1st December — World AIDS Day
Welcome to 1st December! It's World AIDS Day. Explore 62 historical events, birthdays, deaths, and milestones that shaped this day. From remarkable moments in local and world history to the people who left their mark — find out what makes today special. Tonight's moon is in its waning crescent phase, and the zodiac sign of the day is Sagittarius. If you're curious about the history of a day — this page brings together everything worth knowing about this 1st December.
1st December falls under the zodiac sign of Sagittarius, the archer, associated with exploration and philosophical inquiry. The moon is in its waning crescent phase, a period traditionally linked to reflection and releasing what no longer serves.
On this day
On 1st December 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger on a public bus. Her act of civil disobedience became a defining moment in the American Civil Rights Movement and sparked the Montgomery bus boycott, a pivotal campaign that challenged racial segregation in public transportation.
Across the Atlantic, 1st December 1991 marked a significant moment for European history when Ukraine held a referendum to ratify the Act of Declaration of Independence. The vote passed overwhelmingly with more than 92 per cent support, formally establishing Ukraine as a sovereign nation and beginning its transition away from Soviet control during the final stages of the Cold War's collapse.
World AIDS Day
World AIDS Day is observed on 1st December each year to raise awareness and education about HIV and AIDS. The date was chosen to commemorate the first reported cases of the disease in 1981. Since its establishment in 1988, the day has become a global focal point for addressing the pandemic, reducing stigma and promoting prevention, treatment and support services. Over three decades of observance has helped mobilise resources and strengthen international responses to the ongoing health crisis.
DayAtlas provides weather conditions for this day, a comprehensive record of significant historical events, and details of notable births and deaths across any chosen date and location worldwide.
Explore everything about today 28th June.
What remains unspoken shapes thought more than words ever do.
Fortune of the Day
1st December in the Stars – Star Sign Sagittarius
Personality Profile
Personality People born on December 1st embody classic Sagittarian traits: curious, optimistic, and driven by wanderlust. They think in big patterns and inspire others through infectious enthusiasm and philosophical depth.
Strengths & Weaknesses Their strengths lie in courage, intellectual flexibility, and inspiring presence. The flip side shows impatience, superficiality, and a tendency to avoid commitment when feeling constrained.
Love These natives value freedom and intellectual connection equally in relationships. They need partners who share their adventurous spirit and grant them space for personal growth.
Caree & Finance Careers in education, media, or international trade suit them well. Financially, they benefit from their expansive nature but should curb impulsivity and plan long-term.
Health These personalities thrive with physical activity and mental challenge. They should channel restlessness consciously and ensure adequate rest to prevent burnout.
That night, the moon was in its waning crescent phase.
Chinese year of the Snake (Wood).
Fun Facts About 1st December
Name Days in Your Language: Bianca, Blanca, Blanche, Eli, Ely, Sherwin
Someone born on this day would be just 209 days old today — roughly 5,029 hours, 301,740 minutes, or 18,104,412 seconds spent on Earth so far.
It's the 335. day of the year. In 2025, 1st December falls on a Monday.
There are 30 days still to come.
We’re currently in Week 49 — the year marches on.
Famous Birthdays on 1st December
On this day, 220 notable people were born on 1st December — spanning from 624 to 2008. From world leaders to artists and scientists, discover who shares this birthday.
01/12/2008
Ella Gross, American singer, model and actress
Ella McKenzie Gross, also known mononymously as Ella, is an American singer, model, and actress based in South Korea. She first began her career as a model at age two and has modeled for fashion brands such as H&M, Levi's, and GAP. As a singer, she debuted as a member of the South Korean girl group Meovv in September 2024, under The Black Label.
01/12/2003
Robert Irwin, Australian conservationist and television personality
Robert Clarence Irwin is an Australian conservationist, zookeeper, wildlife photographer, and television presenter. The son of conservationists Steve and Terri Irwin, he manages Australia Zoo in Beerwah, Queensland, and is frequently involved in activities that his father originally participated in.
01/12/2001
Carole Monnet, French tennis player
Carole Monnet is a Ukrainian-born French tennis player. Monnet has career-high WTA rankings of No. 158 in singles, achieved on 24 November 2025, and No. 129 in doubles, reached on 28 October 2024.
01/12/1999
Lloyd Pope, Australian cricketer
Lloyd Aylmer James Pope is an Australian cricketer who currently represents South Australia and the Adelaide Strikers. A right-arm leg spin bowler, he is known for his effective use of the wrong'un as a variation. Pope was well renowned in his early career for his hair, becoming a cult hero of Australian cricket due to his “flowing red hair”.
Nico Schlotterbeck, German footballer
Nico Cédric Schlotterbeck is a German professional footballer who plays primarily as a centre-back for Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund and the Germany national team. He is known for his build-up play, aerial ability, speed, strength and aggressive tackling.
01/12/1997
Sada Williams, Barbadian sprinter
Sada Williams is a Barbadian sprinter competing primarily in the 200 and 400 metres. She won the bronze medal in the 400 m at the 2022 World Championships, becoming the first Barbadian woman ever to win a medal at the World Athletics Championships. Williams took gold in the event at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Jung Chae-yeon, South Korean actress and singer
Jung Chae-yeon, known mononymously as Chaeyeon, is a South Korean actress and singer. She is a member of the girl group DIA and former member of a project girl group I.O.I, having finished 7th in the survival show Produce 101. She is currently active as an actress, best known for her lead roles in the television series To. Jenny (2018), My First First Love (2019), The King's Affection (2021), The Golden Spoon (2022), and Family by Choice (2024).
01/12/1995
Agnė Čepelytė, Lithuanian tennis player
Agnė Čepelytė is a Lithuanian former tennis player.
Jenna Fife, Scottish footballer
Jenna Josephine Fife is a Scottish footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Rangers W.F.C. in the Scottish Women's Premier League (SWPL) and for the Scotland national team.
James Wilson, English footballer
James Antony Wilson is an English former professional footballer who played as a forward.
01/12/1994
Seedy Njie, English footballer
Seedy Ishmail Njie is an English former footballer who played as a forward.
01/12/1993
Beau Webster, Australian cricketer
Beau Jacob Webster is an Australian International cricketer who plays for Tasmania at state level, and the Hobart Hurricanes in the Big Bash League. He also represents Australia in Test cricket. An all-rounder, Webster is a right-handed batter capable of bowling both right-arm medium and off spin.
01/12/1992
Masahudu Alhassan, Ghanaian footballer
Masahudu Alhassan is a Ghanaian professional footballer who plays as a left-back for Anzio, where he is also head coach.
Javier Báez, Puerto Rican baseball player
Ednel Javier "Javy" Báez, nicknamed "El Mago", is a Puerto Rican professional baseball utility player for the Detroit Tigers of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the Chicago Cubs and New York Mets. On the international level, he represents the Puerto Rican national team.
Linos Chrysikopoulos, Greek basketball player
Linos-Spyridon Chrysikopoulos is a Greek professional basketball player. He is 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) tall and 225 pounds (102 kg). He plays at the power forward position and his nickname is Spider-Man.
Gary Payton II, American basketball player
Gary Dwayne Payton II is an American professional basketball player for the Golden State Warriors of the National Basketball Association (NBA). As a junior and senior playing college basketball for the Oregon State Beavers, Payton was named first-team All-Pac-12 as well as Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year. He won his first NBA championship with the Warriors in 2022.
Marco van Ginkel, Dutch footballer
Marco Wulfert Cornelis van Ginkel is a Dutch former professional footballer who played as a defensive or attacking midfielder.
01/12/1991
Rakeem Christmas, American basketball player
Rakeem Haleek Christmas is an American professional basketball player for the Amartha Hangtuah of the Indonesian Basketball League (IBL). He played college basketball for the Syracuse Orange for four seasons before being drafted by the Minnesota Timberwolves with the 36th overall pick in the 2015 NBA draft.
Hilda Melander, Swedish tennis player
Hilda Melander is a Swedish former tennis player.
Sun Yang, Chinese swimmer
Sun Yang is a Chinese Olympic and former world-record-holding competitive swimmer. In 2012, Sun became the first Chinese athlete to win an Olympic gold medal in men's swimming. Sun is the first male swimmer in history to earn Olympic and World Championship gold medals at every freestyle distance from 200 to 1500 metres. A three-time Olympic gold medalist and eleven-time world champion, he is the most decorated Chinese swimmer in history. In 2017, NBC Sports described him as "very arguably the greatest freestyle swimmer of all time".
01/12/1990
Tomáš Tatar, Slovak ice hockey player
Tomáš Tatar is a Slovak professional ice hockey player who is a forward for EV Zug of the National League. Tatar was drafted 60th overall by the Detroit Red Wings in the 2009 NHL entry draft.
01/12/1989
Sotelúm, Mexican trumpet player, composer, and producer
Sotelúm is a modernist and independent music artist, listed by UABC Radio and other local press media as an elemental post-nortec visionary in the Mexican avant garde of electronic music.
01/12/1988
Tyler Joseph, American musician and singer
Tyler Robert Joseph is an American singer, rapper, songwriter, musician, and record producer, best known as the frontman of the musical duo Twenty One Pilots alongside bandmate Josh Dun. He has recorded nine albums: one solo, and eight with Twenty One Pilots. As part of the duo, he has been nominated for six Grammy Awards, of which he has won one.
Zoë Kravitz, American actress, singer, and model
Zoë Isabella Kravitz is an American actress, singer, and filmmaker. She has received nominations for a Critics' Choice Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. In 2022, she was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential People.
Dan Mavraides, Greek-American basketball player
Daniel James Mavraides is a Greek American professional basketball player. At a height of 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) tall, he played as a point guard-shooting guard. Following his graduation from college, he played professionally in Italy and Greece for two seasons. Mavraides currently competes with the top-U.S. ranked Princeton 3×3 on the FIBA 3×3 World Tour.
Michael Raffl, Austrian ice hockey player
Michael Raffl is an Austrian professional ice hockey left winger with EC Red Bull Salzburg of the ICE Hockey League (ICEHL). He previously played in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Philadelphia Flyers, Washington Capitals and Dallas Stars, as well as in the Austrian ICE Hockey League (IceHL) with EC VSV and in the Swiss National League (NL) with Lausanne HC.
01/12/1987
Tabarie Henry, Virgin Islander sprinter
Tabarie Joil Henry is a United States Virgin Islands sprinter who specializes in the 400 metres. His personal best time is 20.71 seconds in the 200 metres and 44.77 in the 400 metres, achieved in April 2009 in Arkansas City, Kansas, and in May 2009 in Hutchinson, Kansas respectively. He is affiliated with Barton County Community College and Texas A&M University, where he was a national champion in 2010 and 2011.
Vance Joy, Australian singer-songwriter
James Gabriel Keogh, known professionally as Vance Joy, is an Australian singer, songwriter, musician, and former Australian rules footballer. He is best known for his 2013 hit song "Riptide".
01/12/1986
DeSean Jackson, American football player
DeSean William Jackson is an American college football coach and former player who is the head football coach at Delaware State University. Known for his speed, he is recognized as one of the best deep threats in NFL history. He played college football as a wide receiver for the California Golden Bears, where he was recognized as a two-time, first-team All-American in 2006 and 2007. He was selected by the Philadelphia Eagles in the second round of the 2008 NFL draft, and also played for the Washington Redskins, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Los Angeles Rams, and Baltimore Ravens. Jackson was selected to the Pro Bowl three times, and was the first player selected to the Pro Bowl at two different positions in the same year when he was named to the 2010 Pro Bowl as a wide receiver and return specialist. After retiring as a player, Jackson pursued a coaching career. Near the end of the 2024 season, Jackson was named the head football coach at Delaware State.
01/12/1985
Philip DeFranco, American media host and YouTube personality
Philip James DeFranco, commonly known by his online nickname PhillyD, and formerly known as sxephil, is an American media host, YouTube personality, and independent news reporter. He is best known for The Philip DeFranco Show, a news commentary show centered on current events in politics and pop culture.
Ilfenesh Hadera, American actress
Ilfenesh Hadera is an American actress. Hadera has been a frequent collaborator of director Spike Lee, appearing in Oldboy (2013), Chi-Raq (2015), She's Gotta Have It (2018-2019) and Highest 2 Lowest (2025).
Janelle Monáe, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actress
Janelle Monáe Robinson is an American singer, songwriter, rapper and actress. She has received ten Grammy Award nominations, and is the recipient of a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Children's and Family Emmy Award. Monáe has also been honored with the ASCAP Vanguard Award; as well as the Rising Star Award (2015) and the Trailblazer of the Year Award (2018) from Billboard Women in Music.
Emiliano Viviano, Italian footballer
Emiliano Viviano is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper.
01/12/1984
Charles Michael Davis, American actor
Charles Michael Davis is an American actor. Best known for his roles as Marcel Gerard on The CW television drama The Originals (2013–2018) and Zane Anders on the TV Land original series Younger (2017–2021). He also starred as Special Agent Quentin Carter on NCIS: New Orleans.
Yolandi Visser, South African rapper and actress
Anri du Toit, known professionally as Yolandi Visser, is a South African singer, rapper, and songwriter. She is one of two vocalists in the alternative hip hop group Die Antwoord, along with Watkin Tudor Jones.
01/12/1982
Riz Ahmed, English actor and rapper
Rizwan Ahmed is a British actor and rapper. He has received several awards, including an Academy Award and a Primetime Emmy Award, and nominations for two Golden Globe Awards and two British Academy Film Awards. In 2017, he was named by Time as one of the most influential people in the world. He also created the TV series Englistan in 2018 for the BBC, which was also his writing debut.
Christos Kalantzis, Greek footballer
Christos Kalantzis is a Greek retired professional footballer who played as a striker.
Christos Melissis, Greek footballer
Christos Melissis, is a Greek football player who played for Sudanese club Al-Hilal Omdurman. He has played in the past for Naoussa, Panserraikos, PAOK, Panathinaikos, AEL, Panthrakikos, Marítimo in Portugal and the Greek national team. He usually plays as a center back but when called upon he is used as a right back or a defensive midfielder.
01/12/1981
Park Hyo-shin, South Korean singer-songwriter and actor
Park Hyo-shin is a South Korean singer and musical theatre actor. Following his debut as a singer in 1999, Park released numerous hit songs in the 2000s, including "Good Person" (2002), "Snow Flower" (2004) and "Memories Resemble Love" (2007). In the 2010s, he achieved five number-one hits on the Circle Digital Chart, including 2014's "Wild Flower", which has sold 5 million copies, making it one of the best-selling singles in South Korea.
I Made Wirawan, Indonesian footballer
I Made Wirawan is an Indonesian professional football coach and player who plays as a goalkeeper for Super League club Persib Bandung, where he also serves as goalkeeping coach. He has made 11 appearances for the Indonesia national team.
01/12/1980
Iftikhar Anjum, Pakistani cricketer
Rao Iftikhar Anjum also known as RAO Anjum, is a former Pakistani cricketer right arm medium fast bowler and right hand batsman. Rao Iftikhar Anjum is another addition to Pakistan's seemingly endless production line of pace bowlers. Iftikhar, however, is more Aaqib Javed than Wasim Akram or Waqar Younis, and his outswinger is considered by many to be as effective as Aaqib's. He can bowl reverse-swing - a prerequisite for Pakistani bowlers, when the ball gets a bit rougher, with good control over his yorkers. Iftikhar has performed consistently well in the domestic circuit since making his debut three years ago. Anjum was a member of the Pakistan team that won the 2009 ICC World Twenty20.
Mohammad Kaif, Indian cricketer and politician
Mohammad Kaif is a former Indian cricketer, who played Tests and ODIs. He made it to the national team on the strength of his performances at the Under-19 level, where he captained the India national under-19 cricket team to victory in the Under-19 World Cup in 2000. With India, Kaif was a member of the Indian team that was one of the joint-winners of the 2002 ICC Champions Trophy, which the title was also shared with Sri Lanka, and he was a member of the team that were runners-up in the 2003 Cricket World Cup. He is regarded as one of the greatest Indian fielders.
Mubarak Hassan Shami, Kenyan-Qatari runner
Mubarak Hassan Shami is a Kenyan-born Qatari long-distance runner. He specializes in half marathon and marathon races.
Gianna Terzi, Greek singer
Ioanna "Yianna" Terzi is a Greek singer and songwriter. She represented Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 with the song "Oniro mou".
01/12/1979
Stephanie Brown Trafton, American discus thrower
Stephanie Brown Trafton, née Stephanie Brown, is an American track and field athlete who won the discus throwing gold medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. She is thus one of only three American women to have ever won the event.
Ryan Malone, American ice hockey player
Ryan Gregory Malone, nicknamed "Bugsy", is an American former professional ice hockey forward. He played in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the Pittsburgh Penguins, Tampa Bay Lightning and New York Rangers. In 2003, he became the first Pittsburgh-born and trained player to suit up for the Penguins in an NHL game.
Richard James, Jamaican sprinter
Richard James is a Jamaican former sprinter specializing in the 400 metres and the 8th World Athletics Indoor Championships gold medallist in the 4 × 400 m relay. He was an All-American track and field runner for the LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds and won medals at the Central American and Caribbean Championships in Athletics and the NACAC Under-25 Championships in Athletics.
01/12/1978
Mat Kearney, American musician
Mathew William Kearney is an American musician born in Eugene, Oregon, and based in Nashville, Tennessee. So far, he has a total of five top 20 hits on the Adult Top 40 Chart.
01/12/1977
Brad Delson, American guitarist and producer
Bradford Philip Delson is an American musician. He is the lead guitarist and one of the founding members of the rock band Linkin Park.
Sophie Guillemin, French actress
Sophie Guillemin is a French actress. She has appeared in such films as L'Ennui, Harry, He's Here to Help, Un chat un chat, and A la folie, pas du tout. In 2017, whilst on the set of the TV movie Remember Us, she met the actor Thierry Godard. The couple were married in August 2018. Guillemin met Godard on the set of the TV series Souviens-toi de Nous. At the time, he was mourning the loss of his partner, actress and drama teacher Blanche Veisberg, who died of cancer in 2017.
Lee McKenzie, Scottish journalist
Lee McKenzie is a journalist and presenter who is a reporter and deputy presenter for Channel 4's F1 coverage and Channel 4 Rugby. McKenzie also works on a variety of sports on the BBC and Channel 4, including tennis, rugby and equestrian, as well as the Olympic, Paralympic and Commonwealth Games. McKenzie has also worked as a presenter for the BBC's F1 coverage, Sky Sports and Sky Sports News.
