Events Pre-1600 43 BC – Marcus Tullius Cicero is assassinated in Formia on orders of Marcus Antonius. 574 – Byzantine Emperor Justin II, suffering recurring seizures of insanity, adopts his general Tiberius and proclaims him as Caesar. 927 – The Sajid emir of Adharbayjan, Yusuf ibn Abi'l-Saj is defeated and captured by the Qarmatians near Kufa.
1601–1900 1703 – The Great Storm of 1703, the greatest windstorm ever recorded in the southern part of Great Britain, makes landfall. Winds gust up to 120 mph, and 9,000 people die. 1724 – Tumult of Thorn: Religious unrest is followed by the execution of nine Protestant citizens and the mayor of Thorn (Toruń) by Polish authorities. 1732 – The Royal Opera House opens at Covent Garden, London, England. 1776 – Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, arranges to enter the American military as a major general. 1787 – Delaware becomes the first state to ratify the United States Constitution. 1837 – The Battle of Montgomery's Tavern, the only battle of the Upper Canada Rebellion, takes place in Toronto, where the rebels are quickly defeated. 1842 – First concert of the New York Philharmonic, founded by Ureli Corelli Hill.
1901–present 1904 – Comparative fuel trials begin between warships and : Spiteful was the first warship powered solely by fuel oil, and the trials led to the obsolescence of coal in ships of the Royal Navy. 1917 – World War I: The United States declares war on Austria-Hungary. 1922 – The Parliament of Northern Ireland votes to remain a part of the United Kingdom and not unify with Southern Ireland. 1930 – W1XAV in Boston, Massachusetts telecasts video from the CBS radio orchestra program, The Fox Trappers. The telecast also includes the first television advertisement in the United States, for I.J. Fox Furriers, which also sponsored the radio show. 1932 – German-born Swiss physicist Albert Einstein is granted an American visa. 1936 – Australian cricketer Jack Fingleton becomes the first player to score centuries in four consecutive Test innings. 1941 – World War II: Attack on Pearl Harbor: The Imperial Japanese Navy carries out a surprise attack on the United States Pacific Fleet and its defending Army and Marine air forces at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. (For Japan's near-simultaneous attacks on Eastern Hemisphere targets, see December 8.) 1942 – World War II: British commandos conduct Operation Frankton, a raid on shipping in Bordeaux harbour. 1944 – An earthquake along the coast of Wakayama Prefecture in Japan causes a tsunami which kills 1,223 people. 1946 – A fire at the Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia kills 119 people, the deadliest hotel fire in U.S. history. 1949 – Chinese Civil War: The Government of the Republic of China moves from Nanjing to Taipei, Taiwan. 1962 – Prince Rainier III of Monaco revises the principality's constitution, devolving some of his power to advisory and legislative councils. 1963 – Instant replay makes its debut during the Army-Navy football game in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. 1965 – Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras I simultaneously revoke mutual excommunications that had been in place since 1054. 1971 – The Battle of Sylhet is fought between the Pakistani military and the Indian Army.Battle Of Sylhet. Defence India 1971 – Pakistan President Yahya Khan announces the formation of a coalition government with Nurul Amin as Prime Minister and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto as Deputy Prime Minister. 1972 – Apollo 17, the last Apollo Moon mission, is launched. The crew takes the photograph known as The Blue Marble as they leave the Earth. 1982 – In Texas, Charles Brooks Jr., becomes the first person to be executed by lethal injection in the United States. 1982 – The Senior Road Tower collapses in less than 17 seconds. Five workers on the tower are killed and three workers on a building nearby are injured. 