995)
- Dec 21 Werner von Trapp, Austrian singer (Trapp Family Singers), born in Zell am See, Austria (d. 2007)
- Dec 22 Barbara Billingsley, American actress (Leave it to Beaver), born in Los Angeles, California (d. 2010)
- Dec 25 Nora Dunfee, American actress (Forrest Gump, Lorenzo's Oil), born in Belmont, Ohio (d. 1994)
- Dec 25 Pete Rugolo, American bandleader and arranger (Fugitive), born in San Piero Patti, Sicily (d. 2011)
- Dec 26 H. A. Gomperts, Dutch writer (Duck on Attic), born in Amsterdam, Netherlands (d. 1998)
- Dec 26 Una Mae Carlisle, American jazz pianist and singer ("Walkin' By The River"), born in Xenia, Ohio; (d. 1956)
- Dec 27 Gyula Zsengellér, Hungarian footballer (d. 1999)
- Dec 27 Mary Kornman, American actress (Desert Trail, Queen of the Jungle, Swing it Professor), born in Idaho Falls, Idaho (d. 1973)
- Dec 27 William Masters, American gynecologist who studied sexual dysfunction, born in Cleveland, Ohio (d. 2001)
- Dec 28 Roebuck "Pops" Staples, American gospel singer (The Staple Singers), born in Winona, Mississippi (d. 2000)
- Dec 29 Bill Osmanski, American College Football HOF fullback (Holy Cross; NFL C'ship 1940, 41, 43, 46; 3 × Pro Bowl; First-team All-Pro 1939; Chicago Bears), born in Providence, Rhode Island (d. 1996)
- Dec 29 Charles L. Harness, American sci-fi author (Paradox Men, Wolfhead), born in Colorado City, Texas (d. 2005)
- Dec 29 John Meefout, Dutch sculptor (Laying Woman) (d. 1993)
- Dec 29 Robert Ruark, American writer (Something of Value), born in Wilmington, North Carolina (d. 1965)
Famous Weddings
Benito Mussolini
Dec 17 Journalist Benito Mussolini marries Rachele Guidi in Treviglio Lombardy
Woodrow Wilson
Dec 18 28th US President Woodrow Wilson, widowed the year before marries second wife Edith Bolling Galt, a descendant of native American Pocahontas
Alexander Fleming
Dec 22 Biologist Alexander Fleming (34) weds Sara McElroy
Famous Deaths
- Dec 2 Jan Malát, Czech composer, pedagogue, and musicologist, dies at 72
- Dec 4 Gustav Hollaender, German violinist, conductor, and composer, dies at 60
- Dec 9 Willem Molkenboer, Dutch sculptor and art educator, dies at 71
- Dec 13 Francis Cockrell, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), dies at 81
- Dec 18 Henry Enfield Roscoe, English chemist (vanadium and photochemistry), dies at 82
- Dec 18 Louise Blanchard Bethune, 1st American female professional architect (Buffalo Meter Company Building), dies at 59
Alois Alzheimer (1864-1915)
Dec 19 German psychiatrist and neuropathologist (Alzheimer Disease), dies at 51
- Dec 23 Roland Leighton, English poet and soldier (featured in The Testament of Youth), dies on French battlefield during WWI at 20
- Dec 28 Gerrit Jan van Heek, Dutch textile manufacturer and politician, dies at 78
- Dec 29 C. B. Hawley, American organist and composer, dies at 57
- Dec 29 Tom Shevlin, American College Football Hall of Fame end (Yale - Consensus All-American 1902, 04, 05; National C'ship 1902, 05), dies of pneumonia at 32