Nate Torrence, American actor and comedian
Nathan Torrence is an American actor. He is known for several TV and film roles, most notably including Devon from She's Out of My League, Wade from HBO‘s Hello Ladies, Sully on the CW series Supernatural and for voicing the character of Clawhauser in Disney’s animated film Zootopia.
01/12/1976
Tomasz Adamek, Polish boxer
Tomasz "Tomek" Adamek is a Polish former professional boxer who competed from 1999 to 2018. He held world championships in two weight classes, including the WBC light heavyweight title from 2005 to 2007, and the IBF and The Ring magazine cruiserweight titles from 2008 to 2009. He also held the IBO cruiserweight title in 2007, and challenged once for the WBC heavyweight title in 2011. BoxRec ranks Adamek as the third greatest Polish boxer of all time, pound for pound. He is the first Polish boxer to win The Ring title.
Laura Ling, American journalist and author
Laura Ling is an American journalist and writer. She worked for Current TV as a correspondent and vice president of its Vanguard Journalism Unit, which produced the Vanguard TV series. She was the host and reporter on E! Investigates, a documentary series on the E! Network. In November 2014, Ling joined Discovery Digital Networks as its Director of Development.
Dean O'Gorman, New Zealand actor, artist, and photographer
Dean Lance O'Gorman is a New Zealand actor, artist, and photographer. He played the dwarf Fíli in the Hobbit trilogy and the Norse god Bragi/Anders Johnson in the fantasy series The Almighty Johnsons. He also portrayed Kirk Douglas in Trumbo (2015).
Matthew Shepard, American hate crime victim (died 1998)
Matthew Wayne Shepard was an American student at the University of Wyoming who was beaten, tortured, and left to die near Laramie on October 6, 1998. He was transported by rescuers to Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado, where he died six days later from severe head injuries sustained during the attack.
Evangelos Sklavos, Greek basketball player
Evangelos "Vangelis" Sklavos is a former Greek professional basketball player. He was born in Athens, Greece. At a height of 2.02 m, he played in the small forward and power forward positions.
01/12/1975
Matt Fraction, American author
Matt Fritchman, better known by the pen name Matt Fraction, is an American comic book writer, known for his work as the writer of The Invincible Iron Man, FF, The Immortal Iron Fist, Uncanny X-Men, and Hawkeye for Marvel Comics; Casanova and Sex Criminals for Image Comics; and Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen and Batman for DC Comics.
Isaiah "Ikey" Owens, American keyboard player and producer (died 2014)
Randolph Isaiah "Ikey" Owens was an American multi-instrumentalist and producer, known primarily for his work as a keyboardist. Owens also played piano, organ, synthesizers, guitar, drums, melodica, clavinet, and effects pedals. Recognized for his tenure with The Mars Volta, Jack White, De Facto, and Free Moral Agents, he also played in and produced an array of bands from the Long Beach and Denver music scenes.
Thomas Schie, Norwegian racing driver and sportscaster
Thomas Schie is a former racing and rally driver. He previously competed in the International Formula 3000, Swedish Touring Car Championship and World Rally Championship.
Farah Shah, Pakistani actress and host
Farah Shah is a Pakistani television actress and former model. She made her acting debut with the role of Mehru in PTV World's classic series Boota From Toba Tek Singh (1999). Shah's career spans more than 20 years. She worked in various hits on Urdu Television including Landa Bazar (2002), Chashman (2006), Khuda Aur Muhabbat (2011), Numm (2013), Gul-e-Rana (2015), Choti Si Zindagi (2016), Toh Dil Ka Kiya Hua (2017), and Suno Chanda (2018). Her performance as the antagonist in Mohabbat Subh Ka Sitara Hai (2013) and Abro (2016) earned her a nomination for Hum Award in a negative role category. She has played the role of Naeema in Hum TV's Suno Chanda 2.
Sophia Skou, Danish swimmer
Sophia Skou is a Danish former butterfly swimmer, who twice competed in the Summer Olympics for her native country: in 1996 and 2000.
01/12/1974
Costinha, Portuguese footballer and manager
Francisco José Rodrigues da Costa, known as Costinha, is a Portuguese former professional footballer who played as a defensive midfielder. He was also a manager.
01/12/1973
Steve Gibb, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
Stephen Thadeus Crompton Gibb is a British-American guitarist. He has been a member of numerous hard rock and metal bands including 58, Black Label Society, Crowbar, Kingdom of Sorrow, The Underbellys, SkilletHead, and Saigon Kick. He is the son of Barry Gibb and is currently playing guitar as part of his father's band.
01/12/1972
Stanton Barrett, American race car driver and stuntman
Stanton Thomas Barrett is an American professional stock car racing driver and Hollywood stuntman. He is the co-owner of Barrett–Cope Racing, which fields the No. 30 Chevrolet in the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series. He has previously competed in the WRL and HSR/SVRA Vintage Series.
Bart Millard, American singer-songwriter
Bart Marshall Millard is an American singer and songwriter who is best known as the lead singer of Christian rock band MercyMe. He has also released two solo albums: Hymned, No. 1, in 2005 and Hymned Again in 2008. He received a solo Grammy nomination in the category of Best Southern, Country, or Bluegrass Gospel Album for the latter album.
01/12/1971
Christian Pescatori, Italian race car driver
Christian Pescatori is a professional racecar driver from Italy.
Mika Pohjola, Finnish-American pianist and composer
Mika Pohjola ( is a Finnish-born jazz pianist and composer who resides in Stockholm. He is one of the most prolific Scandinavian jazz musicians in his generation.
John Schlimm, American author and educator
John Schlimm is an American author and educator.
01/12/1970
Golden Brooks, American actress
Golden Brooks is an American actress. She began her career with starring role in the Showtime comedy series, Linc's (1998–2000), and later appeared in the films Timecode (2000) and Impostor (2001).
Jonathan Coulton, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
Jonathan William Coulton, often called "JoCo" by fans, is an American folk/comedy singer-songwriter, known for his songs about geek culture and his use of the Internet to draw fans. Among his most popular songs are "Code Monkey", "Re: Your Brains", "Still Alive", and "Want You Gone". He was the house musician for NPR weekly puzzle quiz show Ask Me Another from 2012 until its end in 2021.
Kirk Rueter, American baseball player
Kirk Wesley Rueter, nicknamed "Woody", is an American former professional baseball pitcher who played 13 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), primarily for the San Francisco Giants. He also played for the Montreal Expos who had drafted him in 1991.
Sarah Silverman, American comedian, actress, and singer
Sarah Kate Silverman is an American stand-up comedian, actress and writer. She first rose to prominence for her brief stint as a writer and cast member on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live during its 19th season, between 1993 and 1994. She then starred in and produced The Sarah Silverman Program, which ran from 2007 to 2010 on Comedy Central. For her work on the program, Silverman was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series.
Tisha Waller, American high jumper and educator
Tisha Felice Waller is an American athlete competing in the high jump, who participated in the 1996 Summer Olympics and 2004 Summer Olympics. She is a five time American Champion, and internationally won the 1998 Goodwill Games, plus bronze medals in the 1991 World University Games and the 1999 World Indoor Championships.
01/12/1969
Richard Carrier, American author and blogger
Richard Cevantis Carrier is an American historian, author, and Christ myth theorist. A longtime contributor to skeptical outlets including The Secular Web and Freethought Blogs, Carrier writes about philosophy and religion in classical antiquity, examining the development of early Christianity from a skeptical perspective and addressing modern debates about religion and morality. He frequently debates the historical basis of the Bible and Christianity and promotes the view that Jesus did not exist in his publications. Carrier's views have been rejected by academic scholarship, and are considered fringe.
01/12/1968
Justin Chadwick, English actor and director
Justin Chadwick is an English actor and television and film director. He directed episodes of EastEnders, Byker Grove, The Bill, Spooks and Red Cap before directing nine of the fifteen episodes of the mini-series Bleak House, which was broadcast by the BBC in the UK and by PBS in the United States as part of its Masterpiece Theatre series.
Sarah Fitzgerald, Australian squash player
Sarah Elizabeth Fitz-Gerald AM is an Australian former professional squash player who won five World Open titles – 1996, 1997, 1998, 2001 and 2002. She ranks alongside Janet Morgan, Nicol David, Susan Devoy, Michelle Martin and Heather McKay as the sport's greatest female players of all time.
Anders Holmertz, Swedish swimmer
Anders Holmertz is a Swedish retired swimmer who was a leader in freestyle races in the 1980s and at the beginning of the 1990s, though often missing personal success. He also settled a record in the 400 m freestyle. He is the brother of another Swedish swimmer, Mikael Holmertz.
01/12/1967
Nestor Carbonell, American actor
Néstor Gastón Carbonell is an American actor, director, and screenwriter. He came to prominence for his role as Luis Rivera in the NBC sitcom Suddenly Susan. He is known for his roles as Richard Alpert in the ABC drama series Lost, Sheriff Alex Romero in the A&E drama series Bates Motel, and Yanko Flores in the Apple TV+ drama series The Morning Show. Carbonell also starred as Mayor Anthony Garcia in Christopher Nolan's superhero films The Dark Knight (2008) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012). He won the 2024 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for his role in the FX series Shōgun.
Reggie Sanders, American baseball player
Reginald Laverne Sanders is an American former right fielder in Major League Baseball. He batted and threw right-handed. He played professionally with the Cincinnati Reds, St. Louis Cardinals, Pittsburgh Pirates, Atlanta Braves, San Francisco Giants, San Diego Padres and Kansas City Royals, and was a member of the Arizona Diamondbacks' 2001 World Series championship over the New York Yankees. Sanders possessed both power and speed and is one of eight MLB players to record over 300 home runs and over 300 steals.
01/12/1966
Andrew Adamson, New Zealand director, producer, and screenwriter
Andrew Ralph Adamson is a New Zealand film director, producer, screenwriter, and animator. He is best known for directing the DreamWorks animated film Shrek (2001), which is based on the children's picture book of the same name by American author William Steig and won the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature at the 74th Academy Awards ceremony, and directing and co-writing Shrek 2 (2004), which was nominated for Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. He also directed and co-wrote the first two live-action film adaptations of C. S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia novels: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) and Prince Caspian (2008).
Katherine LaNasa, American actress, ballet dancer, and choreographer
Katherine LaNasa is an American actress. Since 2025, she has portrayed Nurse Dana Evans in the HBO Max medical drama The Pitt (2025–present), for which she earned a Primetime Emmy Award, a Critics' Choice Award, and an Actor Award.
Larry Walker, Canadian baseball player and coach
Larry Kenneth Robert Walker is a Canadian former professional baseball right fielder. During his 17-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career, he played with the Montreal Expos, Colorado Rockies, and St. Louis Cardinals. In 1997, he became the only player in major league history to register both a .700 slugging percentage (SLG) and 30 stolen bases in the same season, on his way to winning the National League (NL) Most Valuable Player Award (MVP). The first player in more than 60 years to record a batting average of .360 in three consecutive seasons from 1997 to 1999, Walker also won three NL batting championships. He was inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in 2007, and the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in the Class of 2009, and was named the 13th-greatest sporting figure from Canada by Sports Illustrated in 1999. In 2020, Walker was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
01/12/1965
Henry Honiball, South African rugby player
Henry William Honiball is a South African former professional rugby union footballer. He usually played at fly-half and sometimes as a centre.
Magnifico, Slovenian singer
Robert Pešut, known as Magnifico, is a Slovenian singer of Slovene and Serbian descent.
01/12/1964
Salvatore Schillaci, Italian footballer (died 2024)
Salvatore Schillaci, also known as Totò Schillaci, was an Italian professional footballer who played as a striker. During his club career, he played for Messina (1982–1989), Juventus (1989–1992), Internazionale (1992–1994) and Júbilo Iwata (1994–1997).
Jo Walton, Welsh-Canadian author and poet
Jo Walton is a Welsh-Canadian fantasy and science fiction writer and poet. She is best known for the fantasy novel Among Others, which won the Hugo and Nebula Awards in 2012, and Tooth and Claw, a Victorian-era novel with dragons which won the World Fantasy Award in 2004. Other works by Walton include the Small Change series, in which she blends alternate history with the cozy mystery genre, comprising Farthing, Ha'penny and Half a Crown. Her fantasy novel Lifelode won the 2010 Mythopoeic Award, and her alternate history My Real Children received the 2015 Tiptree Award.
01/12/1963
Marco Greco, Brazilian race car driver
Marco Antonio Greco is a Brazilian former Grand Prix motorcycle road racer and auto racing driver who competed in the Indy Racing League from 1996 to 1999. His best finish in the season points was third in 1996–1997. He made four starts in the Indianapolis 500 with a best finish of fourteenth in 1998. He previously competed in the CART World Series in full seasons in 1993 for Sovereign Motorsports and in 1994 for Arciero Racing and partial seasons in 1995 and 1996 for Dick Simon Racing, Galles Racing, and Team Scandia.
Nathalie Lambert, Canadian speed skater
Nathalie Brigitte Lambert, OC is a Canadian Olympic medalist in short-track speed skating. She won one Gold medal and two Silver medals at the Winter Olympics, and was Canada's flag bearer at the 1992 Albertville Olympics closing ceremony. She is also a three-time Overall World Champion for 1991, 1993 and 1994.
Arjuna Ranatunga, Sri Lankan cricketer and politician
Deshamanya Arjuna Ranatunga, is a Sri Lankan politician and former cricketer, who was the 1996 Cricket World Cup winning captain for Sri Lanka, and scored the winning boundary in the final. He is regarded as the pioneer who lifted the Sri Lankan cricket team from underdog status to a leading force in the cricketing world.
01/12/1962
Sylvie Daigle, Canadian speed skater
Sylvie Daigle is a Canadian speed skater. She is a member of the Canadian short track relay team that won gold at the 1992 Winter Olympics and silver at the 1994 Winter Olympics. She is also a five-time Overall World Champion. She was born in Sherbrooke, Quebec.
Pamela McGee, American basketball player and coach
Pamela Denise McGee is an American former professional women's basketball player, Olympic gold medalist, and Women's Basketball Hall of Fame inductee. She is the mother of NBA player JaVale McGee and WNBL player Imani McGee-Stafford.
01/12/1961
Safra Catz, Israeli-American businesswoman and boss of Oracle
Safra Ada Catz is an Israeli-American business executive. She is the executive vice chair and former CEO of Oracle Corporation. She has been an executive at Oracle since April 1999, and a board member since 2001. In April 2011, she was named co-president and chief financial officer (CFO), reporting to founder Larry Ellison. In September 2014, Oracle announced that Ellison would step down as CEO and that Mark Hurd and Catz had been named as joint CEOs. In September 2019, Catz became the sole CEO after Hurd resigned due to health issues.
Raymond E. Goldstein, American biophysicist and academic
Raymond Ethan Goldstein FRS FInstP is the Alan Turing Professor of Complex Physical Systems in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP) at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge.
Jeremy Northam, English actor
Jeremy Philip Northam is an English actor. His film credits include The Net (1995), Emma (1996), An Ideal Husband (1999), Amistad (1997), The Winslow Boy (1999), Gosford Park (2001) and Enigma (2001). In television, he also played Thomas More in the Showtime series The Tudors (2007–2008) and appeared as Anthony Eden in the Netflix series The Crown (2016–2017).
01/12/1960
Carol Alt, American model and actress
Carol Ann Alt is an American model and actress.
Jane Turner, Australian actress and producer
Jane Turner is an Australian actress, comedian and Logie Award-winning comedy series creator and screenwriter. She is widely known for her role as Kath in the TV sitcom Kath and Kim.
01/12/1959
Wally Lewis, Australian rugby league player, coach, and sportscaster
Walter James Lewis AM is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, and coached in the 1980s and 1990s. He became a commentator for television coverage of the sport. A highly decorated Australian national captain, Lewis is widely regarded as one of the greatest ever players of rugby league. His time as a player and coach was followed by a career as a sports presenter for the Nine Network.
01/12/1958
Javier Aguirre, Mexican footballer and manager
Javier Aguirre Onaindía, nicknamed El Vasco, is a Mexican football manager and former footballer. He is currently manager of the Mexico national team.
Candace Bushnell, American journalist and author
Candace Bushnell is an American author, journalist, and television producer. She wrote a column for The New York Observer (1994–96) that was adapted into the bestselling Sex and the City anthology. The book was the basis for the HBO hit series Sex and the City (1998–2004) and two subsequent movies.
Alberto Cova, Italian runner
Alberto Cova is a retired Italian long-distance track athlete, winner of the 10,000 m at the 1984 Summer Olympics and 1983 World Championships.
Gary Peters, American politician
Gary Charles Peters is an American politician, lawyer, and former naval officer serving as the senior United States senator from Michigan, a seat he has held since 2015. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the U.S. representative for Michigan's 14th congressional district, which included the eastern half of Detroit, the Grosse Pointes, Hamtramck, Southfield, and Pontiac, from 2009 to 2015.
Charlene Tilton, American actress and singer
Charlene L. Tilton is an American actress and singer. She is widely known for playing Lucy Ewing on the CBS prime time soap opera Dallas.
01/12/1957
Chris Poland, American guitarist and songwriter
Chris Poland is an American guitarist, best known as the former guitarist of the thrash metal band Megadeth. Since 2002, Poland has been the guitarist of the instrumental rock/jazz rock bands OHM and OHMphrey, among others, and has appeared on several projects and albums from a variety of different genres.
Deep Roy, Kenyan-British actor
Gurdeep "Deep" Roy is a Kenyan-British actor, stuntman and puppeteer. Standing at 132 centimetres tall, he has often been cast as diminutive characters, such as Teeny Weeny in The NeverEnding Story, the Oompa-Loompas in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Keenser in Star Trek and its sequels, and in television series such as The X-Files, Doctor Who and Eastbound & Down.
Vesta Williams, American singer-songwriter and actress (died 2011)
Mary Vesta Williams was an American singer-songwriter, who performed across genres such as soul, funk, R&B, Quiet storm, jazz soul and Urban Contemporary. Originally credited as Vesta Williams, she was simply known as Vesta beginning in the 1990s. She was known for her four–octave vocal range. She once sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" for the Los Angeles Lakers game opener using all four of those octaves.
01/12/1956
Julee Cruise, American singer-songwriter, musician, and actress (died 2022)
Julee Ann Cruise was an American singer and actress, known for her collaborations with composer Angelo Badalamenti and filmmaker David Lynch in the late 1980s and early 1990s. She released four albums beginning with 1989's Floating into the Night.
01/12/1955
Veikko Aaltonen, Finnish actor, director, and screenwriter
Veikko Aaltonen is a Finnish director, editor, sound editor, production manager and film and television writer and actor.