1983 – An Iberia Airlines Boeing 727 collides with an Aviaco DC-9 in dense fog while the two airliners are taxiing down the runway at Madrid–Barajas Airport, killing 93 people. 1987 – Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 1771, a British Aerospace 146-200A, crashes near Paso Robles, California, killing all 43 on board, after a disgruntled passenger shoots his ex-boss traveling on the flight, then shoots both pilots and steers the plane into the ground. 1988 – The 6.8 Armenian earthquake shakes the northern part of the country with a maximum MSK intensity of X (Devastating), killing 25,000–50,000 and injuring 31,000–130,000. 1993 – Long Island Rail Road shooting: Passenger Colin Ferguson murders six people and injures 19 others on the LIRR in Nassau County, New York. 1995 – The Galileo spacecraft arrives at Jupiter, a little more than six years after it was launched by Space Shuttle Atlantis during Mission STS-34. 1995 – Khabarovsk United Air Group Flight 3949 crashes into the Bo-Dzhausa Mountain, killing 98. 1995 – An Air Saint Martin (now Air Caraïbes) Beechcraft 1900 crashes near the Haitian commune of Belle Anse, killing 20. 2003 – The Conservative Party of Canada is officially registered, following the merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. 2005 – Rigoberto Alpizar, a passenger on American Airlines Flight 924 who allegedly claimed to have a bomb, is shot and killed by a team of U.S. federal air marshals at Miami International Airport. 2014 – The annual furry convention Midwest FurFest is targeted in an unsolved chlorine gas attack. 2015 – The JAXA probe Akatsuki successfully enters orbit around Venus five years after the first attempt. 2016 – Pakistan International Airlines Flight 661, a domestic passenger flight from Chitral to Islamabad, operated by an ATR-42-500 crashes near Havelian, killing all 47 on board. 2017 – Aztec High School shooting: William Atchison kills two students at his former high school. 2024 – Battle of Damascus (2024): Syrian opposition forces enter the Rif Dimashq Governorate, reaching within 20 km of the capital Damascus. 2025 – British racing driver Lando Norris wins the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in 2025 with McLaren.CNN, Racing Formula One Lando Norris wins title. Retrieved 2025-12-07. https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/07/sport/racing-formula-one-lando-norris-wins-title 2025 – An attempted coup takes place in Benin, but is thwarted, and order restored.
Births Pre-1600 521 – Columba, Irish missionary, monk, and saint (died 597) 903 – Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi, Persian astronomer and author (died 986) 967 – Abū-Sa'īd Abul-Khayr, Persian Sufi poet (died 1049) 1302 – Azzone Visconti, Italian nobleman (died 1339) 1532 – Louis I, German nobleman and politician (died 1605) 1545 – Henry Stuart, English-Scottish husband of Mary, Queen of Scots (died 1567) 1561 – Kikkawa Hiroie, Japanese daimyō (died 1625) 1595 – Injo of Joseon, Korean king (died 1649) 1598 – Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Italian sculptor and painter (died 1680)
1601–1900 1643 – Giovanni Battista Falda, Italian architect and engraver (died 1678) 1637 – Bernardo Pasquini, Italian organist and composer (died 1710) 1756 – John Littlejohn, American sheriff and Methodist preacher (died 1836) 1764 – Claude-Victor Perrin, French general and politician (died 1841) 1784 – Allan Cunningham, Scottish author and poet (died 1842) 1791 – Ferenc Novák, Hungarian-Slovene priest and poet (died 1836) 1792 – Abraham Jacob van der Aa, Dutch author and academic (died 1857) 1801 – Johann Nestroy, Austrian actor and playwright (died 1862) 1810 – Josef Hyrtl, Hungarian-Austrian anatomist and biologist (died 1894) 1810 – Theodor Schwann, German physiologist and biologist (died 1882) 1823 – Leopold Kronecker, Polish-German mathematician and academic (died 1891) 1838 – Thomas Bent, Australian businessman and politician, 22nd Premier of Victoria (died 1909) 1860 – Joseph Cook, English-born Australian politician, 6th Prime Minister of Australia (died 1947) 