/year

December 8 in history

208 sourced entries recorded on December 8, from 65 BCE to 2025 CE. Every line is quoted from the revision it came from.

Events

  • 395Later Yan is defeated by its former vassal Northern Wei at the Battle of Canhe Slope, during the Southern and Northern Dynasties period of China.source
  • 435On the Mayan calendar, the era of the 9th Baktun begins. There is a change in political alliances just preceding the event when royal personages from the Mexican highland city of Teotihuacan consolidate power individually as Mayan kings.source
  • 656Battle of the Camel: Rebel Arabs under Aisha (widow of Muhammad) begin a revolt against Ali. They are defeated at Basra, and Aisha is exiled to Medina. During the battle 10,000 people lose their lives, with each party bearing equal loss.source
  • 757Du Fu, Chinese poet, returns to Chang'an as a member of Emperor Xuan Zong's court, after having escaped the city during the An Lushan Rebellion.source
  • 877Louis the Stammerer is crowned by Hincmar as king (not emperor) of the West Frankish Kingdom, in the church of Compiègne. The imperial throne will remain vacant until 881.source
  • 1075Gregory VII writes a letter of reprimand to Henry IV. He accuses him of breaching his word and continued support of excommunicated councilors.source
  • 1174The Treaty of Falaise: Captured by the English, William I is forced to sign a peace agreement. The treaty makes Scotland a feudal possession of England, William and his nobles swear allegiance to Henry II. He must hand over several castles to Henry in return for his freedom.source
  • 1305At Tabriz, the Mongol Ikhanate Öljaitü receives the ambassador sent by Toqta, Khan of the Golden Horde that rules territory comprising much of what is now Russia.source
  • 1321Confronting the rebellion of Thomas of Lancaster (his cousin), the Baron Badlesmere and Roger Mortimer, King Edward II of England arrives in Cirencester, then leads troops up the Severn Valley from Gloucester against the rebels.source
  • 1322Pope John XXII issues the papal bull Ad conditorem canonum, permanently renouncing the doctrine that the Roman Catholic Church owns all of the properties of the Franciscan Order.source
  • 1432Lithuanian Civil War (1432–1438): The first battle between the forces of Švitrigaila and Sigismund Kęstutaitis is fought near the town of Oszmiana (Ashmyany), launching the most active phase of the civil war in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.source
  • 1438In Ming dynasty China, the Emperor Yingzong gives the order to his General, Mu Sheng, to go to war against the state of the Dai people (on the border with the Burmese Kingdom of Ava)and their ruler, King Möng Mao.source
  • 1487Bartolomeu Dias and his crew, sailing southward along the African coast in the caravels São Cristóvão and São Pantaleão arrive at what is now Namibia's Walvis Bay, which Dias calls O Golfo de Santa Maria da Conceição.source
  • 1493The first Roman Catholic Mass in the New World is celebrated, with Friar Juan Pérez of the Order of Friars Minor conducting the services at Point Concepcion on the island of Hispaniola.source
  • 1504(approximate date) Islamic scholar Ahmad ibn Abi Jum'ah issues the Oran fatwa for Muslims in Spain (1 Rajab 910 AH in Islamic calendar, Gregorian date is approximate).source
  • 1506Sigismund I the Old (Zygmunt Jagiellon), younger brother of the late Alexander Jagiellon, becomes the King of Poland and (as Zygimantas II) the Grand Duke of Lithuania. He will reign for more than 40 years, dying in 1548 at the age of 81.source
  • 1524Francisco Hernandez de Cordoba founds the city of Granada, Nicaragua, the oldest Hispanic city in the mainland America.source
  • 1525A second edict is issued in Spain directing Spanish Muslims to show proof of baptism as Christians or to leave by the deadline of December 31 (for Valencia) or January 26 (for Aragon and Catalonia).source
  • 1593Henri I de Montmorency, one of the 'Malcontents', becomes Grand Constable of France.source
  • 1593Royal letters patent for the creation of the Jardin des plantes de Montpellier conferred on Pierre Richer de Belleval.source