Verónica Forqué, Spanish actress (died 2021)
Verónica Forqué Vázquez-Vigo was a Spanish stage, film and television actress. She was a four-time Goya Award winner, the most award-winning actress alongside Carmen Maura. She had a knack for characters "between ridiculous and tender, stunned and vehement".
Udit Narayan, Indian playback singer
Udit Narayan Jha is an Indian playback singer whose songs are featured in Indian cinema, primarily Hindi films.
Pat Spillane, Irish footballer and sportscaster
Patrick Gerard Spillane, better known as Pat Spillane, is an Irish former Gaelic football pundit and player. His league and championship career at senior level with the Kerry county team spanned seventeen years from 1974 to 1991. Spillane is widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the game.
01/12/1954
Judith Hackitt, English chemist and engineer
Dame Judith Elizabeth Hackitt is a British engineer and civil servant. A former chair of the UK Health and Safety Executive, she is currently chair of manufacturing trade body EEF.
François Van der Elst, Belgian footballer (died 2017)
François Van der Elst was a Belgian footballer, who played as a winger. He is mainly known for winning several national and European trophies while at R.S.C. Anderlecht.
01/12/1952
Stephen Poliakoff, English director, producer, and playwright
Stephen Poliakoff is a British playwright, director and screenwriter. In 2006 Gerard Gilbert of The Independent described him as the UK's "pre-eminent TV dramatist" and that he had "inherited Dennis Potter's crown".
Rick Scott, American politician and businessman
Richard Lynn Scott is an American attorney, businessman, politician, and Navy veteran serving as the senior United States senator from Florida, a seat he has held since 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he served from 2011 to 2019 as the 45th governor of Florida.
01/12/1951
Aleksandr Panayotov Aleksandrov, Bulgarian cosmonaut
Aleksandr Panayotov Aleksandrov is a retired Bulgarian cosmonaut. He is the second Bulgarian to have flown to space, behind Georgi Ivanov.
Obba Babatundé, American actor, director, and producer
Obba Babatundé is an American actor. A native of Queens, New York City, he has appeared in more than seventeen stage productions, thirty theatrical films, sixty made-for-television films, and two prime-time series.
Jaco Pastorius, American bass player, songwriter, and producer (died 1987)
John Francis Anthony Pastorius III, also known as Jaco Pastorius, was an American jazz bassist, composer, and producer. Widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential bassists of all time, Pastorius recorded albums as a solo artist, band leader, and as a member of the jazz fusion group Weather Report from 1976 to 1981. He also collaborated with numerous artists, including Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny and Joni Mitchell.
Nozipho Schroeder, South African lawn bowler
Nozipho Schroeder is a South African lawn bowler.
Treat Williams, American actor (died 2023)
Richard Treat Williams Jr. was an American actor, whose career on stage and in film and television spanned five decades. He received many accolades for his work, including nominations for three Golden Globe Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, a Satellite Award, and an Independent Spirit Award.
01/12/1950
Manju Bansal, Indian biologist and academic
Manju Bansal has specialized in the field of Molecular biophysics. Currently, she is a professor in theoretical Biophysics group for Molecular Biophysics unit in the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. She is the founder director of the Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology at Bangalore.
Ross Hannaford, Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2016)
Ross Andrew Hannaford was an Australian musician, active in numerous local bands. He was often referred to by his nickname "Hanna". Widely regarded as one of the country's finest rock guitarists, he was best known for his long collaboration with singer-songwriter Ross Wilson, which began as teenagers, with The Pink Finks and forming the seminal early '70s Australian rock band Daddy Cool. Hannaford died of cancer after being diagnosed a year earlier.
Filippos Petsalnikos, Greek lawyer and politician, Greek Minister of Justice (died 2020)
Filippos Petsalnikos was a Greek politician of the Movement of Democratic Socialists. From 2009 to 2012, he served as Speaker of the Hellenic Parliament. Before, he was a Member of the Hellenic Parliament from 1985 to 2012.
01/12/1949
Pablo Escobar, Colombian drug lord and narcoterrorist (died 1993)
Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria was a Colombian drug lord, narcoterrorist, and politician who was the founder and leader of the Medellín Cartel. Dubbed the "King of Cocaine", Escobar was one of the wealthiest conventional criminals in history, having amassed an estimated net worth of US$30 billion by his death, while his drug cartel monopolized the cocaine trade into the US in the 1980s and early 1990s.
Sebastián Piñera, Chilean businessman and politician, 35th President of Chile (died 2024)
Miguel Juan Sebastián Piñera Echenique was a Chilean businessman and politician who served as 34th and 36th president of Chile from 2010 to 2014 and from 2018 to 2022. The son of a Christian Democratic politician and diplomat, he studied business administration at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile and economics at Harvard University. At the time of his death, he had an estimated net worth of US$2.7 billion, according to Forbes, making him the third richest person in Chile.
01/12/1948
George Foster, American baseball player and radio host
George Arthur Foster is an American former professional baseball player and scout. He played in Major League Baseball as an outfielder from 1969 through 1986, most notably as an integral member of the Cincinnati Reds, with whom he won two World Series championships, in 1975 and 1976. He also played for the San Francisco Giants, New York Mets and the Chicago White Sox.
Sarfraz Nawaz, Pakistani cricketer and politician
Sarfraz Nawaz Malik is a former Pakistani Test cricketer and politician, who was instrumental in Pakistan's first Test series victories over India and England. Between 1969 and 1984, he played 55 Tests and 45 One Day Internationals and took 177 Test wickets at an average of 32.75. He is known as one of the earliest exponents of reverse swing.
John Roskelley, American mountaineer and author
John Roskelley is an American mountain climber and author. He made first ascents and notable ascents of 7,000-meter (22,966 ft.) and 8,000-meter peaks (26,247 ft.) in Nepal, India, and Pakistan. In 2014, he became the 6th winner of the Piolet d'Or Lifetime Achievement Award.
Neil Warnock, English footballer and manager
Neil Warnock is an English football manager and former player. He is currently football advisor of National League South club Torquay United. In a managerial career spanning five decades, Warnock has managed sixteen different clubs from the Premier League to non-league. Within English football, he holds the record for the most promotions, with eight, and the most games as a professional manager, with 1626, beating the previous record of 1601 set by Dario Gradi.
N. T. Wright, English bishop and scholar
Nicholas Thomas Wright, known as N. T. Wright or Tom Wright, is an English New Testament scholar, Pauline theologian and Anglican bishop. He was the bishop of Durham and Lord Spiritual in the UK Parliament from 2003 to 2010. He then became research professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at St Mary's College in the University of St Andrews in Scotland until 2019, when he became a senior research fellow at Wycliffe Hall at the University of Oxford.
Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa, Nigerian civil servant and politician, Governor of Kaduna State (died 2012)
Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa (1 December 1948 – 15 December 2012) was a Nigerian politician who served as governor of Kaduna State from 2010 to 2012. He was appointed deputy governor of Kaduna State in July 2005, following the death of Stephen Shekari and was elected in 2007. He was sworn in as governor on 20 May 2010, replacing governor Namadi Sambo who had been sworn in as vice president the day before. Yakowa successfully ran for election as Kaduna Governor in the 26 April 2011 polls.
01/12/1947
Alain Bashung, French singer-songwriter and actor (died 2009)
Alain Bashung was a French singer, songwriter and actor. Credited with reviving the French chanson in "a time of French musical turmoil", he is often regarded as the most important French rock musician after Serge Gainsbourg. He rose to prominence in the early 1980s with hit songs such as "Gaby oh Gaby" and "Vertige de l'amour", and later had a string of hit records from the 1990s onward, such as "Osez Joséphine", "Ma petite entreprise" and "La nuit je mens". He has had an influence on many later French artists, and is the most awarded artist in the Victoires de la Musique history with 12 victories obtained throughout his career.
Bob Fulton, English-Australian rugby league player, coach, and sportscaster (died 2021)
Robert Fulton, also nicknamed "Bozo", was an Australian rugby league footballer, coach and later commentator. Fulton played, coached, selected for and commentated on the game with great success at the highest levels and has been named amongst Australia's greatest rugby league players of the 20th century.
01/12/1946
Jonathan Katz, American comedian and actor
Jonathan Paul Katz is an American actor and comedian best known for his starring role in the animated sitcom Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist as Dr. Katz. He is also known for voicing Erik Robbins in the UPN/Adult Swim series Home Movies. He produces a podcast titled Hey, We're Back and can be heard on Explosion Bus.
Kemal Kurspahić, Bosnian journalist and author (died 2021)
Kemal Kurspahić was a Bosnian journalist. He was managing editor of The Connection Newspapers in Alexandria, Virginia and founder of the media in Democracy Institute, dedicated to promoting higher standards in journalism in post-conflict societies and countries in transition to democracy. He won broad international recognition as the Editor-in-Chief of the Bosnian daily Oslobođenje, 1989-1994. In 2023 Oslobođenje established international journalist award after him.
Gilbert O'Sullivan, Irish singer-songwriter and pianist
Raymond Edward O'Sullivan, known professionally as Gilbert O'Sullivan, is an Irish singer-songwriter who achieved his most significant success during the early 1970s with hits including "Alone Again (Naturally)", "Clair" and "Get Down". His songs are often marked by his distinctive percussive piano playing style and observational lyrics using word play.
01/12/1945
Ásta B. Þorsteinsdóttir, Icelandic politician
Ásta Bryndís Þorsteinsdóttir was an Icelandic politician and member of the Althing. A member of the Social Democratic Party, she represented the Reykjavík constituency from January 1998 to October 1998.
Lyle Bien, American vice admiral in the United States Navy
Lyle G. Bien is a retired vice admiral in the United States Navy. He served during the Vietnam War, where he instructed students on piloting the F-14 Tomcat, and later became an instructor at the United States Navy Fighter Weapons School (TOPGUN). He served as deputy commander of the United States Space Command between 1996 and 1998.
Bette Midler, American singer-songwriter, actress and producer
Bette Midler is an American actress, comedian, singer, and author. Throughout her six-decade career Midler has received numerous accolades, including four Golden Globe Awards, three Grammy Awards, three Primetime Emmy Awards, two Tony Awards, and a Kennedy Center Honor, in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards and a British Academy Film Award.
01/12/1944
Eric Bloom, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
Eric Jay Bloom is an American musician, singer and songwriter. He is best known as the co-lead vocalist, guitar and keyboard/synthesizer player for the long-running band Blue Öyster Cult, with work on more than 20 albums. Much of his lyrical content relates to his lifelong interest in science fiction.
John Densmore, American drummer and songwriter
John Paul Densmore is an American musician. He is best known as the drummer of the rock band the Doors and as such is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He appeared on every recording made by the band, with drumming inspired by jazz and world music as much as by rock and roll. The many honors he shares with the other Doors include a Grammy Award for lifetime achievement and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Tahar Ben Jelloun, Moroccan author and poet
Tahar Ben Jelloun is a Moroccan writer who rose to fame for his 1985 novel L'Enfant de sable. Although his first language is Darija, his works are written in French. He has been nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
01/12/1943
Kenny Moore, American runner and journalist (died 2022)
Kenneth Clark Moore was an American Olympic road running athlete, journalist and actor. He ran the marathon at the 1968 and 1972 Summer Olympics, finishing fourth at the latter.
01/12/1942
Mohamed Kamel Amr, Egyptian politician, Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs
Mohamed Kamel Amr is an Egyptian politician and diplomat who served as Egypt's Minister of Foreign Affairs between 2011 and 2013. He resigned from office on 30 June 2013.
John Crowley, American author and academic
John Crowley is an American author of fantasy, science fiction, historical fiction, and non-fiction. Crowley studied at Indiana University and has a second career as a documentary film writer.
Ross Edwards, Australian cricketer
Ross Edwards is a former Australian cricketer. Edwards played in 20 Test matches for Australia, playing against England, West Indies and Pakistan. He also played in nine One Day Internationals. He was a part of the Australian squad which finished as runners-up at the 1975 Cricket World Cup. He was a right-handed batsman and superb cover fielder as well as a part-time wicket-keeper.
01/12/1940
Mike Denness, Scottish cricketer and referee (died 2013)
Michael Henry Denness was a Scottish cricketer who played for England, Scotland, Kent and Essex.
Jerry Lawson, American electronic engineer and inventor (died 2011)
Gerald Anderson Lawson was an American electronic engineer. Besides being one of the first African-American computer engineers in Silicon Valley, Lawson was also known for his work in designing the Fairchild Channel F video game console, leading the team that refined ROM cartridges for durable use as commercial video game cartridges. His innovations in this area led to him being considered the father of the game cartridge. He eventually left Fairchild and founded the game company Video-Soft.
Richard Pryor, American comedian, actor, producer, and screenwriter (died 2005)
Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor was an American stand-up comedian and actor. Known for reaching a broad audience with his trenchant observations and storytelling style, he is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential comedians of all time. Pryor won a Primetime Emmy Award and five Grammy Awards. He received the first Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 1998. He won the Writers Guild of America Award in 1974.
01/12/1939
Lee Trevino, American golfer and sportscaster
Lee Buck Trevino is an American retired professional golfer who is regarded as one of the greatest players in golf history. He was inducted to the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1981. Trevino won six major championships and 29 PGA Tour events over the course of his career. He is one of only four players to twice win the U.S. Open, The Open Championship and the PGA Championship. The Masters Tournament was the only major that eluded him. He is an icon for Mexican Americans, and is often referred to as "the Merry Mex" and "Supermex", both affectionate nicknames given to him by other golfers.
01/12/1938
Sandy Nelson, American rock and roll drummer (died 2022)
Sander Lloyd Nelson was an American drummer. Nelson, one of the best-known rock and modern jazz drummers of the late 1950s and early 1960s, had several solo instrumental Top 40 hits and released over 30 albums. He was a session drummer on many other well-known hits. He lived in Boulder City, Nevada, where he continued to experiment with music on keyboards and piano.
01/12/1937
Muriel Costa-Greenspon, American soprano and actress (died 2005)
Muriel Salina Costa-Greenspon was an American mezzo-soprano who had a lengthy career at the New York City Opera from 1963 to 1993.
Gordon Crosse, English composer and academic (died 2021)
Gordon Crosse was an English composer.
Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga, Latvian psychologist and politician, President of Latvia
Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga is a Latvian politician who served as the sixth president of Latvia from 1999 to 2007. She is the first and to date only woman to hold the post and the most recent to be re-elected for a second term.
01/12/1936
Igor Rodionov, Russian general and politician, 3rd Russian Minister of Defence (died 2014)
Igor Nikolayevich Rodionov was a Russian general and Duma deputy. He is best known as a hardline politician, and for his service heading the Defence Ministry of the Russian Federation.
01/12/1935
Sola Sierra, Chilean human rights activist (died 1999)
Sola Sierra Henríquez was a Chilean human rights activist. She was director of Relatives of the Detained-Disappeared organization, and campaigned to find out the truth about the people who were violently disappeared during Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship.
01/12/1934
Billy Paul, American soul singer (died 2016)
Paul Williams, known professionally as Billy Paul, was an American soul singer, known for his 1972 No. 1 single "Me and Mrs. Jones". His 1973 album and single War of the Gods blends his more conventional pop, soul, and funk styles with electronic and psychedelic influences.
01/12/1933
Lou Rawls, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actor (died 2006)
Louis Allen Rawls was an American baritone singer. He released 61 albums, sold more than 40 million records, and had numerous charting singles, most notably the song "You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine". He also worked as a film, television, and voice actor. He was a three-time winner of the Best Male R&B Vocal Performance Grammy Award.
Violette Verdy, French ballerina (died 2016)
Violette Verdy was a French ballerina, choreographer, teacher, and writer who worked as a dance company director with the Paris Opera Ballet in France and the Boston Ballet in the United States. From 1958 to 1977 she was a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet where she performed in the world premieres of several works created specifically for her by choreographers George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins. She was Distinguished Professor of Music (Ballet) at the Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University, in Bloomington, and the recipient of two medals from the French government.
01/12/1931
George Maxwell Richards, Trinidadian politician, 4th President of Trinidad and Tobago (died 2018)
George Maxwell Richards was a Trinidadian politician who served as the fourth president of Trinidad and Tobago, from 2003 to 2013. He was the first president and head of state in the Caribbean to have mixed Chinese and Indigenous ancestry.
01/12/1930
Marie Bashir, Australian psychiatrist, academic, and politician, 37th Governor of New South Wales (died 2026)
Dame Marie Roslyn Bashir was an Australian psychiatrist and administrator who served as the 37th Governor of New South Wales from 2001 to 2014 and concurrently as the 17th chancellor of the University of Sydney from 2007 to 2012.
Joachim Hoffmann, German historian and author (died 2002)
Joachim Hoffmann was a German historian who was the academic director of the German Armed Forces Military History Research Office.
01/12/1929
David Doyle, American actor (died 1997)
David Fitzgerald Doyle was an American actor. He was best known for his portrayal of John Bosley on the 1970s TV series Charlie's Angels. Doyle and Jaclyn Smith were the only actors to appear in every episode of the show. Doyle also became known later as the first voice of Grandpa Lou on the Nickelodeon series Rugrats.
01/12/1928
Malachi Throne, American actor (died 2013)
Malachi Throne was an American actor known for his role as Noah Bain in It Takes a Thief. He also had guest-starring roles on multiple television series, including Star Trek and Batman, and appeared in films and theater.
01/12/1927
Micheline Bernardini, French dancer and model
Micheline Bernardini is a French former nude dancer at the Casino de Paris who agreed to model, on 5 July 1946, Louis Réard's two-piece swimsuit, which he called the bikini, named four days after the first test of an American nuclear weapon at the Bikini Atoll.
01/12/1926
Mother Antonia, American-Mexican nun and activist (died 2013)
Mother Antonia Brenner, better known as Mother Antonia was an American religious sister and activist who chose to reside at the notorious maximum-security La Mesa Prison in Tijuana, Mexico and to care for the prison's inmates.. As a result of her work, she founded a new community called the Eudist Servants of the 11th Hour.
Allyn Ann McLerie, Canadian-American actress, singer, and dancer (died 2018)
Allyn Ann McLerie was a Canadian-born American actress, singer and dancer who worked with many of Golden Age musical theatre's major choreographers, including George Balanchine, Agnes de Mille, and Jerome Robbins.
