December 1Birthdays & History

On this day: December 1 in history

Oldest first. Tap a year to see it on the World Chronicle timeline.

1. 800A council is convened in the Vatican, at which Charlemagne is to judge the accusations against Pope Leo III.Europe
2. 1420Henry V of England enters Paris alongside his father-in-law King Charles VI of France.Europe
3. 1577English Courtiers Christopher Hatton and Thomas Heneage are knighted by Queen Elizabeth I.Europe
4. 1640End of the Iberian Union: Portugal acclaims as King João IV of Portugal, ending 59 years of personal union of the crowns of Portugal and Spain and the end of the rule of the Philippine Dynasty.EuropeAsia
5. 1662Diarist John Evelyn records skating on the frozen lake in St James's Park, London, watched by Charles II and Queen Catherine.Europe
6. 1768The slave ship Fredensborg sinks off Tromøya in Norway.Europe
7. 1821José Núñez de Cáceres wins the independence of the Dominican Republic from Spain and names the new territory the Republic of Spanish Haiti.Latin AmericaEurope
8. 1822Pedro I is crowned Emperor of Brazil.Latin America
9. 1824United States presidential election: Since no candidate received a majority of the total electoral college votes in the election, the United States House of Representatives is given the task of deciding the winner in accordance with the Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution.North America
10. 1828Argentine general Juan Lavalle makes a coup against governor Manuel Dorrego, beginning the Decembrist revolution.Latin America
11. 1834Slavery is abolished in the Cape Colony in accordance with the Slavery Abolition Act 1833.Africa
12. 1862American Civil War: In his second State of the Union Address, President Abraham Lincoln reaffirms the necessity of ending slavery as ordered ten weeks earlier in the Emancipation Proclamation.North America
13. 1865Shaw University, the first historically black university in the southern United States, is founded in Raleigh, North Carolina.North America
14. 1878President Rutherford B. Hayes gets the first telephone installed in the White House.North America
15. 1900Nicaragua sells canal rights to U.S. for $5 million. The canal agreement fails in March 1901. Great Britain rejects the amended treaty.Latin AmericaNorth AmericaEurope
16. 1913Crete, having obtained self rule from Turkey after the First Balkan War, is annexed by Greece.Middle EastEurope
17. 1913The Buenos Aires Metro, the first underground railway system in the Southern Hemisphere and in Latin America, begins operation.Latin AmericaNorth America
18. 1916An armed confrontation in Athens between the Kingdom of Greece and the Allied Powers, arising from a dispute over Greece's neutrality in World War I, followed by reprisals and riots against Greek supporters of the Allies marking the height of the National Schism.Europe
19. 1918Transylvania unites with Romania, following the incorporation of Bessarabia (March 27) and Bukovina (November 28) and thus concluding the Great Union.Europe
20. 1918The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later known as the Kingdom of Yugoslavia) is proclaimed.Europe
21. 1918Iceland becomes a sovereign state, yet remains a part of the Danish kingdom.Europe
22. 1919Lady Astor becomes the first female Member of Parliament (MP) to take her seat in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. (She had been elected to that position on November 28.)Europe
23. 1924The National Hockey League's first United States–based franchise, the Boston Bruins, plays their first game in league play at home, at the still-extant Boston Arena indoor hockey facility.North America
24. 1924A Soviet-backed communist 1924 Estonian coup d'état attempt fails in Estonia.Europe
25. 1934Sergei Kirov is assassinated, paving way for the repressive Great Purge, and Vinnytsia massacre by General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin.Europe
26. 1939The Soviet Union establishes the Finnish Democratic Republic puppet state in Terijoki.Europe
27. 1939World War II: A day after the beginning of the Winter War in Finland, the Cajander III Cabinet resigns and is replaced by the Ryti I Cabinet, while the Finnish Parliament move from Helsinki to Kauhajoki to escape the Soviet airstrikes.Europe
28. 1941World War II: Emperor Hirohito of Japan gives his tacit approval to the decision of the imperial council to initiate war against the United States.AsiaNorth America
29. 1941World War II: Fiorello La Guardia, Mayor of New York City and Director of the Office of Civilian Defense, signs Administrative Order 9, creating the Civil Air Patrol.North America