  • 1595A group of 80 people from the sunken ship San Agustin, are able to leave California on the launch which they had brought along, which they name the San Buenaventura. The group sails past San Francisco Bay and arrives at Chacala in Mexico on January 17.source
  • 1596In Japan, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Chancellor of the Realm, orders the arrest of the 26 Roman Catholic Christians who had the misfortune of being shipwrecked in Kyoto on October 19; each of the ones arrested has a part of the left ear cut off, then sent on a forced march to Nagasaki on January 4, then has them killed on February 5.source
  • 1609One of the first public libraries, the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, is opened in the Italian city of Milan, founded by Cardinal Federico Borromeo. Unlike other reading rooms, the library houses its collection on shelves along the walls, rather than chained to reading tables.source
  • 1614Jens Bjelke became Chancellor of Norway.source
  • 1634Francesco Niccolini obtains an audience with Pope Urban VIII and pleads him to reconsider the Church's punishment of astronomer Galileo Galilei. The Pope replies that although he esteems Galileo highly, nothing will change.source
  • 1644December 8 (December 18 New Style) – As Christina comes of age, she is made ruling queen of Sweden.source
  • 1660Ove Bjelke became Chancellor of Norway.source
  • 1660The first English actress appears on the professional stage in England in a non-singing role, as Desdemona in Othello at Vere Street Theatre in London, following the reopening of the theatres (various opinions have been advanced that the actress was Margaret Hughes, Anne Marshall or Katherine Corey). Historian Elizabeth Howe notes, however, that both William Davenant and Thomas Killigrew had women in their acting companies before 1660, and that Anne Marshall might be just one of the first rather than the actual first.source
  • 1660first English actress to appear on the professional stage in a non-singing role, as Desdemona in Othello; variously considered to be Margaret Hughes, Anne Marshall or Katherine Corey.source
  • 1669The Sultanate of Bima, located on the now-Indonesian island of Sumbawa and ruled by Abu'l-Khair Sirajuddin, surrenders its authority to the Dutch East Indies Company, the VOC.source
  • 1697Tsangyang Gyatso is installed in Tibet as the 6th Dalai Lama in a ceremony at Lhasa, filling a vacancy that had existed since 1682.source
  • 1698King William III of England issues a proclamation of "our most gracious pardon unto all such pirates in the East Indies, viz., all eastward of the Cape of Good Hope, who shall surrender themselves for piracies or robberies committed by them upon sea or land" before April 30, 1699, to Captain Thomas Warren, but specifically "excepting Henry Every, alias Bridgman, and William Kidd.source
  • 1700The formal coronation of Pope Clement XI takes place in Rome.source
  • 1703December 7–10 (November 26–29 O.S.) – The Great Storm of 1703, an extratropical cyclone, ravages southern England and the English Channel, killing at least 8,000, mostly at sea. The Eddystone Lighthouse off Plymouth is destroyed in the storm together with its designer Henry Winstanley and many buildings on land are damaged.source
  • 1710War of the Spanish Succession – Battle of Brihuega: An outnumbered British force under James Stanhope is forced to surrender.source
  • 1711The Immaculate Conception Cathedral, Comayagua in Honduras, one of the oldest cathedrals in Central America, is inaugurated.source
  • 1720Fath-Ali Khan Daghestani is deposed from his position as Grand Vizier of Iran (at this time, part of the Safavid Empire) and tortured by Mohammadqoli Khan, the bodyguard of the Safavid Shah, Sultan Husayn.source
  • 1727For the first time since the union of England and Scotland into Great Britain, the Royal Bank of Scotland, which still retains the right to print currency, issues its first pound note, printing paper currency for twenty shillings. The Scottish pound note continues to be printed until 2001 and the smallest denomination now is a five pound note.source
  • 1748Røn Church is completed.source
  • 1757the Rotunda Hospital opens in Dublin.source
  • 1772The Sahlgrenska University Hospital is founded.source