Keith Michell, Australian actor (died 2015)
Keith Joseph Michell was an Australian actor who worked primarily in the United Kingdom, and was best known for his television and film portrayals of King Henry VIII. He appeared extensively in Shakespeare and other classics and musicals in Britain, and was also in several Broadway productions. He was an artistic director of the Chichester Festival Theatre in the 1970s and later had a recurring role on Murder, She Wrote as the charming thief Dennis Stanton. He was also known for illustrating a collection of Jeremy Lloyd's poems Captain Beaky, and singing the title song from the associated album.
01/12/1925
Martin Rodbell, American biochemist and endocrinologist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1998)
Martin Rodbell was an American biochemist and molecular endocrinologist who is best known for his discovery of G-proteins. He shared the 1994 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Alfred G. Gilman for "their discovery of G-proteins and the role of these proteins in signal transduction in cells."
01/12/1924
Masao Horiba, Japanese businessman, founded Horiba (died 2015)
Masao Horiba was a Japanese businessman who was the founder of Horiba Ltd., a manufacturer of advanced analytical and measurement technology. He founded the company as Horiba Radio Laboratory in 1945. Masao Horiba received several awards from the Japanese government including a national Blue Ribbon Medal, and was the first non-American to receive the Pittcon Heritage Award.
01/12/1923
Dick Shawn, American actor (died 1987)
Dick Shawn was an American actor and comedian. He played a wide variety of supporting roles and was a prolific character actor. During the 1960s, he played small roles in madcap comedies, usually portraying caricatures of counterculture personalities, such as the hedonistic but mother-obsessed Sylvester Marcus in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), and the hippie actor Lorenzo Saint DuBois ("L.S.D.") in The Producers (1967). Beyond his film work, he appeared in numerous television shows from the 1960s through the 1980s.
Stansfield Turner, American admiral and academic, 12th Director of Central Intelligence (died 2018)
Stansfield Turner was an admiral in the United States Navy who served as President of the Naval War College (1972–1974), commander of the United States Second Fleet (1974–1975), and Supreme Allied Commander NATO Southern Europe (1975–1977), and was Director of Central Intelligence (1977–1981) in the Carter administration. A graduate of Exeter College, Oxford and the United States Naval Academy, Turner served for more than 30 years in the Navy, commanding warships, a carrier group, and NATO's military forces in southern Europe, among other commands.
01/12/1922
Vsevolod Bobrov, Russian ice hockey player, footballer, and manager (died 1979)
Vsevolod Mikhailovich Bobrov was a Soviet athlete, who excelled in football, bandy and ice hockey. He is considered one of the best Soviets ever in each of those sports.
01/12/1920
Peter Baptist Tadamaro Ishigami, Japanese priest, 1st Bishop of Naha (died 2014)
Peter Baptist Tadamaro Ishigami, OFMCap was a Japanese prelate of the Roman Catholic Church.
01/12/1917
Marty Marion, American baseball player and manager (died 2011)
Martin Whiteford Marion, nicknamed "Slats", "the Octopus", and "Mr. Shortstop", was an American professional baseball shortstop and manager. He played 13 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the St. Louis Cardinals and St. Louis Browns from 1940 to 1953. He was a defensive stalwart of the Cardinals' dynasty in the 1940s, which saw them win three World Series in a five year span, and was named the National League MVP in 1944, the first shortstop in the history of the National League to win the award. Marion managed the Cardinals in 1951, the Browns from 1952 to 1953, and the Chicago White Sox from 1954 to 1956.
01/12/1916
Wan Li, Chinese educator and politician, 4th Vice Premier of the People's Republic of China (died 2015)
Wan Li was a Chinese Communist revolutionary and politician who served as First Vice Premier of the People's Republic of China from 1983 to 1988 and the 5th Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress from 1988 to 1993.
01/12/1913
Mary Martin, American actress and singer (died 1990)
Mary Virginia Martin was an American actress and singer. A muse of Rodgers and Hammerstein, she originated many leading roles on stage over her career, including Nellie Forbush in South Pacific (1949), the title character in Peter Pan (1954), and Maria von Trapp in The Sound of Music (1959). Over the course of her career, she won four Tony Awards and an Emmy Award. She was named a Kennedy Center Honoree in 1989. She was the mother of actor Larry Hagman.
01/12/1912
Billy Raimondi, American baseball player (died 2010)
William Louis Raimondi was an American professional baseball catcher. He played in Minor League Baseball for 22 years, including 21 years in the Pacific Coast League (PCL). He played for the Oakland Oaks from 1932 to 1949, the Sacramento Solons from 1949 to 1950, and the Los Angeles Angels from 1951 to 1953. Raimondi is a member of the PCL Hall of Fame, elected in 1951.
Minoru Yamasaki, American architect, designed the World Trade Center (died 1986)
Minoru Yamasaki was an American architect, best known for designing the original World Trade Center in New York City and several other large-scale projects. He and fellow architect Edward Durell Stone are generally considered to be the two master practitioners of "New Formalism".
01/12/1911
Walter Alston, American baseball player and manager (died 1984)
Walter Emmons Alston, nicknamed "Smokey", was an American professional baseball manager in Major League Baseball (MLB) who managed the Brooklyn / Los Angeles Dodgers from 1954 through 1976, signing 23 one-year contracts with the team. Regarded as one of the greatest managers in baseball history, Alston was known for his calm, reticent demeanor, for which he was sometimes referred to as "the Quiet Man."
Calvin Griffith, Canadian-American businessman (died 1999)
Calvin Robertson Griffith, born Calvin Griffith Robertson, was a Canadian-born American Major League Baseball team owner. As president, majority owner and de facto general manager of the Washington Senators/Minnesota Twins franchise of the American League from 1955 through 1984, he orchestrated the transfer of the Senators after 60 years in Washington, D.C., to Minneapolis–Saint Paul in the autumn of 1960 to create the Twins. He was famous for his devotion to the game and for his sayings. He was the last MLB owner who had no income apart from his franchise.
01/12/1910
Alicia Markova, English ballerina and choreographer (died 2004)
Dame Alicia Markova DBE was a British ballerina and a choreographer, director and teacher of classical ballet. Most noted for her career with Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes and touring internationally, she was widely considered to be one of the greatest classical ballet dancers of the twentieth century. She was the first British dancer to become the principal dancer of a ballet company and, with Dame Margot Fonteyn, is one of only two English dancers to be recognised as a prima ballerina assoluta. Markova was a founder dancer of the Rambert Dance Company, The Royal Ballet and American Ballet Theatre, and was co-founder and director of the English National Ballet.
01/12/1905
Alex Wilson, Canadian sprinter and coach (died 1994)
Alexander S. Wilson was a Canadian sprinter who competed in both the 1928 Summer Olympics and the 1932 Summer Olympics. He was born in Montreal and died in Mission, Texas, United States.
01/12/1903
Nikolai Voznesensky, Soviet economic planner, member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (died 1950)
Nikolai Alekseevich Voznesensky was a Soviet politician and economic planner who oversaw the running of Gosplan during the German–Soviet War of 1941–1945. A protégé of Andrei Zhdanov, Voznesensky was appointed Deputy Premier in May 1940. He became directly involved in the recovery of production associated with the evacuation of industry eastwards after the start of the war. His 1947 work The Economy of the USSR during World War II records those years.
01/12/1901
Ilona Fehér, Hungarian-Israeli violinist and educator (died 1988)
Ilona Feher or Ilona Fehér, was one of the representatives of the Hungarian Violin School whose greats include Joseph Böhm, Joseph Joachim, Jakob Grün, Leopold Auer, Jenő Hubay, Carl Flesch, Joseph Szigeti, Tibor Varga, Sandor Vegh, André Gertler, Kato Havas, Paul Rolland and Geza Szilvay. She was also a noted violin teacher. She was born in Budapest and died in Holon, Israel.
01/12/1900
Karna Maria Birmingham, Australian artist, illustrator and print maker (died 1987)
Karna Maria Birmingham was an Australian artist, illustrator and print maker. She was best known for her numerous illustrations of children's books.
01/12/1898
Stuart Garson, Canadian lawyer and politician, 12th Premier of Manitoba (died 1977)
Stuart Sinclair Garson was a Canadian politician and lawyer. He served as the 12th premier of Manitoba from 1943 to 1948, and later became a Federal cabinet minister.
Cyril Ritchard, Australian-American actor and singer (died 1977)
Cyril Joseph Trimnell-Ritchard, known professionally as Cyril Ritchard, was an Australian stage, screen and television actor, and director. He is best remembered today for his performance as Captain Hook in the Mary Martin musical production of Peter Pan. In 1945, he played Gabriel Eisenstein in Gay Rosalinda at the Palace theatre in London, a version of Strauss's Die Fledermaus by Erich Wolfgang Korngold in which he appeared with Peter Graves, 8th Baron Graves. The show was conducted by Richard Tauber and ran for almost a year.
01/12/1896
Georgy Zhukov, Russian general and politician, 2nd Minister of Defence for the Soviet Union (died 1974)
Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov was a Soviet military leader who served as a top commander during World War II and achieved the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union. During World War II, Zhukov served as deputy commander-in-chief of the armed forces under leader Joseph Stalin, and oversaw some of the Red Army's most decisive victories. He also served at various points as Chief of the General Staff, Minister of Defence, and a member of the Presidium of the Communist Party (Politburo).
01/12/1895
Henry Williamson, English farmer, soldier, and author (died 1977)
Henry William Williamson was an English writer who wrote novels concerned with wildlife, English social history, ruralism and the First World War. He was awarded the Hawthornden Prize for literature in 1928 for his book Tarka the Otter.
01/12/1894
Afrânio Pompílio Gastos do Amaral, Brazilian herpetologist (died 1982)
Afrânio Pompílio Bastos do Amaral was a Brazilian herpetologist.
01/12/1886
Rex Stout, American detective novelist (died 1975)
Rex Todhunter Stout was an American writer noted for his detective fiction. His best-known characters are the detective Nero Wolfe and his assistant Archie Goodwin, who were featured in 33 novels and 39 novellas or short stories between 1934 and 1975, starting with Fer-de-Lance (1934).
Zhu De, Chinese general and politician, 1st Vice Chairman of the People's Republic of China (died 1976)
Zhu De was a Chinese general, military strategist, politician and revolutionary in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
01/12/1884
Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, German painter and etcher (died 1976)
Karl Schmidt-Rottluff was a German expressionist painter and printmaker; he was one of the four founders of the artist group Die Brücke.
01/12/1883
Henry Cadbury, American historian, scholar, and academic (died 1974)
Henry Joel Cadbury was an American biblical scholar, Quaker historian, writer, and non-profit administrator.
01/12/1871
Archie MacLaren, English cricketer (died 1944)
Archibald Campbell MacLaren was an English cricketer who captained the England cricket team at various times between 1898 and 1909. A right-handed batsman, he played 35 Test matches for England, as captain in 22 of those games, and led the team to defeat in four Ashes series against Australia. An amateur, MacLaren played first-class cricket for Lancashire, captaining that county for most of his career. As a batsman, MacLaren was one of the leading cricketers of his time and had a reputation as a fast-scoring stylist. In 1895, he scored 424 runs in an innings against Somerset which was the highest individual score in first-class cricket until 1923 and remained a record in English cricket until 1994. Opinions were divided over his captaincy. He was a deep thinker on the game and critics believed him to be tactically advanced, but his pessimism, clashes with the selectors and inability to get the best out of his players led most commentators to rate him a poor leader.
01/12/1869
Eligiusz Niewiadomski, Polish painter and critic (died 1923)
Eligiusz Józef Niewiadomski was a Polish modernist painter and art critic who sympathized with the right-wing National Democracy movement. In 1922, he assassinated Poland's first President, Gabriel Narutowicz, in his first week in office as president.
01/12/1855
John Evans, English-Australian politician, 21st Premier of Tasmania (died 1943)
Sir John William Evans, CMG was an Australian politician, a member of the Tasmanian House of Assembly and Premier of Tasmania from 11 July 1904 to 19 June 1909.
01/12/1847
Julia A. Moore, American poet (died 1920)
Julia Ann Moore was an American poet widely considered a poetaster. Like Scotland's William McGonagall, she is best known for writing notoriously bad poetry.
01/12/1846
Ledi Sayadaw, Burmese monk and philosopher (died 1923)
Ledi Sayadaw U Ñaṇadhaja was an influential Theravada Buddhist monk. He was recognised from a young age as being developed in both the theory (Abhidhamma) and practice of Buddhism and so was revered as being scholarly. He wrote many books on Dhamma in Burmese and these were accessible even to a serious lay person, hence he was responsible for spreading Dhamma to all levels of society and reviving the traditional practice of Vipassanā meditation, making it more available for renunciates and lay people alike.
01/12/1844
Alexandra of Denmark, Queen Consort of Edward VII of the United Kingdom, Empress Consort of India (died 1925)
Alexandra of Denmark was Queen of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India, from 22 January 1901 to 6 May 1910 as the wife of King Edward VII.
01/12/1805
9th Dalai Lama, Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader (died 1815)
The 9th Dalai Lama was recognized as the 9th Dalai Lama of Tibet. He was the first and the youngest Dalai Lama among four successive Dalai Lamas who succumbed to illnesses before reaching 22 years of age.
01/12/1800
Mihály Vörösmarty, Hungarian poet (died 1855)
Mihály Vörösmarty was a Hungarian poet and dramatist who lived and worked in the Kingdom of Hungary.
01/12/1792
Nikolai Lobachevsky, Russian mathematician and geometer (died 1856)
Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky was a Russian mathematician and geometer, known primarily for his work on hyperbolic geometry, otherwise known as Lobachevskian geometry, and also for his fundamental study on Dirichlet integrals, known as the Lobachevsky integral formula.
01/12/1761
Marie Tussaud, French-English sculptor, founded Madame Tussauds Wax Museum (died 1850)
Anna Maria "Marie" Tussaud, commonly known as Madame Tussaud, was a French artist known for her wax sculptures and Madame Tussauds, the wax museum she founded in London.
01/12/1743
Martin Heinrich Klaproth, German chemist and academic (died 1817)
Martin Heinrich Klaproth was a German chemist. He trained and worked for much of his life as an apothecary, moving in later life to the university. His shop became the second-largest apothecary in Berlin, and the most productive artisanal chemical research center in Europe.
01/12/1716
Étienne Maurice Falconet, French sculptor (died 1791)
Étienne Maurice Falconet was a French baroque, rococo and neoclassical sculptor, best-known for his equestrian statue of Peter the Great, the Bronze Horseman (1782), in St. Petersburg, Russian Empire, and for the small statues he produced in series for the Royal Sévres Porcelain Manufactory.
01/12/1709
Franz Xaver Richter, Czech composer, violinist, and conductor (died 1789)
Franz Xaver Richter, known as François Xavier Richter in France was an Austro-Moravian singer, violinist, composer, conductor and music theoretician who spent most of his life first in Austria and later in Mannheim and in Strasbourg, where he was music director of the cathedral. From 1783 on, Haydn's favourite pupil, Ignaz Pleyel, was his deputy director.
01/12/1690
Philip Yorke, 1st Earl of Hardwicke, English lawyer and politician, Lord Chancellor of the United Kingdom (died 1764)
Philip Yorke, 1st Earl of Hardwicke, was an English lawyer and politician who served as Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain. He was a close confidant of the Duke of Newcastle, Prime Minister between 1754 and 1756 and 1757 until 1762.
01/12/1580
Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc, French astronomer and historian (died 1637)
Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc, often known simply as Peiresc, or by the Latin form of his name, Peirescius, was a French astronomer, antiquary and savant, who maintained a wide correspondence with scientists, and was a successful organizer of scientific inquiry.
01/12/1561
Sophie Hedwig of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, Duchess consort of Pomerania-Wolgast (died 1631)
Sophie or Sophia Hedwig of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel was a princess of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel by birth and by marriage a Duchess of Pomerania-Wolgast.
01/12/1530
Bernardino Realino, Italian Jesuit (died 1616)
Bernardino Realino was an Italian Roman Catholic priest and a professed member of the Jesuits. His entire career was devoted to the areas of Naples and Lecce. Realino pursued a career in law and served in several municipal capacities before feeling called to the Jesuit life and being ordained to the priesthood in Naples. He is often dubbed as the "Apostle of Lecce" for his commitment to the poor and for his preaching abilities.
01/12/1525
Tadeáš Hájek, Czech medical doctor and astronomer (died 1600)
Tadeáš Hájek of Hájek, also known by Latinized names Thaddaeus Hagecius ab Hayek and Thaddeus Nemicus, was a Czech naturalist and astronomer. He was a personal medical doctor of the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II and an astronomer in the Kingdom of Bohemia.
01/12/1521
Takeda Shingen, Japanese daimyō (died 1573)
Takeda Shingen was a Japanese samurai and daimyō of the Sengoku period. Known as the "Tiger of Kai", he was one of the most powerful daimyō of the late Sengoku period and was credited with exceptional military prestige. Despite being based in Kai Province, a poor area with little arable land and no access to the sea, he became one of Japan's leading daimyō. His skills are highly esteemed and on par with Mōri Motonari.
01/12/1443
Magdalena of France, French princess (died 1495)
Madeleine of France, also called Magdalene of Valois, was a French princess who became Princess of Viana by marriage to Gaston of Foix. She was the regent of Navarre between 1479 and 1494 during the minority of her two children, each of whom became monarchs of Navarre: Francis Phoebus and Catherine.
01/12/1438
Peter II, Duke of Bourbon, son of Charles I (died 1503)
Peter II, Duke of Bourbon, was the son of Charles I, Duke of Bourbon, and Agnes of Burgundy, and a member of the House of Bourbon. He and his wife Anne of France ruled as regents during the minority of Charles VIII of France.
01/12/1415
Jan Długosz, Polish historian (died 1480)
Jan Długosz, also known in Latin as Johannes Longinus, was a Polish priest, chronicler, diplomat, soldier, and secretary to Bishop Zbigniew Oleśnicki of Kraków. He is considered Poland's first historian.
01/12/1083
Anna Komnene, Byzantine medical doctor and scholar (died 1153)
Anna Komnene, commonly Latinized as Anna Comnena, was a Byzantine Greek princess and historian. She is the author of the Alexiad, an account of the reign of her father, Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos. Her work constitutes the most important primary source of Byzantine history of the late 11th and early 12th centuries, as well as of the early Crusades. Although she is best known as the author of the Alexiad, Anna played an important part in the politics of the time and attempted to depose her brother John II Komnenos as emperor in favour of her husband, Nikephoros Bryennios the Younger.