1861 – Henri Mathias Berthelot, French general during World War I (died 1931) 1862 – Paul Adam, French author (died 1920) 1863 – Felix Calonder, Swiss soldier and politician, 36th President of the Swiss Confederation (died 1952) 1863 – Pietro Mascagni, Italian composer and conductor (died 1945) 1863 – Richard Warren Sears, American businessman, co-founded Sears (died 1914) 1869 – Frank Laver, Australian cricketer (died 1919) 1873 – Willa Cather, American novelist, short story writer, and poet (died 1947) 1878 – Akiko Yosano, Japanese author, poet, pioneering feminist, pacifist, and social reformer (died 1942) 1879 – Rudolf Friml, Czech-American pianist, composer, and academic (died 1972) 1884 – John Carpenter, American sprinter (died 1933) 1885 – Mason Phelps, American golfer (died 1945) 1885 – Peter Sturholdt, American boxer and painter (died 1919) 1887 – Ernst Toch, Austrian-American composer and songwriter (died 1964) 1888 – Joyce Cary, Irish novelist (died 1957) 1888 – Hamilton Fish III, American captain and politician (died 1991) 1892 – Stuart Davis, American painter and academic (died 1964) 1893 – Fay Bainter, American actress (died 1968) 1893 – Hermann Balck, German general (died 1982) 1894 – Freddie Adkins, English author and illustrator (died 1986) 1900 – Kateryna Vasylivna Bilokur, Ukrainian folk artist (died 1961)
1901–present 1902 – Hilda Taba, Estonian architect, author, and educator (died 1967) 1903 – Danilo Blanuša, Croatian mathematician, physicist, and academic (died 1987) 1904 – Clarence Nash, American voice actor and singer (died 1985) 1905 – Gerard Kuiper, Dutch-American astronomer and academic (died 1973) 1906 – Erika Fuchs, German translator (died 2005) 1907 – Fred Rose, Polish-Canadian politician and spy (died 1983) 1909 – Nikola Vaptsarov, Bulgarian poet and author (died 1942) 1910 – Duncan McNaughton, Canadian high jumper and geologist (died 1998) 1910 – Louis Prima, American singer-songwriter, trumpet player, and actor (died 1978) 1912 – Daniel Jones, Welsh captain and composer (died 1993) 1913 – Kersti Merilaas, Estonian author and poet (died 1986) 1915 – Leigh Brackett, American author and screenwriter (died 1978) 1915 – Eli Wallach, American actor (died 2014) 1920 – Tatamkhulu Afrika, South African poet and author (died 2002) 1920 – Fiorenzo Magni, Italian cyclist (died 2012) 1920 – Walter Nowotny, Austrian-German soldier and pilot (died 1944) 1921 – Pramukh Swami Maharaj, Indian guru and scholar (died 2016) 1923 – Intizar Hussain, Indian-Pakistani author and scholar (died 2016) 1924 – Bent Fabric, Danish pianist and composer (died 2020) 1924 – John Love, Zimbabwean race car driver (died 2005) 1924 – Mary Ellen Rudin, American mathematician (died 2013) 1924 – Mário Soares, Portuguese historian, lawyer, and politician, 17th President of Portugal (died 2017) 1925 – Hermano da Silva Ramos, French-Brazilian race car driver (died 2026) 1925 – Max Zaslofsky, American basketball player and coach (died 1985) 1926 – William John McNaughton, American bishop (died 2020) 1927 – Jack S. Blanton, American businessman and philanthropist (died 2013) 1927 – Helen Watts, Welsh opera singer (died 2009) 1928 – Mickey Thompson, American race car driver (died 1988) 1930 – Christopher Nicole, Guyanese-English author (died 2017) 1930 – Hal Smith, American baseball player (died 2020) 1931 – Allan B. Calhamer, American game designer, created Diplomacy (died 2013) 1932 – Oktay Ekşi, Turkish journalist and politician 1932 – Rosemary Rogers, American journalist and author (died 2019) 1932 – J. B. Sumarlin, Indonesian economist and politician, 17th Indonesian Minister of Finance (died 2020) 1932 – Bobby Whitton, Australian rugby league player (died 2008) 1933 – Krsto Papić, Croatian director and screenwriter (died 2013) 1935 – Armando Manzanero, Mexican musician, singer and composer (died 2020) 1936 – Martha Layne Collins, American politician, 56th Governor of Kentucky (died 2025) 1937 – Stan Boardman, English comedian 1937 – Thad Cochran, American lawyer and politician (died 2019)