  • 1787La Purisima Mission is founded by Padre Fermín Lasuén as the eleventh of the Spanish missions in California.source
  • 1787Mission La Purisima Concepcion is founded by Father Fermín Francisco de Lasuén, becoming the 11th mission in the California mission chain.source
  • 1793French Revolution: Madame du Barry is guillotined.source
  • 1794The Great New Orleans Fire (1794) burns over 200 buildings in the French Quarter.source
  • 1807December 5–11 – Napoleonic Wars: Raid on Griessie – A British Royal Navy squadron attacks the Dutch port of Griessie on Java in the Dutch East Indies, eliminating the last Dutch naval force in the Pacific and concluding the Java campaign of 1806–1807.source
  • 1812The M6.9–7.5 San Juan Capistrano earthquake affects Alta California with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VII (Very strong) to IX (Violent), killing 40 parishioners at Mission San Juan Capistrano.source
  • 1813Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 7, together with his Wellington's Victory, are premiered in Vienna under the composer's baton, in a benefit concert for Austrian and Bavarian soldiers wounded at the Battle of Hanau.source
  • 18328 January 1833 — In the 1832 United Kingdom general election, the first following the Reform Act 1832, John Josiah Guest becomes the first MP for the new constituency of Merthyr Boroughs.source
  • 1840David Livingstone leaves for Africa.source
  • 1841The month-old Albert Edward, eldest son of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, is created Prince of Wales by letters patent.source
  • 1852Laval's Seminaire du Quebec founds Université Laval, North America's oldest French Language university.source
  • 1858The construction of St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne begins.source
  • 1858Rensselaer, Indiana is incorporated.source
  • 1863The Church of the Company Fire in Santiago, Chile, kills between 2,000 and 3,000 people.source
  • 1863Church of the Company Firesource
  • 1864Syllabus errorum: Pope Pius IX condemns theological liberalism as an error, and claims the supremacy of Roman Catholic Church authority over civil society. He also condemns rationalism and socialism.source
  • 1864The Clifton Suspension Bridge across the River Avon (Bristol) in England, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel and completed as a memorial to him, opens to traffic.source
  • 1864James Clerk Maxwell presents his paper, A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field, to the Royal Society in London, treating light as an electromagnetic wave.source
  • 1867Victor-Auguste-Isidor Deschamps named Archbishop of Mechelen in succession to the recently deceased Engelbert Sterckx (enthroned 28 January 1868).source
  • 1869The First Vatican Council opens in Rome.source
  • 1877Telegraph line between Western Australia and South Australia completed, linking Western Australia to the east coast by telegraphy for the first time, via Adelaide.source
  • 1881At least 380 die in a fire at the Vienna Ringtheater.source
  • 1892The various congregations of Trappists leave the Cistercian Order entirely and merge to form a new order with the approval of Pope Leo XIII named the 'Order of Reformed Cistercians of Our Lady of La Trappe', formalising their identity and spirituality as a separate monastic community.source
  • 1905December 7–18 – Moscow Uprising: A Bolshevik-led revolt is suppressed by the army.source
  • 1911Establishment of S.C. Salgueirossource
  • 1914World War I: Battle of the Falkland Islands: A superior British Royal Navy squadron under Doveton Sturdee defeats ships of the Imperial German Navy under Maximilian von Spee (who goes down with his ship).source
  • 1915December 4–18 – The 'Peace Ship' Oscar II chartered by industrialist Henry Ford sails from Hoboken, New Jersey to Oslo on an independent and eventually unsuccessful mission to broker a peace conference.source
  • 1915Jean Sibelius conducts the world première of his Symphony No. 5 in Helsinki at a 50th birthday concert for him.source
  • 1924Carl Anton Larsen, mariner and Antarctic explorer (born 1860)source