01/12/1081
Louis VI, French king (died 1137)
Louis VI, called the Fat or the Fighter, reigned as King of the Franks from 1108 to 1137. Like his father Philip I, Louis made a lasting contribution to centralizing the institutions of royal power. He spent much of his twenty-nine-year reign fighting – either against the "robber barons" who plagued the Ile de France, or against Henry I of England for the English continental possessions in Normandy. Nonetheless, Louis VI managed to reinforce his influence considerably, often resorting to force to bring lawless knights to justice, and was the first member of the House of Capet to issue ordonnances applying to the whole of the kingdom of France.
01/12/0624
Hasan ibn Ali, the second Shia Imam (died 670)
Hasan ibn Ali was an Alid political and religious leader. The eldest son of Ali and Fatima and a grandson of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, Hasan briefly ruled as caliph from January 661 until August 661. He is considered as the second Imam in Shia Islam, succeeding Ali and preceding his brother Husayn. As a grandson of the prophet, he is part of the ahl al-bayt and the ahl al-kisa, and also participated in the event of the mubahala.
Lives Remembered on 1st December
On 1st December, 118 remarkable people passed away — from 217 to 2024. Remember the lives and legacies of those we lost on this day.
01/12/2024
Terry Griffiths, Welsh snooker player and coach (born 1947)
Terence Martin Griffiths was a Welsh professional snooker player, coach, and commentator. He won several amateur championships, including the Welsh Amateur Championship in 1975 and consecutive English Amateur Championship titles in 1977 and 1978, before turning professional in 1978 at the age of 30.
Ian Redpath, Australian cricketer and coach (born 1941)
Ian Ritchie Redpath MBE was an Australian international cricketer who played in 66 Test matches and five One Day Internationals between 1964 and 1976. Greg Chappell said he was one of only two players he knew who would kill to get into the Australian Test team, the other being Rod Marsh.
01/12/2023
Sandra Day O'Connor, first female U.S. Supreme Court Justice (1981–2006) (born 1930)
Sandra Day O'Connor was an American attorney, politician, and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1981 to 2006. Nominated by President Ronald Reagan, O'Connor was the first woman to serve as a U.S. Supreme Court justice. A moderate conservative, she was considered a swing vote. Before O'Connor's tenure on the Court, she was an Arizona state judge and earlier an elected legislator in Arizona, serving as the first female majority leader of a state senate as the Republican leader in the Arizona Senate. Upon her nomination to the Court, O'Connor was confirmed unanimously by the United States Senate.
01/12/2022
Gaylord Perry, American baseball player and coach (born 1938)
Gaylord Jackson Perry was an American right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball (MLB) who played for eight teams from 1962 to 1983, becoming one of the most durable and successful pitchers in history. A five-time All-Star, Perry was the first pitcher to win the Cy Young Award in both leagues. He won the American League (AL) award in 1972 after leading the league with 24 wins with a 1.92 earned run average (ERA) for the fifth-place Cleveland Indians and took the National League (NL) award in 1978 with the San Diego Padres after again leading the league with 21 wins; his Cy Young Award announcement just as he turned the age of 40 made him the oldest to win the award, which stood as a record for 26 years. He and his older brother Jim Perry, who were Cleveland teammates in 1974–1975, became the first brothers to both win 200 games in the major leagues and remain the only brothers to both win Cy Young Awards.
01/12/2020
Arnie Robinson, American athlete (born 1948)
Arnie Paul Robinson Jr. was an American athlete. He won a bronze medal in the long jump at the 1972 Olympics and a gold medal in 1976.
01/12/2019
Paula Tilbrook, English actress (born 1930)
Paula Tilbrook was an English actress who played Betty Eagleton in the ITV soap opera Emmerdale from 1994 to 2015.
01/12/2018
Vivian Lynn, New Zealand artist (born 1931)
Vivian Isabella Lynn was a New Zealand artist.
Ken Berry, American actor, dancer, and singer (born 1933)
Kenneth Ronald Berry was an American actor, comedian, dancer, and singer. Berry starred on the television series F Troop (1965–1967), Mayberry R.F.D. (1968–1971) and Mama's Family (1983–1990). He also appeared on Broadway in The Billy Barnes Revue, headlined as George M. Cohan in the musical George M! and provided comic relief for the medical drama Dr. Kildare with Richard Chamberlain in the 1960s.
01/12/2015
Rob Blokzijl, Dutch physicist and computer scientist (born 1943)
Robert "Rob" Blokzijl was a Dutch physicist and computer scientist at the National Institute for Subatomic Physics (NIKHEF), and an early internet pioneer. He was founding member and chairman of RIPE, the Réseaux IP Européens, the European Internet Registrar organisation.
Joseph Engelberger, American physicist and engineer (born 1925)
Joseph Frederick Engelberger was an American physicist, engineer and entrepreneur. Often regarded as the "Father of Robotics". Licensing the original patent awarded to inventor George Devol, Engelberger developed the first industrial robot in the United States, the Unimate, in the 1950s. Later, he worked as entrepreneur and vocal advocate of robotic technology beyond the manufacturing plant in a variety of fields, including service industries, health care, and space exploration.
Jim Loscutoff, American basketball player (born 1930)
James Loscutoff Jr. was a professional basketball player for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA). A forward, Loscutoff played on seven Celtics championship teams between 1956 and 1964.
Trevor Obst, Australian footballer and coach (born 1940)
Trevor Obst was an Australian rules footballer who played with Port Adelaide in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL) during the 1960s and 1970s.
01/12/2014
Mario Abramovich, Argentinian violinist and composer (born 1926)
Mario Abramovich was an Argentine violinist and composer, considered an important figure linked to the music of tango.
Dimitrios Trichopoulos, Greek epidemiologist, oncologist, and academic (born 1938)
Dimitrios Trichopoulos was a Mediterranean Diet expert and tobacco harms researcher. He was Vincent L. Gregory Professor of Cancer Prevention and Professor of Epidemiology, and a past chair of the Department of Epidemiology, in the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston.
Rocky Wood, New Zealand-Australian author (born 1959)
Rocky Wood was a New Zealand-born Australian writer and researcher. He was best known for his books about horror author Stephen King. He was a freelance writer for over 35 years, and became the first author from outside North America or Europe to hold the position of president of the Horror Writers Association. In October 2010, Wood was diagnosed with motor neurone disease, and died from complications of the disease.
01/12/2013
Richard Coughlan, English drummer (born 1947)
Richard Coughlan was an English musician who was best known as the drummer and percussionist of the Canterbury scene progressive rock band Caravan. He was one of the founding members of the band in 1968 and remained with them until his death. AllMusic called Coughlan "one of art rock's longest tenured musicians".
Stirling Colgate, American physicist and academic (born 1925)
Stirling Auchincloss Colgate was an American nuclear physicist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and a professor emeritus of physics at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology from 1965 to 1974, of which he also served its president.
Edward Heffron, American soldier (born 1923)
Edward James "Babe" Heffron was a private with E Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, in the 101st Airborne Division of the United States Army during World War II. Heffron was portrayed in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers by Robin Laing. In 2007, Heffron wrote Brothers in Battle, Best of Friends: Two WWII Paratroopers from the Original Band of Brothers Tell Their Story with fellow veteran William "Wild Bill" Guarnere and journalist Robyn Post.
Martin Sharp, Australian cartoonist and songwriter (born 1942)
Martin Ritchie Sharp was an Australian artist, cartoonist, songwriter and film-maker.
01/12/2012
Jovan Belcher, American football player (born 1987)
Jovan Henry Allen Belcher was an American professional football player who was a linebacker in the National Football League (NFL). He played his entire three-year career with the Kansas City Chiefs before murdering his girlfriend and committing suicide.
Arthur Chaskalson, South African lawyer and judge, 18th Chief Justice of South Africa (born 1931)
Arthur Chaskalson SCOB, was President of the Constitutional Court of South Africa from 1994 to 2001 and Chief Justice of South Africa from 2001 to 2005. Chaskalson was a member of the defence team in the Rivonia Trial of 1963.
Rick Majerus, American basketball player and coach (born 1948)
Richard Raymond Majerus was an American basketball coach and TV analyst. He coached at Marquette University (1983–1986), Ball State University (1987–1989), the University of Utah (1989–2004), and Saint Louis University (2007–2012). Majerus's most successful season came at Utah in the 1997–98 season, when the Utes finished as runners-up in the 1998 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament. Majerus was inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2019.
Ed Price, American soldier, pilot, and politician (born 1918)
Edgar Hilleary Price, Jr.,, was a World War II Bomber pilot, Florida legislator, community leader and agricultural manager who fought for civil rights and public education.
Israel Keyes, American serial killer (born 1978)
Israel Keyes was an American serial killer, rapist, bank robber, burglar, arsonist, and kidnapper.
01/12/2011
Christa Wolf, German author and critic (born 1929)
Christa Wolf was a German novelist and essayist. She is considered one of the most important writers to emerge from the former East Germany.
01/12/2010
Adriaan Blaauw, Dutch astronomer and academic (born 1914)
Adriaan Blaauw was a Dutch astronomer.
Hillard Elkins, American actor and producer (born 1929)
Hillard (Hilly) Elkins was an American theatre and film producer.
01/12/2008
Paul Benedict, American actor (born 1938)
Paul Bernard Benedict was an American actor who made numerous appearances in television and films, beginning in 1965. He was known for his roles as The Number Painter on the PBS children's show Sesame Street and as the English neighbor Harry Bentley on the CBS sitcom The Jeffersons.
Joseph B. Wirthlin, American businessman and religious leader (born 1917)
Joseph Bitner Wirthlin was an American businessman, religious leader and member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was sustained to the Twelve on October 4, 1986, and ordained an apostle on October 9, 1986, by Thomas S. Monson. He became an apostle following the death of church president Spencer W. Kimball. As a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, Wirthlin was accepted by the church membership as a prophet, seer, and revelator.
01/12/2007
Ken McGregor, Australian tennis player and footballer (born 1929)
Kenneth Bruce McGregor was an Australian tennis player from Adelaide who won the Men's Singles title at the Australian Championships in 1952. He and his longtime doubles partner, Frank Sedgman, are generally considered one of the greatest men's doubles teams of all time and won the doubles Grand Slam in 1951. McGregor was also a member of three Australian Davis Cup winning teams in 1950–1952. In 1953, Jack Kramer induced both Sedgman and McGregor to turn professional. He was ranked as high as World No. 3 in 1952.
Anton Rodgers, British actor (born 1933)
Anthony Rodgers was an English actor and occasional director. He performed on stage, in film, in television dramas and sitcoms. He starred in several sitcoms, including Fresh Fields, its sequel French Fields, and May to December.
Ivo Rojnica, Croatian-Argentine war crimes suspect, businessman, diplomat, and intelligence agent (born 1915)
Ivo Rojnica was a Croatian Ustaše official and intelligence agent who was active in the World War II Axis puppet state known as the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) from 1941 to 1945. After the war, he escaped to Argentina, where he reinvented himself as a businessman and diplomat.
01/12/2006
Claude Jade, French actress (born 1948)
Claude Marcelle Jorré, better known as Claude Jade, was a French actress. She starred as Christine in François Truffaut's three films Stolen Kisses (1968), Bed and Board (1970) and Love on the Run (1979). Jade acted in theatre, film and television. Her film work outside France, where she displays her talent in works such as My Uncle Benjamin (1969), The Boat on the Grass (1971) or The Pawn (1978), has Claude Jade included the Soviet Union, the United States, Italy, Belgium, Germany and Japan. She was most famous on television as the heroine of the mysterious adventure series The Island of Thirty Coffins (1979). She was also the leading actress in the first French daily soap opera, Cap des Pins (1998–2000). Her last role was playing Célimène in the 2006 theatre play and film Célimène et le cardinal.
Bruce Trigger, Canadian archaeologist, anthropologist, and historian (born 1937)
Bruce Graham Trigger was a Canadian archaeologist, anthropologist, and ethnohistorian. He was appointed the James McGill Professor at McGill University in 2001.
01/12/2005
Gust Avrakotos, American CIA officer (born 1938)
Gust Lascaris Avrakotos was an American case officer and the Afghanistan Task Force Chief at the Central Intelligence Agency.
Mary Hayley Bell, English actress and playwright (born 1911)
Mary Hayley Bell, Lady Mills was an English actress and writer, married for 64 years to actor Sir John Mills. Her novel Whistle Down the Wind was adapted as a film, starring her teenaged daughter, actress Hayley Mills.
Freeman V. Horner, American soldier, Medal of Honor recipient (born 1922)
Freeman Victor Horner was a United States Army officer and a recipient of the United States military's highest decoration—the Medal of Honor—for his actions in World War II.
01/12/2004
Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld (born 1911)
Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld was Prince of the Netherlands from 6 September 1948 to 30 April 1980 as the husband of Queen Juliana. They had four daughters together, including Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands.
Bill Brown, Scottish footballer (born 1931)
William Dallas Fyfe Brown was a Scottish football goalkeeper.
Norman Newell, English record producer and lyricist (born 1919)
Norman Newell was an English record producer and lyricist, who was mainly active in the 1950s and 1960s. He was also the co-writer of many notable songs. As an A&R manager for EMI, he worked with musicians such as Shirley Bassey, Dalida, Claude François, Vera Lynn, Russ Conway, Bette Midler, Judy Garland, Petula Clark, Jake Thackray, Malcolm Roberts, Bobby Crush and Peter and Gordon.
01/12/2003
Clark Kerr, American economist and academic (born 1911)
Clark Kerr was an American economist and academic administrator. He was the first chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley, and twelfth president of the University of California.
Eugenio Monti, Italian bobsledder (born 1928)
Eugenio Monti was an Italian bobsledder and alpine skier. He is one of the most successful athletes in the history of the bobsleigh, with ten World championship medals and 6 Olympic medals including two golds. He is known also for his acts of sportsmanship during the 1964 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria, which made him the first athlete ever to receive the Pierre de Coubertin World Trophy.
01/12/2002
Edward L. Beach Jr., American captain and author (born 1918)
Edward Latimer Beach Jr. was a United States Navy submarine officer and author.
Dave McNally, American baseball player (born 1942)
David Arthur McNally was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a left-handed pitcher from 1962 through 1975, most notably as a member of the Baltimore Orioles dynasty that won four American League pennants and two World Series championships between 1966 and 1971. A three-time All-Star, McNally won 20 or more games for four consecutive seasons from 1968 through 1971. He was one of four 20-game winners for the 1971 Orioles, the last team as of 2025 to have four 20-win pitchers on the same roster.
01/12/2001
Ellis R. Dungan, American director and producer (born 1909)
Ellis Roderick Dungan was an American film director, who was well known for working in Indian films, predominantly in Tamil cinema, from 1936 to 1950. He was an alumnus of the University of Southern California and moved to India in 1935. During his film career in South India, Dungan directed the debut films of several popular Tamil film actors, such as M. G. Ramachandran in Sathi Leelavathi, T. S. Balaiya, Kali N. Ratnam and N. S. Krishnan.
01/12/1998
Janet Lewis, American poet and novelist (born 1899)
Janet Loxley Lewis was an American novelist, poet, and librettist. She was considered one of the finest American literary figures of the 20th century.
01/12/1997
Michel Bélanger, Canadian banker and businessman (born 1929)
Michel Bélanger, was a Canadian businessman and banker.
Stéphane Grappelli, French violinist (born 1908)
Stéphane Grappelli was a French jazz violinist. He is best known as a founder of the Quintette du Hot Club de France with guitarist Django Reinhardt in 1934. It was one of the first all-string jazz bands. He has been called "the grandfather of jazz violinists" and continued playing concerts around the world well into his eighties.
Endicott Peabody, American lieutenant, lawyer, and politician, 62nd Governor of Massachusetts (born 1920)
Endicott Howard Peabody was an American politician from Massachusetts. A Democrat, he served a single two-year term as the 62nd governor of Massachusetts, from 1963 to 1965. His tenure is probably best known for his categorical opposition to the death penalty and for signing into law the bill establishing the University of Massachusetts Boston. After losing the 1964 Democratic gubernatorial primary, Peabody made several more failed bids for office in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, including failed campaigns for the U.S. Senate in 1966 and 1986.
01/12/1996
Peter Bronfman, Canadian businessman (born 1928)
Peter Frederick Bronfman OC was a Canadian businessman and entrepreneur, born in Montreal, and member of the Toronto branch of Canada's wealthy Bronfman family. He attended Selwyn House School in Montreal and the elite Lawrenceville School in New Jersey, one of the oldest prep schools in America, and received his bachelor's degree from Yale University in 1952.
01/12/1995
Hopper Levett, English cricketer (born 1908)
William Howard Vincent "Hopper" Levett was an English cricketer who played as a wicket-keeper for Kent County Cricket Club between 1930 and 1947.
Colin Tapley, New Zealand-English actor (born 1907)
Colin Edward Livingstone Tapley was a New Zealand actor in both American and British films. Born in New Zealand, he served in the Royal Air Force and an expedition to Antarctica before winning a Paramount Pictures talent contest and moving to Hollywood. He acted in a number of films before moving to Britain during the Second World War as a flight controller with the Royal Canadian Air Force.
Maxwell R. Thurman, American general (born 1931)
Maxwell Reid Thurman was a United States Army general, who served as Vice Chief of Staff of the United States Army and commander of United States Army Training and Doctrine Command.
01/12/1993
Ray Gillen, American singer-songwriter (born 1959)
Raymond Arthur Gillen was an American rock singer. He is best known for his work with Badlands, in addition to his stint with Black Sabbath in the mid-1980s and recording most of the vocals on Phenomena's Dream Runner album.
01/12/1991
Pat O'Callaghan, Irish athlete (born 1906)
Patrick O'Callaghan was an Irish hammer thrower and double Olympic gold medallist. He was the first athlete from Ireland to win an Olympic medal under the Irish flag rather than the British flag.
George Stigler, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1911)
George Joseph Stigler was an American economist. He was the 1982 laureate in Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences and is considered a key leader of the Chicago school of economics.
01/12/1990
Carla Lehmann, Canadian-English actress (born 1917)
Carla Lehmann was a Canadian stage, film and television actress.
01/12/1989
Alvin Ailey, American dancer and choreographer (born 1931)
Alvin Ailey Jr. was an American dancer, director, choreographer, and activist. He founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT) in 1958, and the Clark Center for the Performing Arts in 1959. He created AAADT and its affiliated Alvin Ailey American Dance Center as havens for nurturing Black artists and expressing the universality of the African-American experience through dance.
01/12/1988
J. Vernon McGee, American pastor and theologian (born 1904)
John Vernon McGee was an American ordained Presbyterian minister, pastor, Bible teacher, theologian, and radio minister.
