Historical Events
- Dec 1 AA Milne's comedy play "Mr Pim Passes By" premieres in Manchester
Nancy Astor
Dec 1 Lady Nancy Astor sworn-in as 1st female member of British Parliament
- Dec 10 NL votes to ban the spitball's use by all new pitchers
Wilson Nobel Peace Prize
Dec 10 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to US President Woodrow Wilson
Ban Johnson Controversy
Dec 10 NY, Boston, & Chicago, oppose AL resolution accusing Ban Johnson of overstepping his duties
- Dec 11 Boll weevil monument dedicated in Enterprise, Alabama
- Dec 13 Ross & Smith land in Australia from a flight from London
- Dec 15 Edna St Vincent Millay's play "Aria da Capo" premieres in NYC
- Dec 15 Fiume (Rijeka, modern Croatia) declares its Independence
- Dec 17 Austrian parliament approves 8-hour working day
- Dec 19 American Meteorological Society found
- Dec 20 Canadian National Railways established (N America's longest, 50,000 KM)
- Dec 20 US House of Representatives restricts immigration
US Deports Radical Aliens
Dec 21 J. Edgar Hoover persuades US to deport 250 alien radicals, including anarchist and feminist Emma Goldman and her husband to Russia
- Dec 23 1st hospital ship built to move wounded naval personnel launched
- Dec 23 Alice H Parker patents gas heating furnace
- Dec 27 Red Sox owner Harry Frazee announces they will deal any player except Harry Hooper, Hooper is sent to the White Sox after 1920 season
- Dec 30 Lincoln's Inn in London admits its first female bar student.
Famous Birthdays
- Dec 1 Anne Cox Chambers, American media owner (Cox Enterprises) and US ambassador to Belgium (1977-81), born in Dayton, Ohio (d. 2000)
- Dec 1 Ike Isaacs, Burmese-English jazz guitarist, born in Rangoon, Burma (d. 1996)
- Dec 1 Lurlean Hunter, American jazz singer, born in Clarksdale, Mississippi (d. 1983)
- Dec 3 Charles Craig, English operatic tenor, born in London (d. 1997)
- Dec 4 Frank Kovacs, American tennis player (US pro 1951; US National C'ship 1941 runner-up), born in Oakland, California (d. 1990)
- Dec 4 I. K. [Inder Kumar] Gujral, Indian politician, Prime Minister of India (1997-98), born in Jhelum, British India (d. 2012)
- Dec 5 Victor Collin Matthews, British businessman, born in Islington, London (d. 1995)
- Dec 6 Gideon Klein, Moravian pianist and composer, born in Přerov, Czechoslovakia (d. 1945)
- Dec 6 Jimmy Bivins [James], Hall of Fame heavyweight boxer, born in Cleveland, Ohio (d. 2012)
- Dec 6 Paul de Man, Belgian literary critic, born in Antwerp, Belgium (d. 1983)
- Dec 6 Willis Whitfield, American physicist and inventor of the clean room, born in Rosedale, Oklahoma (d. 2012) [1]
- Dec 7 Charles McGee, American US Air Force officer and fighter pilot of the Tuskegee Airmen (WWII, Korean War, Vietnam), born in Cleveland, Ohio (d. 2022)
- Dec 7 Ellen Stewart, American actress, director and founder of La Mama Theatre Group, born in the US (d. 2011)
- Dec 8 Hans-Dieter Hosalla, German composer, born in Erfurt, Germany (d. 1995)
- Dec 8 Mieczysław Weinberg [Moisey Samuilovich Vaynberg], Polish-Soviet composer, born in Warsaw, Poland (d. 1996)
- Dec 8 Peter Tali Coleman, Governor of American Samoa (1956-61, 78-85, 89-93), born in Pago Pago, American Samoa (d. 1997)
- Dec 9 William Lipscomb, American chemist working in nuclear magnetic resonance, theoretical chemistry, boron chemistry, and biochemistry (Nobel 1976), born in Cleveland, Ohio (d. 2011)
- Dec 10 Alexander Courage, American composer of original Star Trek theme, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (d. 2008)
- Dec 10 Sven-Eric Emanuel Johanson, Swedish composer, born in Västervik, Sweden (d. 1997)
- Dec 11 Cliff Michelmore, English television presenter and producer (Tonight; Day By Day), born in Cowes, Isle of Wight (d. 2016)
- Dec 11 Marie Windsor [Emily Marie Bertelson], American actress (The Bounty Hunter, Double Deal), born in Marysvale, Utah (d. 2000)
- Dec 12 Dan DeCarlo, American cartoonist (Archie Comics), born in New Rochelle, New York (d. 2001)