  • 1931Carl Friedrich Goerdeler is appointed Reich Price Commissioner, in Germany to enforce the deflationary policies of the Brüning government.source
  • 1931Carl Friedrich Goerdeler is appointed Reich Price Commissioner to enforce the deflationary policies of the Brüning government.source
  • 1932Gregor Strasser resigns as the chief of the NSDAP's organizational department in protest against Hitler's "all or nothing" strategy.source
  • 1940The Chicago Bears, in what will become the most one-sided victory in National Football League history, defeat the Washington Redskins 73–0 in the 1940 NFL Championship Game.source
  • 1941El Salvador declared war on the Axis powers in World War II following the Bombing of Pearl Harbor and joined the Allied Powers.source
  • 1941Start of the Japanese Invasion of the Philippines.source
  • 1941WWII: President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt delivers his "Infamy Speech" to a Joint session of the United States Congress at 12:30 p.m. EST (17.30 GMT). Transmitted live over all four major national networks, it attracts the largest audience ever for an American radio broadcast, over 81% of homes. Within an hour, Congress agrees to the President's request for a United States declaration of war upon Japan, and he signs it at 4:10 p.m.source
  • 1941The Holocaust: The Nazi German Chełmno extermination camp opens in occupied Poland, near the village of Chełmno nad Nerem (Kulmhof) and the first mass gassing of Jews begins here when the SS use gas vans to murder people from the Łódź Ghetto. Between December 1941–April 1943 and June 1944–January 1945, at least 153,000 Jews will be killed in the camp.source
  • 1941WWII: The German advance on Moscow (Operation Typhoon) is suspended for the winter.source
  • 1948Costa Rican Constitutional Assembly election, 1948source
  • 1948Benny Morris, Israeli historian and professor.source
  • 1953U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivers his Atoms for Peace address, to the United Nations General Assembly.source
  • 1959The life-boat Mona, based at Broughty Ferry in Scotland, capsizes during a rescue attempt with the loss of 8 lives.source
  • 1960For the first time, Mary Martin's Peter Pan is presented as a stand-alone 2-hour special on NBC television in the United States, instead of as part of an anthology series. This version, rather than being presented live, is shown on videotape, enabling NBC to repeat it as often as they wish without having to restage it. Although nearly all of the adult actors repeat their original Broadway roles, all of the original children have, ironically, outgrown their roles and are replaced by new actors.source
  • 1962The North Kalimantan National Army revolts in Brunei, in the first stirrings of the Indonesian Confrontation.source
  • 1962The first period of the Second Vatican Council closes.source
  • 1962The 1962–63 New York City newspaper strike begins, affecting all of the city's major newspapers; it will last for 114 days.source
  • 1963A lightning strike causes the crash of Pan Am Flight 214 near Elkton, Maryland, United States, killing 81 people.source
  • 1965Rhodesian prime minister Ian Smith warns that Rhodesia will resist a trade embargo by neighboring countries with force.source
  • 1965The Race Relations Act becomes the first legislation to address racial discrimination in the UK.source
  • 1966The Typaldos Line's ferry SS Heraklion sinks in rough seas in the Aegean Sea near Crete, leaving 217 dead.source
  • 1967Magical Mystery Tour is released by The Beatles as a double EP in the UK, while the only psychedelic rock album by The Rolling Stones, Their Satanic Majesties Request, is released in the UK and in the US.source
  • 1971U.S. President Richard Nixon orders the 7th Fleet to move towards the Bay of Bengal in the Indian Ocean.source
  • 1972International Human Rights Day is proclaimed by the United Nations.source
  • 1972United Airlines Flight 553 crashes short of a runway in Chicago, killing 43 of 61 passengers and two people on the ground. A day later, over $10,000 cash is found in the purse of Watergate conspirator Howard Hunt's wife, who was on board.source
  • 19741974 Greek republic referendum: Greeks vote in a 2 to 1 margin to reject the monarchy, solidifying the country's republican form of government.source