01/12/1987
James Baldwin, American novelist, poet, and critic (born 1924)
James Arthur Baldwin was an American writer and civil rights activist who garnered acclaim for his essays, novels, plays, and poems. His 1953 novel Go Tell It on the Mountain has been ranked by Time magazine as one of the top 100 English-language novels. His 1955 essay collection Notes of a Native Son helped establish his reputation as a voice for human equality. His 1965 debate with William Buckley is regarded as one of the most influential debates on race in the United States. Baldwin was an influential public figure and orator, especially during the civil rights movement in the United States.
Punch Imlach, Canadian ice hockey player, coach, and manager (born 1918)
George "Punch" Imlach was a Canadian ice hockey coach and general manager best known for his association with the Toronto Maple Leafs, whom he was with from 1958 to 1969, and again from 1979 to 1981, and the Buffalo Sabres, whom he was with from 1970 to 1978. With Toronto he won the Stanley Cup four times, from 1962 to 1964 and again in 1967. He is a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, and the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame.
01/12/1986
Frank McCarthy, American general and film producer (born 1912)
Frank McCarthy was the secretary of the General Staff of the United States Department of War during World War II; briefly United States Assistant Secretary of State for Administration in 1945; and later a distinguished film producer, whose production Patton won the 1970 Academy Award for Best Picture.
01/12/1984
Roelof Frankot, Dutch painter and photographer (born 1911)
Roelof Frankot was a Dutch painter.
01/12/1981
Russ Manning, American author and illustrator (born 1929)
Russell George Manning was an American comic book artist who created the series Magnus, Robot Fighter and illustrated such newspaper comic strips as Tarzan and Star Wars. He was inducted into the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 2006.
01/12/1975
Nellie Fox, American baseball player and coach (born 1927)
Jacob Nelson Fox was an American professional baseball player. Fox was one of the best second basemen of all time, and the third-most difficult hitter to strike out in Major League Baseball (MLB) history. Fox played in the big leagues from 1947 through 1965 and spent the majority of his career as a member of the Chicago White Sox; his career was bookended by multi-year stints for the Philadelphia Athletics and, later, the Houston Astros.
Ernesto Maserati, Italian race car driver and engineer (born 1898)
Ernesto Maserati was an Italian automotive engineer and racer, with Maserati of Modena since its inception in Bologna on 14 December 1914, together with his brothers Alfieri Maserati (leader), Ettore Maserati, Bindo Maserati and others.
Anna Roosevelt Halsted, American journalist (born 1906)
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt Halsted was an American writer who worked as a newspaper editor and in public relations. Halsted also wrote two children's books published in the 1930s. She was the eldest child and only daughter of U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. Halsted assisted her father as his advisor during World War II.
01/12/1973
David Ben-Gurion, Israeli politician, 1st Prime Minister of Israel (born 1886)
David Ben-Gurion was the primary national founder and first prime minister of the State of Israel. As head of the Jewish Agency from 1935, and later president of the Jewish Agency Executive, he was the de facto leader of the Jewish community in Palestine, and largely led the movement for an independent Jewish state in Mandatory Palestine.
01/12/1968
Nicolae Bretan, Romanian opera singer, composer, and conductor (born 1887)
Nicolae Bretan was a Romanian opera composer, baritone, conductor, and music critic.
Darío Moreno, Turkish singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor (born 1921)
David Arugete, commonly known under his stage name Dario Moreno, was a Turkish-Jewish polyglot singer, an accomplished composer, lyricist, and guitarist. He attained fame and made a remarkable career centred in France which also included films, during the 1950s and the 1960s. He became famous with his 1961 song Brigitte Bardot.
01/12/1964
J. B. S. Haldane, English-Indian geneticist and biologist (born 1892)
John Burdon Sanderson Haldane, nicknamed "Jack" or "JBS", was a British-born scientist who later moved to India and acquired Indian citizenship. He worked in the fields of physiology, genetics, evolutionary biology, and mathematics. With innovative use of statistics in biology, he was one of the founders of neo-Darwinism. Despite his lack of an academic degree in the field, he taught biology at the University of Cambridge, the Royal Institution, and University College London. Renouncing his British citizenship, he became an Indian citizen in 1961 and worked at the Indian Statistical Institute until his death in 1964.
Charilaos Vasilakos, Greek runner (born 1877)
Charilaos Vasilakos was a Greek athlete and the first man to win a marathon race. He also won a silver medal for a second place finish in marathon at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens.
01/12/1958
Elizabeth Peratrovich, American civil rights activist (born 1911)
Elizabeth Peratrovich was an American civil rights activist, Grand President of the Alaska Native Sisterhood, and a Tlingit who worked for equality on behalf of Alaska Natives. In the 1940s, her advocacy was credited as being instrumental in the passing of Alaska's Anti-Discrimination Act of 1945, the first state or territorial anti-discrimination law enacted in the United States.
01/12/1954
Fred Rose, American pianist, composer, and publisher (born 1898)
Knowles Fred Rose was an American musician, Hall of Fame songwriter, and music publishing executive.
01/12/1950
Ernest John Moeran, English pianist and composer (born 1894)
Ernest John Smeed Moeran was an Anglo-Irish composer whose work was strongly influenced by English and Irish folk music of which he was an assiduous collector. His oeuvre includes orchestral pieces, concertos, chamber and keyboard works, and a number of choral and song cycles as well as individual songs.
01/12/1947
Aleister Crowley, English magician, poet, and mountaineer (born 1875)
Aleister Crowley was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, novelist, mountaineer, and painter. He identified as the prophet entrusted with guiding humanity into the Æon of Horus in the early 20th century, founding the religion of Thelema. A prolific writer, he published widely over the course of his life.
G. H. Hardy, English mathematician and theorist (born 1877)
Godfrey Harold Hardy was an English mathematician, known for his achievements in number theory and mathematical analysis. In biology, he is known for the Hardy–Weinberg principle, a basic principle of population genetics.
01/12/1944
Charlie Kerins, Irish Republican executed by hanging (born 1918)
Charlie Kerins was a physical force Irish Republican, and Chief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army (IRA). Kerins was one of six IRA men who were executed by the Irish State between September 1940 and December 1944. After spending two years on the run he was captured by the police in 1944. Following his subsequent trial and conviction for the 1942 murder of Garda Detective Sergeant Denis O'Brien, Kerins was hanged at Mountjoy Prison in Dublin.
01/12/1943
Damrong Rajanubhab, Thai historian and educator (born 1862)
Prince Tisavarakumara, the Prince Damrong Rajanubhab was the founder of the modern Thai educational system as well as the modern provincial administration. He was an autodidact, a (self-taught) historian, and one of the most influential Thai intellectuals of his time.
01/12/1942
Leon Wachholz, Polish scientist and medical examiner (born 1867)
Leon Jan Wachholz (Wacholz) (June 20, 1867 – December 1, 1942) was a Polish scientist and medical examiner. He researched and taught as a professor of forensic and social medicine at the Jagiellonian University between 1896 and 1933 and published formative works on forensics.
01/12/1935
Bernhard Schmidt, Estonian-German optician, invented the Schmidt camera (born 1879)
Bernhard Woldemar Schmidt was an Estonian optician. In 1930 he invented the Schmidt telescope, which corrected for the optical errors of spherical aberration, coma, and astigmatism, making possible for the first time the construction of very large, wide-angled reflective cameras of short exposure time for astronomical research.
01/12/1934
Sergey Kirov, Russian engineer and politician (born 1886)
Sergei Mironovich Kirov was a Russian and Soviet politician and Bolshevik revolutionary. Kirov was an early revolutionary in the Russian Empire and a member of the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. Kirov became an Old Bolshevik and personal friend to Joseph Stalin, rising through the Communist Party of the Soviet Union ranks to become head of the party in Leningrad and a member of the Politburo.
01/12/1933
Pekka Halonen, Finnish painter (born 1865)
Pekka Halonen was a Finnish painter of landscapes and people in the national romantic and Realist styles.
01/12/1928
José Eustasio Rivera, Colombian-American lawyer and poet (born 1888)
José Eustasio Rivera Salas was a Colombian lawyer and author primarily known for his national epic The Vortex.
01/12/1923
Virginie Loveling, Belgian author and poet (born 1836)
Virginie (Marie) Loveling was a Flemish author of poetry, novels, essays and children's stories. She also wrote under the pseudonym W. E. C. Walter. She did write sentimentally early in her career but her later novels dealt with difficult subjects directly.
01/12/1916
Charles de Foucauld, French priest and martyr (born 1858)
Charles de Foucauld, born as Charles Eugène, vicomte de Foucauld de Pontbriand, in religion Charles of Jesus, was a French monk, Catholic priest and hermit who lived among the Tuareg people in the Sahara in Algeria. He was also an explorer, geographer, ethnographer. Before joining the Trappists as a monk, he was a soldier in the 2nd Hussar Regiment. He was murdered by Bedouin bandits in 1916. His inspiration and writings led to the founding of a number of religious congregations inspired by his example. He was canonized in 2022.
01/12/1914
Alfred Thayer Mahan, American captain and historian (born 1840)
Alfred Thayer Mahan was a United States Navy (USN) officer and historian whom John Keegan called "the most important American strategist of the nineteenth century." His 1890 book The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660–1783 won immediate recognition, especially in Europe, and with the publication of its 1892 successor, The Influence of Sea Power upon the French Revolution and Empire, 1793–1812, he affirmed his status as a globally-known and regarded military strategist, historian, and theorist. Mahan's works encouraged the development of large capital ships—eventually leading to dreadnought battleships—as he was an advocate of the 'decisive battle' and of naval blockades.
01/12/1913
Juhan Liiv, Estonian poet and author (born 1864)
Juhan Liiv was an Estonian poet who is regarded as one of Estonia's most famous poets and prose writers.
01/12/1884
William Swainson, English-New Zealand lawyer and politician, Attorney-General of the Crown Colony of New Zealand (born 1809)
William Swainson became the second, and last, Attorney-General of the Crown colony of New Zealand and instrumental in setting up the legal system of New Zealand. He was the first Speaker of the New Zealand Legislative Council.
01/12/1867
Charles Gray Round, English lawyer and politician (born 1797)
Charles Gray Round was a barrister and the Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for North Essex 1837–47. He also served as Recorder for Colchester, and as a magistrate and Deputy Lieutenant for Essex, as well as being a substantial local landowner and notable.
01/12/1866
George Everest, Welsh geographer and surveyor (born 1790)
Sir George Everest was a British surveyor and geographer who served as Surveyor General of India from 1830 to 1843.
01/12/1865
Abraham Emanuel Fröhlich, Swiss pastor, poet, and educator (born 1796)
Abraham Emanuel Fröhlich was a Swiss poet.
01/12/1825
Alexander I, emperor and autocrat of Russia (born 1777)
Alexander I of Russia, nicknamed "the Blessed", was Emperor of Russia from 1801, the first King of Congress Poland from 1815, and the Grand Duke of Finland from 1809 to his death in 1825. He ruled Russia during the chaotic period of the Napoleonic Wars.
01/12/1767
Henry Erskine, 10th Earl of Buchan, Scottish politician (born 1710)
Henry David Erskine, 10th Earl of Buchan,, styled Lord Auchterhouse until 1745, was a Scottish peer.
01/12/1755
Maurice Greene, English organist and composer (born 1696)
Maurice Greene was an English composer and organist. He was an admirer and friend of George Frideric Handel.
01/12/1750
Johann Gabriel Doppelmayr, German mathematician, astronomer, and cartographer (born 1671)
Johann Gabriel Doppelmayr was a German mathematician, astronomer, and cartographer.
01/12/1729
Giacomo F. Maraldi, French-Italian astronomer and mathematician (born 1665)
Giacomo Filippo Maraldi was a French-Italian astronomer and mathematician. His name is also given as Jacques Philippe Maraldi. Born in Perinaldo he was the nephew of Giovanni Cassini, and worked most of his life at the Paris Observatory. He also is the uncle of Jean-Dominique Maraldi.
01/12/1660
Pierre d'Hozier, French genealogist and historian (born 1592)
Pierre d'Hozier, seigneur de la Garde, was a French genealogist.
01/12/1640
Miguel de Vasconcelos, Portuguese politician, Prime Minister of Portugal (born 1590)
Miguel de Vasconcelos e Brito was a Portuguese politician who served as the Secretary of State of the Kingdom of Portugal in the final years of the Iberian Union. He was assassinated during the Portuguese revolt of 1640.
01/12/1633
Isabella Clara Eugenia, infanta of Spain (born 1566)
Isabella Clara Eugenia, sometimes referred to as Clara Isabella Eugenia, was sovereign of the Habsburg Netherlands, and the Free County of Burgundy, from 1598 to 1621, ruling jointly with her husband Archduke Albert VII of Austria. After Albert's death, those regions were returned to the Spanish Habsburgs, and she continued to rule as governess of the Spanish Netherlands until her death.
01/12/1581
Alexander Briant, English Roman Catholic priest, martyr and saint (born 1556)
Alexander Briant, SJ was an English Jesuit and martyr, executed at Tyburn.
Edmund Campion, English Roman Catholic priest, martyr, and saint (born 1540)
Edmund Campion, SJ was an English Jesuit priest and martyr. While conducting an underground ministry in officially Anglican England, Campion was arrested by priest hunters. Convicted of high treason, he was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn. Campion was beatified by Pope Leo XIII in 1886 and canonised in 1970 by Pope Paul VI as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. His feast day is celebrated on 1 December.
Ralph Sherwin, English Roman Catholic priest, martyr, and saint (born 1550)
Ralph Sherwin was an English Roman Catholic priest, executed in 1581. He is a Catholic martyr and saint.
01/12/1580
Giovanni Morone, Italian cardinal (born 1509)
Giovanni Morone was an Italian cardinal. He was named Bishop of Modena in 1529 and was created Cardinal in 1542 by Pope Paul III. As a cardinal, he resided in the Vatican's Apostolic Palace and was consulted by Saint Ignatius, founder of the Jesuits.
01/12/1530
Margaret of Austria, duchess of Savoy (born 1480)
Margaret of Austria was Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands from 1507 to 1515 and again from 1519 until her death in 1530. She was the first of many female regents in the Netherlands. She was variously the Princess of Asturias, Duchess of Savoy, and was born an Archduchess of Austria.
01/12/1521
Leo X, pope of the Catholic Church (born 1475)
Pope Leo X was head of the Catholic Church and leader of the Papal States from 9 March 1513 to his death in December 1521.
01/12/1455
Lorenzo Ghiberti, Italian goldsmith and sculptor (born 1378)
Lorenzo Ghiberti was an Italian Renaissance sculptor from Florence, a key figure in the Early Renaissance, best known as the creator of two sets of bronze doors of the Florence Baptistery, the later one called by Michelangelo the Gates of Paradise. Trained as a goldsmith and sculptor, he established an important workshop for sculpture in metal. His book of Commentarii contains important writing on art, as well as what may be the earliest surviving autobiography by any artist.
01/12/1433
Go-Komatsu, emperor of Japan (born 1377)
Emperor Go-Komatsu was the 100th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession, and the sixth and final Emperor of the Northern Court.
01/12/1374
Magnus Eriksson, king of Sweden (born 1316)
Magnus Eriksson was King of Sweden from 1319 to 1364, King of Norway as Magnus VII from 1319 to 1355, and ruler of Scania from 1332 to 1360.
01/12/1335
Abu Sa'id Bahadur Khan, Mongol ruler of the Ilkhanate (born 1305)
Abu Sa'id Bahadur Khan, also spelled Abusaid Bahador Khan, Abu Sa'id Behauder, was the ninth ruler of the Ilkhanate, a division of the Mongol Empire that encompassed the present day countries of Iran, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Armenia, as well as parts of Iraq, Turkey, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. After his death in 1335, the Ilkhanate disintegrated.
01/12/1255
Muhammad III of Alamut, Nizari Ismaili Imam
ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn Muḥammad III, more commonly known as ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn, son of Jalāl al-Dīn Ḥasan III, was the 26th Nizāri Isma'ilism Imām. He ruled the Nizari Ismaili state from 1221 to 1255. By some accounts, he was considered a respected scholar and the spiritual and worldly leader of the Nisari Ismailis. The intellectual life of Persia has been described as having flourished during his 34-year reign. Allegedly, he was known for his tolerance and pluralism. His reign witnessed the beginnings of the Mongol conquests of Persia and the eastern Muslim world. He was assassinated by an unknown perpetrator on 1 December 1255, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Rukn al-Din Khurshah, in 1255.
01/12/1241
Isabella of England, Holy Roman Empress (born 1214)
Isabella of England was an English princess of the House of Plantagenet. She became Holy Roman Empress, Queen of Sicily, Italy and Germany from 1235 until her death as the third wife of Emperor Frederick II.
01/12/1135
Henry I, king of England (born 1068)
Henry I, also known as Henry Beauclerc, was King of England from 1100 to his death in 1135. He was the fourth son of William the Conqueror and was educated in Latin and the liberal arts. On William's death in 1087, Henry's elder brothers Robert Curthose and William Rufus inherited Normandy and England, respectively, thereby leaving Henry landless. He subsequently purchased the County of Cotentin in western Normandy from Robert, but his brothers deposed him in 1091. He gradually rebuilt his power base in the Cotentin and allied himself with William Rufus against Robert.
01/12/1018
Thietmar of Merseburg, German bishop (born 975)
Thietmar, Prince-Bishop of Merseburg from 1009 until his death in 1018, was an important chronicler recording the reigns of German kings and Holy Roman Emperors of the Ottonian (Saxon) dynasty. Two of Thietmar's great-grandfathers, both referred to as Liuthar, were the Saxon nobles Lothar II, Count of Stade, and Lothar I, Count of Walbeck. They were both killed fighting the Slavs at the Battle of Lenzen.
01/12/0969
Fujiwara no Morotada, Japanese statesman (born 920)
Fujiwara no Morotada was a Japanese statesman, courtier and politician during the Heian period.
01/12/0948
Gao Conghui, Chinese governor and prince (born 891)
Gao Conghui, might have been born with or used the name Zhu Conghui (朱從誨), also known by his posthumous name as the Prince Wenxian of Nanping (南平文獻王), courtesy name Zunsheng (遵聖), was a ruler of Jingnan during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period of China, reigning from 929 to 948.
01/12/0660
Eligius, Frankish bishop and saint (born 588)
Eligius, venerated as Saint Eligius, was a Frankish goldsmith, courtier, and bishop who was chief counsellor to Dagobert I and later Bishop of Noyon–Tournai. His deeds were recorded in Vita Sancti Eligii, written by his friend Audoin of Rouen.