30. 1952The New York Daily News reports the news of Christine Jorgensen, the first notable case of sex reassignment surgery.North America
31. 1955American Civil Rights Movement: In Montgomery, Alabama, seamstress Rosa Parks refuses to give up her bus seat to a white man and is arrested for violating the city's racial segregation laws, an incident which leads to that city's bus boycott.North America
32. 1958The Central African Republic attains self-rule within the French Union.AfricaEurope
33. 1958The Our Lady of the Angels School fire in Chicago kills 92 children and three nuns.North America
34. 1959Cold War: Opening date for signature of the Antarctic Treaty, which sets aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve and bans military activity on the continent.World
35. 1960Patrice Lumumba is arrested by Mobutu Sese Seko's men on the banks of the Sankuru River, for inciting the army to rebellion.Africa
36. 1963Nagaland, became the 16th state of India.Asia
37. 1964Vietnam War: U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson and his top-ranking advisers meet to discuss plans to bomb North Vietnam.AsiaNorth America
38. 1969Vietnam War: The first draft lottery in the United States is held since World War II.AsiaNorth America
39. 1971Purge of Croatian Spring leaders starts in Yugoslavia at the meeting of the League of Communists at the Karađorđevo estate.Europe
40. 1971Cambodian Civil War: Khmer Rouge rebels intensify assaults on Cambodian government positions, forcing their retreat from Kompong Thmar and nearby Ba Ray.Asia
41. 1973Papua New Guinea gains self-government from Australia.Oceania
42. 1974TWA Flight 514, a Boeing 727, crashes northwest of Dulles International Airport, killing all 92 people on board.North America
43. 1974Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 6231, another Boeing 727, crashes northwest of John F. Kennedy International Airport.North America
44. 1981Inex-Adria Aviopromet Flight 1308, a McDonnell Douglas MD-80, crashes in Corsica, killing all 180 people on board.Europe
45. 1984NASA conducts the Controlled Impact Demonstration, wherein an airliner is deliberately crashed in order to test technologies and gather data to help improve survivability of crashes.North America
46. 1988Benazir Bhutto, is named as the Prime Minister of Pakistan, becoming the first female leader to lead a Muslim nation.Asia
47. 1988World AIDS Day is proclaimed worldwide by the UN member states.World
48. 1989Cold War: East Germany's parliament abolishes the constitutional provision granting the Communist Party the leading role in the state.Europe
49. 1989Philippine coup attempt: The right-wing military rebel Reform the Armed Forces Movement attempts to oust Philippine President Corazon Aquino in a failed bloody coup d'état.Asia
50. 1990Channel Tunnel sections started from the United Kingdom and France meet beneath the seabed.Europe
51. 1991Cold War: Ukrainian voters overwhelmingly approve a referendum for independence from the Soviet Union.Europe
52. 1997In the Indian state of Bihar, Ranvir Sena attacks the CPI (ML) Party Unity stronghold Lakshmanpur-Bathe, killing 63 lower caste people.Asia
53. 1997Fourteen-year-old Michael Carneal opens fire at a group of students in Heath High School in West Paducah, Kentucky, killing three and injuring five.North America
54. 2000Vicente Fox Quesada is inaugurated as the president of Mexico, marking the first peaceful transfer of executive federal power to an opposing political party following a free and democratic election in Mexico's history.Latin America
55. 2001The United Russia political party was founded.Europe
56. 2005As a result of the merger of the Perm Oblast and the Komi-Permyak Autonomous Okrug, a new subject of the Russian Federation, the Perm Krai, was created.Europe
57. 2006The law on same-sex marriage comes into force in South Africa, legalizing same-sex marriage for the first time on the African continent.Africa
58. 2009The Treaty of Lisbon entered into force in the European Union.Europe
59. 2011The Alma-Ata Metro was opened.Asia
60. 2018The Oulu Police informed the public about the first offence of the much larger child sexual exploitation in Oulu, Finland.Europe
61. 2019The outbreak of coronavirus infection begins in Wuhan.Asia
62. 2019Arsenal Women 11–1 Bristol City Women breaks the record for most goals scored in a FA Women's Super League match, with Vivianne Miedema involved in ten of the eleven Arsenal goals.Europe
63. 2020The Arecibo Telescope collapses.Latin America

Source: Wikipedia "December 1" / CC BY-SA 4.0