  • 1974Republic referendum held, resulting in establishing a constitutional republic.source
  • 1976The Congressional Hispanic Caucus is established by the five Latinos in the United States Congress: Herman Badillo of the Bronx, E. de la Garza and Henry B. Gonzalez of Texas, Edward R. Roybal of California, and the nonvoting Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico, Baltasar Corrada del Río.source
  • 1980Murder of John Lennon: Mark David Chapman is arrested following the murder of English musician John Lennon, formerly of the Beatles, outside his New York City apartment building, The Dakota.source
  • 1980John Lennon is shot and killed by Mark David Chapman in front of The Dakota apartment building in New York City.source
  • 1981Arthur Scargill becomes President-elect of the National Union of Mineworkers (Great Britain).source
  • 1981The No. 21 Mine explosion in Whitwell, Tennessee, kills 13.source
  • 1982The December murders occur in Suriname.source
  • 1985The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is established.source
  • 1985Democratic Rally won 19 of the 56 seats in the parliament following parliamentary elections. Voter turnout was 94.6%.source
  • 1987The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty is signed in Washington, D.C. by U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. It expired in 2019.source
  • 1987Israeli–Palestinian conflict: The First Intifada begins in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.source
  • 1987Alianza Lima air disaster: A Peruvian Navy Fokker F27 crashes near Ventanilla, Peru, killing 43.source
  • 1987Israeli truck driver collides with two taxis carrying workers returning from work in Israel. Four Palestinian from the refugee camp Jabalia in the Gaza Strip are killed in the incident. A rumor which spread among Palestinians that the crash was deliberate and made in retaliation for the murder of an Israeli businessman in Gaza City two days earlier, sparks the First Intifada the next day.source
  • 1987Israeli truck driver collides with two taxis carrying workers returning from work in Israel. Four Palestinians from the refugee camp Jabalia in the Gaza Strip are killed in the incident. A rumor which spread among Palestinians that the crash was deliberate and made in retaliation for the murder of an Israeli businessman in Gaza City two days earlier, sparked the First Intifada the next day.source
  • 1991Dissolution of the Soviet Union: In the Białowieża Forest Nature Reserve in Belarus, the leaders of Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine sign an agreement officially ending the Soviet Union and establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in its place.source
  • 1991In the Białowieża Forest Nature Reserve in Belarus, the leaders of Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine sign an agreement officially ending the Soviet Union and establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in its place.source
  • 1993U.S. President Bill Clinton signs into law the North American Free Trade Agreement.source
  • 1995Five-year-old Gyaincain Norbu is enthroned as the 11th reincarnation of the Panchen Lama at Tashilhunpo Monastery.source
  • 1997ST Engineering was created from a merger of four companies, namely ST Aerospace, ST Electronics, ST Kinetics and ST Marine. The merger was announced earlier on 28 August.source
  • 2001An ebola outbreak is confirmed in Gabon.source
  • 2003December 5–13 – 2003 SEA Games was held. This was the first time Vietnam staged the SEA Games.source
  • 2009A series of attacks in Baghdad, Iraq kill at least 127 people and injure at least 448 more.source
  • 2009December 7–18 – The UNFCCC's 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference is held in Copenhagen, Denmark.source
  • 2010Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf warns former rebel fighters not to get involved in the crisis in Côte d'Ivoire.source
  • 2010November 29–December 10 – The 2010 United Nations Climate Change Conference is held in Cancún, Mexico. Formally referred to as the 16th session of the Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 16), it serves too as the 6th meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP 6).source