01/12/0217
Yehudah HaNasi, 'Nasi', Rabbi and editor of the Mishnah (born 135)
Judah ha-Nasi or Judah I, known simply as Rebbi or Rabbi, was a second-century rabbi and chief redactor and editor of the Mishnah. He lived from approximately 135 to 217 CE. He was a key leader of the Jewish community in Roman-occupied Judea after the Bar Kokhba Revolt.
Celebrations & Special Days Worldwide on 1st December
Battle of the Sinop Day (Russia)
The Days of Military Honour are special memorable dates in the Russian Armed Forces dedicated to the most outstanding victories won by Russia. Some of these dates are state holidays but the majority of them are celebrated purely in the armed forces, while 7 November is marked by parades in Moscow and Samara.
Christian feast day: Alexander Briant
Alexander Briant, SJ was an English Jesuit and martyr, executed at Tyburn.
Christian feast day: Ansanus
Saint Ansanus, called The Baptizer or The Apostle of Siena, is the patron saint of Siena, Italy and a scion of the Anician family of Rome.
Christian feast day: Blessed Bruna Pellesi
Beatification is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a deceased person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in their name. Beati is the plural form, referring to those who have undergone the process of beatification; they possess the title of "Blessed" before their names and are often referred to in English as "a Blessed" or, plurally, "Blesseds".
Christian feast day: Castritian
Castritian was Bishop of Milan in mid 3rd-century. He is honoured as a Saint in the Catholic Church and his feast day is on December 1.
Christian feast day: Charles de Foucauld
Charles de Foucauld, born as Charles Eugène, vicomte de Foucauld de Pontbriand, in religion Charles of Jesus, was a French monk, Catholic priest and hermit who lived among the Tuareg people in the Sahara in Algeria. He was also an explorer, geographer, ethnographer. Before joining the Trappists as a monk, he was a soldier in the 2nd Hussar Regiment. He was murdered by Bedouin bandits in 1916. His inspiration and writings led to the founding of a number of religious congregations inspired by his example. He was canonized in 2022.
Christian feast day: Edmund Campion
Edmund Campion, SJ was an English Jesuit priest and martyr. While conducting an underground ministry in officially Anglican England, Campion was arrested by priest hunters. Convicted of high treason, he was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn. Campion was beatified by Pope Leo XIII in 1886 and canonised in 1970 by Pope Paul VI as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. His feast day is celebrated on 1 December.
Christian feast day: Eligius
Eligius, venerated as Saint Eligius, was a Frankish goldsmith, courtier, and bishop who was chief counsellor to Dagobert I and later Bishop of Noyon–Tournai. His deeds were recorded in Vita Sancti Eligii, written by his friend Audoin of Rouen.
Christian feast day: Evasius
Evasius is believed to have been a missionary and bishop of Asti, in north-west Italy. He was forced to flee to the great Padan forest known as the Selva Cornea, where he and numerous followers were beheaded by pagan, or alternatively by Arian enemies, in the area of what is now Casale Monferrato. He is venerated as a saint of the Roman Catholic Church and is the patron of a number of towns in Piedmont and Lombardy. His cult is liveliest at Casale, where his remains are conserved in the cathedral dedicated to him.
Christian feast day: Grwst
Saint Grwst the Confessor was a 6th and 7th century saint operating in the Welsh Kingdom of Gwynedd.
Christian feast day: Nahum
Nahum was a minor prophet whose prophecy is recorded in the Tanakh, also called the Hebrew Bible and the Old Testament. His book comes in chronological order between Micah and Habakkuk in the Bible. He wrote about the end of the Assyrian Empire, and its capital city, Nineveh, in a vivid poetic style.
Christian feast day: Nicholas Ferrar (Episcopal Church)
Nicholas Ferrar was an English scholar, courtier and businessman, who was ordained a deacon in the Church of England. He lost much of his fortune in the Virginia Company and retreated with his extended family in 1626 to the manor of Little Gidding, Huntingdonshire, for his remaining years, in an informal spiritual community following High Anglican practice. His friend the poet and Anglican priest George Herbert (1593–1633), on his deathbed, sent Ferrar the manuscript of The Temple, telling him to publish the poetry if it might "turn to the advantage of any dejected poor soul." "If not, let him burn it; for I and it are less than the least of God's mercies." Ferrar published the verses in 1633; they remain in print.
Christian feast day: Ralph Sherwin
Ralph Sherwin was an English Roman Catholic priest, executed in 1581. He is a Catholic martyr and saint.
Christian feast day: Ursicinus of Brescia
Ursicinus of Brescia was an Italian saint, and bishop of Brescia in Lombardy. He participated in the council of Sardica in 347, in which year he died; his shrine may still be seen. His feast day is 1 December.
Christian feast day: December 1 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
November 30 - Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar - December 2
Damrong Rajanubhab Day (Thailand)
Public holidays in Thailand are regulated by the government, and most are observed by both the public and private sectors. There are usually nineteen public holidays in a year, but more may be declared by the cabinet. Other observances, both official and non-official, local and international, are observed to varying degrees throughout the country.
First President Day (Kazakhstan)
First President's Day , officially Day of the First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan is an annual commemorative day in Kazakhstan, observed on 1 December. The date marks the 1991 presidential election, in which Nursultan Nazarbayev was elected as the first president of independent Kazakhstan. The day was celebrated as a public holiday from 2012 until 2022, after which it was retained as a commemorative date but removed from the list of official holidays.
Freedom and Democracy Day (Chad)
Freedom and Democracy Day is a national holiday in Chad, falling on 1 December. Government offices and businesses close. The holiday commemorates the overthrow of Hissène Habré by Idriss Déby in 1990.
Great Union Day, celebrates the union of Transylvania with Romania in 1918 (Romania)
Great Union Day, also called Unification Day or National Day, is a Romanian national holiday celebrated on 1 December to mark the 1918 Great Union. The holiday was declared after the Romanian revolution and commemorates the Great National Assembly of the delegates of ethnic Romanians held in Alba Iulia, who declared the Union of Transylvania with Romania.
Military Abolition Day (Costa Rica)
The Public Force of Costa Rica is the national law enforcement agency of Costa Rica, whose duties include internal security and border control.
National Day (Myanmar)
National Day is a public holiday in Myanmar, marking the anniversary of the first university student strike at Rangoon University in 1920. The date is based on the traditional Burmese calendar, occurring on the 10th day following the full moon of Tazaungmon. In Myanmar, National Day differs from Independence Day, which is marked on 4 January.
Republic Day (Central African Republic)
This is a list of public holidays in the Central African Republic
Restoration of Independence Day (Portugal)
In Portugal, a public holiday is a calendar date, legally recognised and defined in the Labour Code as well as the Concordat of 2004, on which most businesses and non-essential services are closed. On some of these dates, public commemorative festivities are traditionally held.
Rosa Parks Day (Ohio and Oregon, United States)
Rosa Parks Day is a holiday in honor of the civil rights leader Rosa Parks, celebrated in the U.S. states of Massachusetts and Missouri on her birthday, February 4; in California and Michigan on the first Monday after her birthday; and in Alabama, Ohio, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas and several cities and counties on the day she was arrested, December 1.
Self-governance Day or Fullveldisdagurinn (Iceland)
Public holidays in Iceland are established by the act of the Icelandic parliament. The public holidays are the religious holidays of the Church of Iceland and the First Day of Summer, May Day, the Icelandic National Day. In addition, Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve are holidays from 1 PM.
Teachers' Day (Panama)
Teachers' Day is a special day for the appreciation of teachers. It may include celebrations to honor them for their special contributions in a particular field area, or the community tone in education. This is one of the most celebrated days and the primary reason why countries celebrate this day on different dates, unlike many other International Days. For example, Argentina has commemorated Domingo Faustino Sarmiento's death on 11 September as Teachers' Day since 1915. In India, the birthday of the second president Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, 5 September, is celebrated as Teachers' Day since 1962.
World AIDS Day, and its related observances: Day Without Art
Day Without Art (DWA) is an annual event where art institutions and other organizations organize programs to raise awareness of AIDS, remember people who have died, and inspire positive action. Initiated in 1988 by VisualAIDS from New York City (NYC), nowadays a global event.
What Happened on 1st December?
62 significant events took place on Friday, 1st December — stretching from 800 to 2020. Explore the moments that shaped history on this day.
01/12/2020
The Arecibo Telescope collapses.
The Arecibo Telescope was a 305 m (1,000 ft) spherical reflector radio telescope built into a natural sinkhole at the Arecibo Observatory located near Arecibo, Puerto Rico. A cable-mounted, steerable receiver and several radar transmitters for emitting signals were mounted 150 m (492 ft) above the dish. Completed in November 1963, the Arecibo Telescope was the world's largest single-aperture telescope for 53 years, until it was surpassed in July 2016 by the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) in Guizhou, China. Decommissioning the Arecibo Telescope was announced in November 2020, and the telescope collapsed in December 2020.
01/12/2019
Arsenal 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.
The women's association football match between Arsenal Women and Bristol City Women was played at Arsenal's home venue, Meadow Park, Borehamwood, on 1 December 2019. It was part of the 2019–20 Football Association Women's Super League and finished in an 11–1 victory for the home team. It became the highest-scoring game in the league's history, surpassing Liverpool's 9–0 victory over Doncaster Rovers Belles in 2013.
The outbreak of coronavirus infection begins in Wuhan.
The global COVID-19 pandemic, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an outbreak in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. It spread to other parts of Asia and then worldwide in early 2020. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) on 30 January 2020 and assessed it as having become a pandemic on 11 March. The WHO declared that the public health emergency caused by COVID-19 had ended in May 2023, while noting that COVID-19 continued to be a global health threat.
01/12/2018
The Oulu Police informed the public about the first offence of the much larger child sexual exploitation in Oulu, Finland.
In December 2018, it transpired that adult men, all of whom had arrived in Finland as asylum seekers or refugees, were grooming, and raping and otherwise sexually abusing, girls under 15 years of age in Oulu, Finland. One victim ended up committing suicide. The Oulu Police Department warned young girls and parents, while emphasizing that "not all people with foreign backgrounds are dishonest or criminals".
01/12/2011
The Alma-Ata Metro was opened.
Almaty Metro is a rapid transit/metro system in Almaty, the largest city and a former capital of Kazakhstan. The first line of the system was opened on 1 December 2011, after more than 23 years of construction. A 2.9-kilometre (1.8 mi), two-station extension of the Metro to Moskva station opened on 18 April 2015, followed by a 3.1 kilometres (1.9 mi), two-station extension to Bauyrzhan Momyshuly on 30 May 2022. Until Astana Light Metro opened on 16 May 2026, this was the only metro system in Kazakhstan.
01/12/2009
The Treaty of Lisbon entered into force in the European Union.
The Treaty of Lisbon is a European agreement that amends the two treaties which form the constitutional basis of the European Union (EU). The Treaty of Lisbon, which was signed by all EU member states on 13 December 2007, entered into force on 1 December 2009. It amends the Maastricht Treaty (1992), known in updated form as the Treaty on European Union (2007) or TEU, as well as the Treaty of Rome (1957), known in updated form as the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (2007) or TFEU. It also amends the attached treaty protocols as well as the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM).
01/12/2006
The law on same-sex marriage comes into force in South Africa, legalizing same-sex marriage for the first time on the African continent.
Same-sex marriage has been legal in South Africa since the Civil Union Act, 2006 came into force on 30 November 2006. The decision of the Constitutional Court in the case of Minister of Home Affairs v Fourie on 1 December 2005 extended the common-law definition of marriage to include same-sex spouses—as the Constitution of South Africa guarantees equal protection before the law to all citizens regardless of sexual orientation—and gave Parliament one year to rectify the inequality in the marriage statutes. On 14 November 2006, the National Assembly passed a law allowing same-sex couples to legally solemnise their union 229 to 41, which was subsequently approved by the National Council of Provinces on 28 November in a 36 to 11 vote, and the law came into effect two days later.
01/12/2005
As 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.
Until 1 December 2005, Perm Oblast was a federal subject of Russia in Privolzhsky (Volga) Federal District. According to the results of the referendum held in October 2004, Perm Oblast was merged with Komi-Permyak Autonomous Okrug to form Perm Krai.
01/12/2001
The United Russia political party was founded.
The All-Russian Political Party "United Russia" is the ruling political party of Russia since 2001. As the largest party in the Russian Federation, it holds 325 of the 450 seats in the State Duma as of 2022, having constituted the majority in the chamber since 2007.
01/12/2000
Vicente 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.
Vicente Fox Quesada is a Mexican businessman and politician who served as the 62nd president of Mexico from 2000 to 2006. After campaigning as a right-wing populist, Fox was elected president on the National Action Party (PAN) ticket in the 2000 election. He became the first president not from the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) since 1929, and the first elected from an opposition party since Francisco I. Madero in 1911. Fox won the election with 43 percent of the vote. Considered a social-welfare promoter, along with Julio Frenk Mora, he formulated, signed and implemented the Seguro Popular which helped circa 55 million independent workers.
01/12/1997
In the Indian state of Bihar, Ranvir Sena attacks the CPI (ML) Party Unity stronghold Lakshmanpur-Bathe, killing 63 lower caste people.
Bihar is a state in eastern India. It borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West Bengal to the east, and Jharkhand to the south. Bihar is split by the river Ganges, which flows from west to east. It is the second largest state by population, the 12th largest by area, and the 14th largest by GDP in 2024. The official language on Bihar is Hindi, which shares official status alongside that of Urdu. The main native languages are Maithili, Magahi and Bhojpuri, but there are several other languages being spoken at smaller levels.
Fourteen-year-old Michael Carneal opens fire at a group of students in Heath High School in West Paducah, Kentucky, killing three and injuring five.
The Heath High School shooting occurred at Heath High School in West Paducah, Kentucky, on December 1, 1997, when 14-year-old Michael Carneal opened fire on a group of students, killing three and injuring six.
01/12/1991
Cold War: Ukrainian voters overwhelmingly approve a referendum for independence from the Soviet Union.
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the north; Poland and Slovakia to the west; Hungary, Romania and Moldova to the southwest; and the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov to the south and southeast. Kyiv is Ukraine's capital and largest city, followed by Kharkiv, Odesa, and Dnipro. The official language of the country is Ukrainian. Ukraine covers an area of 603,628 km2 (233,062 sq mi) with an estimated total population of 32.3 million in 2026.
01/12/1990
Channel Tunnel sections started from the United Kingdom and France meet beneath the seabed.
The Channel Tunnel, sometimes referred to as the Chunnel, is a 50.46-kilometre (31.35-mile) railway tunnel beneath the English Channel which connects Folkestone in the United Kingdom with Coquelles in northern France. Opened in 1994, it remains the only fixed link between Great Britain and the European mainland.
01/12/1989
Philippine 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.
The 1989 Philippine coup attempt was the most serious attempted coup d'état against the government of Philippine President Corazon Aquino and part of a series of coup attempts against her. It was staged beginning December 1, 1989, by members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines belonging to the Reform the Armed Forces Movement (RAM) and soldiers loyal to former President Ferdinand Marcos. Metro Manila was shaken by this Christmas-time coup, which almost seized Malacañang Palace. It was completely defeated by the Philippine government by December 9, 1989.
Cold War: East Germany's parliament abolishes the constitutional provision granting the Communist Party the leading role in the state.
The Cold War was a period of international geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc. It began in the aftermath of the Second World War and ended with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. The term cold war is used because there was no direct fighting between the two superpowers, though each supported opposing sides in regional conflicts known as proxy wars. In addition to the struggle for ideological and economic influence and an arms race in both conventional and nuclear weapons, the Cold War was expressed through technological rivalries such as the Space Race, espionage, propaganda campaigns, embargoes, and sports diplomacy.
01/12/1988
World AIDS Day is proclaimed worldwide by the UN member states.
World AIDS Day, designated on 1 December every year since 1988, is an international day dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV infection and mourning those who have died of the disease. The acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a life-threatening condition caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The HIV virus attacks the immune system of the patient and reduces its resistance to other diseases. Government and health officials, non-governmental organizations, and individuals around the world observe the day, often with education on AIDS prevention and control.
Benazir Bhutto, is named as the Prime Minister of Pakistan, becoming the first female leader to lead a Muslim nation.
Benazir Bhutto was a Pakistani stateswoman and politician who served as the prime minister of Pakistan from 1988 to 1990, and again from 1993 to 1996. She was the first woman elected to head a democratic government in a Muslim-majority country. Ideologically a liberal and a secularist, she chaired or co-chaired the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) from 1982 until her assassination in 2007.
01/12/1984
NASA 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.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government responsible for the United States' civil space program and for research in aeronautics and space. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., NASA operates ten field centers across the U.S. and is organized into three mission directorates: Human Spaceflight, Research and Technology, and Science. Established in 1958 amid the Space Race, NASA succeeded the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) to give the U.S. space program a distinct civilian orientation focused on peaceful applications. Since then, it has led most American spaceflight programs, including Project Mercury, Project Gemini, the Apollo program, Skylab, the Space Shuttle, the International Space Station (ISS) and the ongoing multi-national Artemis program.
01/12/1981
Inex-Adria Aviopromet Flight 1308, a McDonnell Douglas MD-80, crashes in Corsica, killing all 180 people on board.
Inex-Adria Aviopromet Flight 1308 was a charter flight, operated with a McDonnell Douglas MD-82, which brought Yugoslavian tourists to Corsica. On 1 December 1981, on its final approach, the plane crashed into Mont San Petru; all of the 180 passengers and crew died. The crash is the first, and the deadliest, major aviation accident involving an MD-80 model aircraft.
01/12/1974
TWA Flight 514, a Boeing 727, crashes northwest of Dulles International Airport, killing all 92 people on board.
Trans World Airlines Flight 514 was a domestic scheduled flight of Trans World Airlines from Indianapolis, Indiana, and Columbus, Ohio, to Washington National Airport. On December 1, 1974, the Boeing 727-231 serving the flight was diverted to Washington Dulles International Airport but crashed into Mount Weather, Virginia. All 92 occupants aboard, 85 passengers and 7 crew members, died. In stormy conditions late in the morning, the aircraft was in controlled flight and struck a low mountain 25 nautical miles northwest of its revised destination.
Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 6231, another Boeing 727, crashes northwest of John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 6231 was a Northwest Airlines charter flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York City, to Buffalo International Airport, Buffalo, New York, where it was to pick up the Baltimore Colts professional football team. On December 1, 1974, the Boeing 727 serving the flight crashed in Harriman State Park near Stony Point, New York, just north of the New York City area.
01/12/1973
Papua New Guinea gains self-government from Australia.