- Dec 12 Olivia Barclay, British astrologer (revival of traditional forms of astrology in the late 20th century), born in Essex, England (d. 2001)
- Dec 13 Hans-Joachim Marseille, German flying ace of World War II (d. 1942)
- Dec 14 Felix the Cat, anthropomorphic cartoon character created in the silent film era by Pat Sullivan and Otto Messmer
- Dec 16 Manke Nelis [Cornelis Pieters], Dutch folk-pop vocalist (Small Yodel Boy), and double bassist, born in Amsterdam, Netherlands (d. 1993)
- Dec 18 Barry Galbraith, American jazz and studio guitarist (Claude Thornhill, Coleman Hawkins, Gil Evans), and educator, born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (d. 1983)
- Dec 19 Benedict Freedman, novelist and mathematician (Mrs Mike), born in New York City (d. 2012)
Gert Fredriksson (1919-2006)
Dec 21 Swedish canoeist (6 Olympic gold 1948, 52, 56, 60), born in Nyköping, Sweden
- Dec 22 Lillian "Lil" Green, American blues singer and songwriter ("Romance In The Dark"), born in Mississippi (d. 1954) [some sources cite year of birth as 1901, and some 1910]
- Dec 23 Kenneth M. Taylor, American pilot (d. 2006)
- Dec 23 Peggy Fortnum, British Illustrator (first to draw Paddington Bear), born in London (d. 2016)
- Dec 25 Naushad Ali, Indian composer, and Hindi film music director, born in Lucknow, British India (d. 2006)
- Dec 25 Noele Gordon, British actress (Crossroads), born in East Ham, London (d. 1985)
- Dec 25 Paul David, French Canadian cardiologist, founder of the Montreal Heart Institute (d. 1999)
- Dec 27 (Mitchell) "Booty" Wood, American jazz trombonist (Lionel Hampton, Erskine Hawkins, Count Basie, Duke Ellington), born in Wedowee, Alabama (d. 1987)
- Dec 28 Inocente Carreño, Venezuelan composer (Margariteña), and pedagogue (Prudencio Esáa, 1970-90), born in Isla Margarita, Venezuela (d. 2016)
- Dec 29 Pieter Terpstra, Dutch journalist and writer (De dei is forroun/Havank-T), born in Leeuwarden, Netherlands (d. 2006)
- Dec 29 Roman Vlad, Romanian-born Italian composer, born in Cernauti, Romania (d. 2013)
- Dec 30 David Willcocks, conductor and composer (Kings College Choir), born in Newquay, Cornwall, (d. 2015)
- Dec 30 Dick Spooner, English cricket wicket-keeper (7 Tests; 12 dismissals), born in Thornaby-on-Tees, England (d. 1997)
- Dec 30 Jimmy Jones, American jazz pianist, arranger, and accompanist, born in Memphis, Tennessee (d. 1982)
- Dec 31 Artur Fischer, German inventor with more patents than Edison, born in Tumlingen, Baden-Württemberg (d. 2016)
- Dec 31 Recy Taylor, American sexual assault victim, born in Abbeville, Alabama (d. 2017)
- Dec 31 Tommy Byrne, American baseball pitcher (MLB All-Star 1950; World Series 1949, 56; NY Yankees), born in Baltimore, Maryland (d. 2007)
Famous Weddings
Cole Porter
Dec 19 American composer and songwriter Cole Porter (28) weds American socialite Linda Lee Thomas (36), until her death in 1954
Gloria Swanson
Dec 20 Actress Gloria Swanson (20) weds businessman Herbert K. Somborn (38)
Famous Deaths
- Dec 2 Henry Clay Frick, American industrialist (built world's largest coke & steel operation) and art collector (Frick Collection), dies at 69
Pierre Auguste Renoir (1841-1919)
Dec 3 French Impressionist painter and sculptor (Bal du moulin de la Galette, Luncheon of the Boating Party), dies at 78
- Dec 13 Amintore Galli, Italian composer, dies at 74
- Dec 13 Woldemar Voigt, German physicist (b. 1850)
- Dec 16 Luigi Illica, Italian poet and opera librettist (Giacomo Puccini's "La bohème", "Tosca", and "Madama Butterfly"; Umberto Giordano's "Andrea Chénier"), dies at 62
- Dec 18 Horatio Parker, American organist and composer, dies at 56
- Dec 18 John Alcock, English pilot (1st non-stop flight across Atlantic Ocean), dies in crash at 27
- Dec 24 Theophilus Van Kannel, American inventor of the revolving door, dies at 78 [1]
- Dec 27 Achilles Alferaki, Russian composer, dies at 73
- Dec 27 Theodoor de Meester, Dutch premier (1905-08), dies at 68
- Dec 28 Johannes Rydberg, Swedish physicist (Rydberg formula), dies at 65
- Dec 29 William Osler, Canadian physician and author (circulatory system), dies at 70