  • 2012The UN Climate Change Conference in Qatar agrees to extend the Kyoto Protocol until 2020.source
  • 2012November 25–December 9 – Typhoon Bopha, known as "Pablo" in the Philippines, kills at least 1,067 with around 838 people missing. The typhoon causes considerable damage in the island of Mindanao.source
  • 2012December 6–16 – The 2012 FIFA Club World Cup is held in Japan and won by Sport Club Corinthians Paulista.source
  • 2018December 1–8 – France experiences its worst civil unrest since the protests of 1968 due to the yellow vests movement. Protests in Paris morph into riots, with hundreds of people injured and thousands arrested; over 100 cars are burned, the Arc de Triomphe is vandalized and numerous other tourist sites are closed, both in the capital and elsewhere in the country.source
  • 2019December 2–13 – The 2019 United Nations Climate Change Conference takes place in Madrid, Spain, after Chilean President Sebastián Piñera announced in October that his country could not host the conference due to political unrest in the country.source
  • 2019A fire at a factory in Delhi, India, kills 43 people and injures at least 50 others.source
  • 2024Syrian civil war: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad flees from Damascus to Moscow after being overthrown, ending his presidency and the Ba'athist Syria regime after a total of 61 years. The Syrian opposition forms the Syrian transitional government as a provisional government.source
  • 20242024 Syrian opposition offensives: The city of Homs and the capital Damascus fall to rebel forces, marking the end of the regime of president Bashar al-Assad, who flees the country and receives asylum in Russia.source
  • 2025A Mw 7.6 earthquake occurs in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Aomori Prefecture in Japan, triggering a tsunami up to 70 cm high.source

Births

  • 65 BCEHorace, Roman poet (died 8 BC)source
  • 1021Wang Anshi, Chinese chancellor (died 1086)source
  • 1412Astorre II Manfredi, Italian noble (died 1468)source
  • 1418Queen Jeonghui, Queen consort of Korea (died 1483)source
  • 1424Anselm Adornes, Merchant, politician and diplomat (died 1483)source
  • 1499Sebald Heyden, German musicologist and theologian (died 1561)source
  • 1506Veit Dietrich, German theologian, writer and reformer (died 1549)source
  • 1508Gemma Frisius, Dutch mathematician and cartographer (died 1555)source
  • 1542Mary, Queen of Scots (died 1587)source
  • 1542Mary I of Scotland , Queen consort of France and wife of Francis II. (d.1587)source
  • 15428 December 1542 - Mary, Queen of Scots at Linlithgow Palacesource
  • 1558François de La Rochefoucauld, French Catholic cardinal (died 1645)source
  • 1558François de La Rochefoucauld, Cardinal (died 1645)source
  • 1608Vendela Skytte, poet and scholar (died 1629)source
  • 1613Frederik Thuresen, businessman (died 1675)source
  • 1626Queen Christina of Sweden (died 1689)source
  • 1642Nicolas Roland, French priest and founder (died 1678)source
  • 1678Horatio Walpole, 1st Baron Walpole, English diplomat (died 1757)source
  • 1708Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, Welsh diplomat, writer and satirist (died 1759)source
  • 1708Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor (died 1765)source
  • 1708Charles Hanbury Williams, diplomat and satirist (died 1759)source
  • 1730Jan Ingenhousz, physiologist, biologist and chemistsource
  • 1731František Xaver Dušek, Czech composer (died 1799)source
  • 1749Peder Anker, businessman and politician (died 1824)source
  • 1765Eli Whitney, American inventor (died 1825)source
  • 1790Richard Carlile, English social reformer, press advocate (died 1843)source
  • 1861Georges Méliès, French film director (died 1938)source
  • 1862Georges Feydeau, French playwright (died 1921)source
  • 1864Camille Claudel, French sculptor (died 1943)source
  • 1865Jean Sibelius, Finnish composer (died 1957)source
  • 1919Mieczysław Weinberg, Polish composer (died 1996)source
  • 1935Dharmendra, Indian film actor, producer and politician (died 2025)source