Papua New Guinea (PNG), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean north of Australia. It has a land border with Indonesia to the west and maritime borders with Australia to the south and the Solomon Islands to the east. Its capital is Port Moresby. The country's 462,840 km2 (178,700 mi2) includes a large mainland and hundreds of islands.
01/12/1971
Cambodian Civil War: Khmer Rouge rebels intensify assaults on Cambodian government positions, forcing their retreat from Kompong Thmar and nearby Ba Ray.
The Cambodian Civil War was a civil war in Cambodia fought between the Khmer Rouge, supported by North Vietnam and China, against the government of the Kingdom of Cambodia and, after October 1970, the Khmer Republic, which had succeeded the kingdom after a coup, both supported by the United States and South Vietnam. The conflict was part of the Vietnam War.
Purge of Croatian Spring leaders starts in Yugoslavia at the meeting of the League of Communists at the Karađorđevo estate.
The Croatian Spring, or Maspok, was a political conflict that took place from 1967 to 1971 in the Socialist Republic of Croatia, at the time part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. As one of six republics comprising Yugoslavia at the time, Croatia was ruled by the League of Communists of Croatia (SKH), nominally independent from the League of Communists of Yugoslavia (SKJ), led by President Josip Broz Tito. The 1960s in Yugoslavia were marked by a series of reforms aimed at improving the economic situation in the country and increasingly politicised efforts by the leadership of the republics to protect the economic interests of their respective republics. As part of this, political conflict occurred in Croatia when reformers within the SKH, generally aligned with the Croatian cultural society Matica hrvatska, came into conflict with conservatives.
01/12/1969
Vietnam War: The first draft lottery in the United States is held since World War II.
The United States ran a draft, a system of conscription, during the late 1950s and early 1960s, the peacetime years before the Vietnam War. It was administered by the Selective Service System. In the second half of 1965, with American troops pouring into Vietnam, there was a substantial expansion of the US armed forces, and this required a dramatic increase in the number of men drafted each month.
01/12/1964
Vietnam War: U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson and his top-ranking advisers meet to discuss plans to bomb North Vietnam.
The Vietnam War was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam and their allies. North Vietnam was supported by the Soviet Union and China, while South Vietnam was supported by the United States and other anti-communist nations. The conflict was the second of the Indochina wars and a proxy war of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and US. The Vietnam War was one of the postcolonial wars of national liberation, a theater in the Cold War, and a civil war, with civil warfare a defining feature from the outset. Direct US military involvement escalated from 1965 until US forces were withdrawn in 1973. The fighting spilled into the Laotian and Cambodian civil wars, which ended with all three countries becoming communist in 1975.
01/12/1963
Nagaland, became the 16th state of India.
Nagaland is a state in the north-eastern region of India. It is bordered by the Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh to the north, Assam to the west, Manipur to the south, and the Naga Self-Administered Zone of the Sagaing Region of Myanmar (Burma) to the east. Its capital city is Kohima and its largest city is the twin Chümoukedima–Dimapur. The state has an area of 16,579 square kilometres (6,401 sq mi) with a population of 1,980,602 as per the 2011 Census of India, making it one of the least populated states in India.
01/12/1960
Patrice Lumumba is arrested by Mobutu Sese Seko's men on the banks of the Sankuru River, for inciting the army to rebellion.
Patrice Émery Lumumba was a Congolese politician, independence leader and revolutionary who served as the first prime minister of the First Congolese Republic from June until September 1960, following the May 1960 election. Lumumba was the leader of the Congolese National Movement (MNC) from 1958 until his assassination in 1961. Ideologically an African nationalist and pan-Africanist, he played a significant role in the transformation of the Congo from a colony of Belgium into an independent republic.
01/12/1959
Cold War: Opening date for signature of the Antarctic Treaty, which sets aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve and bans military activity on the continent.
The Cold War was a period of international geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc. It began in the aftermath of the Second World War and ended with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. The term cold war is used because there was no direct fighting between the two superpowers, though each supported opposing sides in regional conflicts known as proxy wars. In addition to the struggle for ideological and economic influence and an arms race in both conventional and nuclear weapons, the Cold War was expressed through technological rivalries such as the Space Race, espionage, propaganda campaigns, embargoes, and sports diplomacy.
01/12/1958
The Central African Republic attains self-rule within the French Union.
The Central African Republic (CAR) is a landlocked country located in Central Africa. It is bordered by Chad to the north, Sudan to the northeast, South Sudan to the east, the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the south, the Republic of the Congo to the southwest, and Cameroon to the west. The Central African Republic covers a land area of about 620,000 square kilometres (240,000 sq mi). As of 2024, it has a population of 5,357,744, consisting of about 80 ethnic groups. Having been a French colony under the name Ubangi-Shari, French is its official language, with Sango, a Ngbandi-based creole language, as the national and co-official language. Its capital and largest city is Bangui, which is on the southern border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The Our Lady of the Angels School fire in Chicago kills 92 children and three nuns.
On Monday, December 1, 1958, a fire broke out at Our Lady of the Angels School in Chicago, Illinois, shortly before classes were to be dismissed for the day. The fire originated in the basement near the foot of a stairway. The elementary school was operated by the Archdiocese of Chicago and had an enrollment of approximately 1,600 students. A total of 92 pupils and three nuns ultimately died when smoke, heat, fire, and toxic gases cut off their normal means of escape through corridors and stairways. Many more were injured when they jumped from second-floor windows which, because the building had a raised basement, were nearly as high above ground as a third floor would be on level ground, approximately 25 feet (7.6 m).
01/12/1955
American 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.
The civil rights movement was a social movement in the United States from 1954 to 1968 which aimed to abolish legalized racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement in the country, which most commonly affected African Americans. The movement had origins in the Reconstruction era in the late 19th century, and modern roots in the 1940s and in Mohandas Gandhi's nonviolent movement in India. After years of nonviolent protests and civil disobedience campaigns, the civil rights movement achieved many of its legislative goals in the 1960s, during which it secured new protections in federal law for the civil rights of all Americans, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Civil Rights Act of 1968.
01/12/1952
The New York Daily News reports the news of Christine Jorgensen, the first notable case of sex reassignment surgery.
The Daily News is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, New Jersey. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson in New York City as the Illustrated Daily News. It was the first U.S. daily printed in tabloid format, and reached its peak circulation in 1947, at 2.4 million copies a day. For much of the 20th century, the paper operated out of the historic art deco Daily News Building with its large globe in the lobby. Today's Daily News is not connected to the earlier New York Daily News, which shut down in 1906.
01/12/1941
World War II: Emperor Hirohito of Japan gives his tacit approval to the decision of the imperial council to initiate war against the United States.
Emperor Shōwa was Emperor of Japan from 25 December 1926 until his death in 1989. He reigned during a period of increasing Japanese nationalism and militarism, culminating in the entry of the Empire of Japan into World War II as an Axis power. The atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki led Hirohito to announce the surrender of Japan to the Allies in August 1945. Under pressure from the Allies, he issued the Humanity Declaration in January 1946, rejecting the divinity of the emperor as a descendant of Amaterasu. The Constitution of Japan, adopted on November 1946, emphasizes pacifism and constitutional monarchy, in contrast to imperialism and absolute monarchy. After the war, he reigned over a period of unprecedented economic growth known as the Japanese economic miracle. Hirohito reigned for 62 years and 13 days, the longest reign in Japanese history and the 12th longest verifiable reign in world history.
World 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.
Fiorello Henry La Guardia was an American attorney and politician who served as the 100th mayor of New York City from 1934 to 1946. He previously represented New York in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1917 to 1919 and again from 1923 to 1933. He was known for his irascible, energetic, and charismatic personality and diminutive, rotund stature. A member of the Republican Party, La Guardia was frequently cross-endorsed by parties other than his own, especially parties on the left under New York's electoral fusion laws. A panel of 69 scholars in 1993 ranked him as the best big city mayor in American history.
01/12/1939
World 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.
World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated. World War II was the deadliest conflict in history, causing the death of 60 to 75 million people. Millions died as a result of massacres, starvation, disease, and genocides, including the Holocaust. After the Allied victory, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Korea were occupied, and German and Japanese leaders were tried for war crimes.
The Soviet Union establishes the Finnish Democratic Republic puppet state in Terijoki.
The Finnish Democratic Republic, also known as the Terijoki Government, was a short-lived puppet state of the Soviet Union in occupied Finnish territory from December 1939 to March 1940.
01/12/1934
Sergei 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.
Sergei Mironovich Kirov was a Russian and Soviet politician and Bolshevik revolutionary. Kirov was an early revolutionary in the Russian Empire and a member of the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. Kirov became an Old Bolshevik and personal friend to Joseph Stalin, rising through the Communist Party of the Soviet Union ranks to become head of the party in Leningrad and a member of the Politburo.
01/12/1924
The 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.
The National Hockey League is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams, 25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada and is considered the premier professional ice hockey league in the world. The Stanley Cup, the oldest professional sports trophy in North America, is awarded annually to the league playoff champion at the end of each season. The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) views the Stanley Cup as one of the "most important championships available to the sport". The league's headquarters have been in New York City since 1989, when it moved from Montreal; the league also has offices in Toronto and Montreal.
A Soviet-backed communist 1924 Estonian coup d'état attempt fails in Estonia.
The 1924 Estonian coup d'état attempt was a failed coup attempt in Estonia on 1 December 1924, conducted by the Comintern, and staged by the Communist Party of Estonia and Bolsheviks who in most part had been infiltrated from the Soviet Union. Of the 279 actively participating pro-communist rebels, 125 were killed in action, later more than 500 people were arrested. Estonian government forces lost 26 men.
01/12/1919
Lady 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.)
Nancy Witcher Langhorne Astor, Viscountess Astor was an American-born British politician who was the first woman seated as a Member of Parliament (MP), serving from 1919 to 1945. Astor was born in Danville, Virginia, and raised in Greenwood, Virginia. Her first marriage, to socialite Robert Gould Shaw II, was unhappy and ended in divorce. She then moved to England and married American-born Englishman Waldorf Astor in 1906.
01/12/1918
Transylvania unites with Romania, following the incorporation of Bessarabia (March 27) and Bukovina (November 28) and thus concluding the Great Union.
Transylvania is a historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. The region's natural border to the east and south is the Carpathian Mountains, and to the west it is the Apuseni Mountains. Broader definitions of Transylvania also include the western and northwestern Romanian regions of Crișana and Maramureș, and occasionally Banat. Historical Transylvania also includes small parts of neighbouring Western Moldavia and a small part of south-western neighbouring Bukovina to its north-east.
Iceland becomes a sovereign state, yet remains a part of the Danish kingdom.
The Kingdom of Iceland was an associated state of Denmark and kingdom under a personal union that was established by the Act of Union signed on 1 December 1918. It lasted until 17 June 1944 when a national referendum established the republic of Iceland in its place. The Parliament of Iceland asked that Denmark represent Iceland internationally, and day-to-day matters were delegated to a Danish plenipotentiary for Icelandic affairs based in Reykjavík, and – after the German invasion of Denmark in 1940 – a regent was appointed.
The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later known as the Kingdom of Yugoslavia) is proclaimed.
The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a country in Southeast and Central Europe that existed from 1918 until 1941. From 1918 to 1929, it was officially called the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes and was colloquially known as "Yugoslavia" due to its origins.
01/12/1913
The Buenos Aires Metro, the first underground railway system in the Southern Hemisphere and in Latin America, begins operation.
The Buenos Aires Underground, locally known as Subte, is a rapid transit system that serves the area of the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The first section of this network opened in 1913, making it the 13th earliest subway network in the world and the first underground railway in Latin America, the Southern Hemisphere, and the Spanish-speaking world, with the Madrid Metro opening nearly six years later, in 1919. As of 2025, Buenos Aires is the only Argentine city with a metro system.
Crete, having obtained self rule from Turkey after the First Balkan War, is annexed by Greece.
Crete is the largest and most populous island of Greece, the 89th largest island in the world, and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, and Corsica. Crete is located approximately 100 km (62 mi) south of the Peloponnese, and about 300 km (190 mi) southwest of Anatolia. Crete has an area of 8,450 km2 (3,260 mi2) and a coastline of 1,046 km (650 mi). It bounds the southern border of the Aegean Sea, with the Sea of Crete to the north and the Libyan Sea to the south. Crete covers 260 km from west to east but is narrow from north to south, spanning three degrees of longitude but only half a degree of latitude.
01/12/1900
Nicaragua sells canal rights to U.S. for $5 million. The canal agreement fails in March 1901. Great Britain rejects the amended treaty.
01/12/1878
President Rutherford B. Hayes gets the first telephone installed in the White House.
Rutherford Birchard Hayes was the 19th president of the United States, serving from 1877 to 1881. He served as Cincinnati's city solicitor from 1858 to 1861 and was known as a staunch abolitionist who defended refugee slaves in court proceedings. At the start of the Civil War, Hayes left a fledgling political career to join the Union army. He was wounded five times, most seriously at the Battle of South Mountain in 1862. Hayes earned a reputation for bravery in combat, rising in the ranks to serve as brevet major general. After the war, he was a prominent member of the "Half-Breed" faction of the Republican Party. Hayes served in Congress from 1865 to 1867 and was elected governor of Ohio, serving two consecutive terms from 1868 to 1872 and half of a third two-year term from 1876 to 1877 before his swearing-in as president.
01/12/1865
Shaw University, the first historically black university in the southern United States, is founded in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Shaw University is a private historically Black university in Raleigh, North Carolina. Founded on December 1, 1865, Shaw University is the oldest HBCU to begin offering courses in the Southern United States. The school had its origin in the formation of a theological class of freedmen in the Guion Hotel. The following year it moved to a large wooden building, at the corner of Blount and Cabarrus Streets in Raleigh, where it continued as the Raleigh Institute until 1870. In 1870, the school moved to its current location on the former property of Confederate General Barringer and changed its name to the Shaw Collegiate Institute, in honor of Elijah Shaw. In 1875, the school was officially chartered with the State of North Carolina as Shaw University.
01/12/1862
American 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.
The American Civil War was a civil war in the United States between the Union and the Confederacy, which was formed in 1861 by states that had seceded from the Union to preserve slavery in the United States. The South saw slavery as threatened because of the election of Abraham Lincoln and the growing abolitionist movement in the North. The war ended with Union victory, the dissolution of the Confederacy and the abolition of slavery, freeing four million African Americans.
01/12/1834
Slavery is abolished in the Cape Colony in accordance with the Slavery Abolition Act 1833.
The Cape Colony, also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope. It existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when it united with three other colonies to form the Union of South Africa, then became the Cape Province, which existed even after 1961, when South Africa had become a republic, albeit temporarily outside the Commonwealth of Nations (1961–94).
01/12/1828
Argentine general Juan Lavalle makes a coup against governor Manuel Dorrego, beginning the Decembrist revolution.
Juan Galo Lavalle was an Argentine military and political figure from the Unitarian Party.
01/12/1824
United 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.
Presidential elections were held in the United States from October 26 to December 2, 1824. Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay and William Crawford were the primary contenders for the presidency. The result of the election was inconclusive, as no candidate won a majority of the electoral vote. In the election for vice president, John C. Calhoun was elected with a comfortable majority of the vote. Because none of the candidates for president garnered an electoral vote majority, the U.S. House of Representatives, under the provisions of the Twelfth Amendment, held a contingent election. On February 9, 1825, the House voted to elect John Quincy Adams as president.
01/12/1822
Pedro I is crowned Emperor of Brazil.
Dom Pedro I, known in Brazil and in Portugal as "the Liberator" or "the Soldier King" in Portugal, was the founder and first ruler of the Empire of Brazil from 1822 to 1831 and King of Portugal in 1826.
01/12/1821
José Núñez de Cáceres wins the independence of the Dominican Republic from Spain and names the new territory the Republic of Spanish Haiti.
José Núñez de Cáceres y Albor was a Dominican revolutionary and writer. Known for being the leader of the first Dominican independence movement against Spain in 1821, his actions preceded the Dominican War of Independence.
01/12/1768
The slave ship Fredensborg sinks off Tromøya in Norway.
Slave ships were large cargo ships specially built or converted from the 17th to the 19th century for transporting slaves. Such ships were also known as "Guineamen" because the trade involved human trafficking to and from the Guinea coast in West Africa.
01/12/1662
Diarist John Evelyn records skating on the frozen lake in St James's Park, London, watched by Charles II and Queen Catherine.
John Evelyn, an English writer, landowner, gardener, courtier and minor government official, has become best known as a diarist. He was a founding Fellow of the Royal Society.
01/12/1640
End 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.
The Iberian Union, or the Hispanic Monarchy, describes the period from 1580 to 1640 in which the Monarchy of Spain under the Habsburg dynasty, then the personal union of the crowns of Castile and Aragon, brought in personal union also the Kingdom of Portugal. It incorporated the entire Iberian Peninsula except Andorra, as well as Portuguese and Spanish overseas possessions, under the Spanish Habsburg monarchs Philip II, Philip III, and Philip IV. The union began after the Portuguese succession crisis of 1580 and the ensuing War of the Portuguese Succession, and lasted until the Portuguese Restoration War, during which the House of Braganza was established as Portugal's new ruling dynasty with the acclamation of John IV as the new king of Portugal.
01/12/1577
Courtiers Christopher Hatton and Thomas Heneage are knighted by Queen Elizabeth I of England.
Sir Christopher Hatton was an English politician, Lord Chancellor of England and a favourite of Elizabeth I of England. He was one of the judges who found Mary, Queen of Scots guilty of treason.
01/12/1420
Henry V of England enters Paris alongside his father-in-law King Charles VI of France.
Henry V, also called Henry of Monmouth, was King of England, Lord of Ireland, and Duke of Aquitaine from 1413 until his death in 1422. His victory at Agincourt in 1415 and his conquest of Normandy gave England the upper hand in the Hundred Years' War and led, by the Treaty of Troyes in 1420, to his recognition as heir and regent of France. This was the high-water mark of the English cause in the war. Celebrated in William Shakespeare's Henriad as one of the greatest warrior-kings of medieval England, Henry was also a forceful ruler at home, restoring public order, working closely with Parliament, and enforcing a strict religious orthodoxy.
01/12/0800
A council is convened in the Vatican, at which Charlemagne is to judge the accusations against Pope Leo III.
The Apostolic Palace is the official residence of the Pope, the head of the Catholic Church, located in Vatican City. It is also known as the Papal Palace, the Palace of the Vatican and the Vatican Palace. The Vatican itself refers to the building as the Palace of Sixtus V, in honor of Pope Sixtus V, who built most of the present form of the palace.