  • 1943Jim Morrison, American rock musician (The Doors) (died 1971)source
  • 1966Sinéad O'Connor, Irish singer (died 2023)source
  • 1986Amir Khan, British boxersource

Deaths

  • 592Emperor Sushun of Japan is murdered after 5 years on the throne by agents of his rival Umako Soga, who is jealous of the emperor's power. He is succeeded by Suiko, widow of the late emperor Bidatsu.source
  • 855Drogo of Metz, illegitimate son of Charlemagne (born 801)source
  • 899Arnulf of Carinthia, king of the East Frankish Kingdomsource
  • 899Arnulf of Carinthia dies from paralysis following a stroke and is entombed in St. Emmeram's Abbey at Regensburg (Bavaria). He is succeeded by his 6-year-old son Louis III (the Child) as ruler of the East Frankish Kingdom. Arnulf's counselor Hatto I, archbishop of Mainz, becomes regent and guardian of the young king. Louis (possibly at the instigation of Hatto) claims Lotharingia from his half-brother Zwentibold and with the support of the East Frankish nobles he provokes a civil war. The Lombard throne is left temporarily vacant.source
  • 964Zhou (the Elder), Chinese queen consortsource
  • 1034Æthelric (or Brihtmær), English bishopsource
  • 1186Berthold IV, Duke of Zähringen (b.c 1125)source
  • 1211Adelaide of Poland, Polish princesssource
  • 1214Sasaki Takatsuna, Japanese samurai (born 1160)source
  • 1228Geoffrey de Burgh, bishop of Ely (born 1180)source
  • 1292John Peckham, English archbishop and writer (born 1230)source
  • 1365Nicholas II, Duke of Opava (born 1288)source
  • 1431Hedwig Jagiellon, Polish and Lithuanian princess (born 1408)source
  • 1504Lê Túc Tông dies after a reign of only six months as Emperor of Vietnam.source
  • 1550Gian Giorgio Trissino, Italian humanist, poet, dramatist and diplomat (born 1478)source
  • 1626John Davies, English poet and politician (born 1569)source
  • 1638Ivan Gundulić, Croatian poet (born 1589)source
  • 1643John Pym, English statesman (born 1583)source
  • 1658Johan Printzensköld, army officer (born 1615)source
  • 1673Pedro Nuño Colón de Portugal dies only five days after arriving in Mexico City to take office as the new viceroy of New Spain. He is replaced on December 13 by Payo Enríquez de Rivera, the former Roman Catholic Archbishop of Mexico.source
  • 1681Gerard ter Borch, Dutch painter (born 1617)source
  • 1691Richard Baxter, English Puritan church leader, poet, and hymn-writer (born 1615)source
  • 1696Charles Porter, Irish politician (born 1631)source
  • 1696Charles Porter, English-born judge (born 1631)source
  • 1702Philippe, Chevalier de Lorraine, French nobleman and member of the House of Guise (born 1643)source
  • 1722Elizabeth Charlotte, Princess Palatine, wife to Philippe I, Duke of Orléans (born 1652)source
  • 1734James Figg, English prizefightersource
  • 1741Vitus Bering, Danish-born explorer; died on Bering Island after his ship was wrecked. Modern research suggests he died of heart failure rather than scurvy.source
  • 1744Marie Anne de Mailly-Nesle, French mistress of King Louis XV (born 1717)source
  • 1745Étienne Fourmont, French orientalist (born 1683)source
  • 1746Charles Radclyffe, British politician and rebel, by beheading after being convicted of treason against the Crown (born 1693)source
  • 1756William Stanhope, 1st Earl of Harrington, English statesman, diplomat (born c. 1690)source
  • 1815Mary Bosanquet Fletcher, English Methodist preacher and philanthropist (born 1739)source
  • 1830Benjamin Constant, Swiss writer (born 1767)source
  • 1859Thomas de Quincey, English writer (born 1785)source
  • 1864George Boole, English mathematician, philosopher (born 1815)source
  • 1903Herbert Spencer, English philosopher (born 1820)source
  • 1907King Oscar II of Sweden (born 1829)source
  • 1910Paškal Buconjić, Herzegovinian Catholic bishop (born 1834)source
  • 1922Joe McKelvey, Irish Republican Army officer executed during the Irish Civil War.source
  • 1963Field Marshal Sarit Thanarat, Thai Prime Ministersource
  • 1980John Lennon, 40, English musician (The Beatles, Plastic Ono Band), songwriter ("Imagine", "Give Peace a Chance") and activist, shot.source
  • 2016John Glenn, 95, American astronaut (Mercury-Atlas 6) and politician, U.S. Senator from Ohio (1974–1999).source