Admiral Husband E. Kimmel is relieved of his fleet command following the the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor and his rank is reverted to the rank of Rear Admiral. He retired in March 1942. Rear Admiral Kimmel died at Groton, Connecticut, on 14 May 1968. More
Browse Historical Events by Month:
What Happened in December?
Victories, births, and treaties. Explore the significant historical events and milestones that occurred in December. Dates for earlier events may be approximate.
Note: Sources for the historical content shown, include research and reviews of relevant Online History Resources or printed material. When possible, we show a link to a source which provides additional or unique perspective about the event.
We do our best to provide accurate information but would appreciate being notified if any incorrect information is found. You may do so by using our Feedback link.
The Battle of Hong Kong starts as Japan attacks the British Colony of Honk Kong on December 8 1941. A Japanese force of around 35,000 strong was faced by a defending force of 13,500 British, Indian, Canadian, and local troops. Hong Kong surrendered on Christmas Day 1941 and Hong Kong remained under Japanese control until the end of WWII. More
Japanese forces defeat the U.S. troops at the Battle of Wake Islands. The battle began simultaneously with the attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on the morning of December 8, 1941 (December 7 in Hawaii), and ended on December 23, with the surrender of American forces to the Empire of Japan.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs into law a bill establishing the fourth Thursday in November as the Federal Thanksgiving Day holiday ending the confusion that had taken place since 1939 when FDR had changed the official Thanksgiving to the second to last Thursday of the month.
Since there were five Thursdays and the last Thursday of the month was the last day of the month and there was a worry that it would shorten the Christmas shopping season. Only 32 states had issued similar proclamations while 16 states refused to accept the change creating confusion. More
Physicist Enrico Fermi produces the world's first self-sustaining, controlled nuclear chain reaction, setting the stage for a variety of advancements in nuclear science. The experiment took place under Fermi's direction at the University of Chicago's football stadium.
Enrico Fermi was born in Rome in 1901 and had resided in Italy until 1938. He was awarded the the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1938. More
A single-engine aircraft Noorduyn C-64 “Norseman” airplane carrying trombonist and Band leader Glenn Miller disappears over the English Channel. The Army Air Force Major was an unauthorized passenger aboard the flight and he was preparing to move his Army Air Forces Band (Special) from England to France for a congratulatory performance for American troops that had recently helped to liberate Paris. More
The German army launches a counteroffensive intended to cut through the Allied forces and turn the tide of the war in Hitler's favor. The German offensive was code-named Wacht am Rhein (the “Watch on the Rhine”), but is better known in the United States as the “Battle of the Bulge". More
President Franklin Roosevelt, asserting wartime emergency powers, orders his secretary of commerce to seize the plants and facilities of Montgomery Ward which was in the middle of a labor strike affecting the flow of war supplies. Montgomery Ward appealed the government action in Federal Court, but lost. More
Flight 19, a Navy Aircraft squadron disappears in the Bermuda Triangle. The squadron, led by Lt. Charles C. Taylor, consisted of five TBM Avenger torpedo bombers which departed the U.S. Naval Air Station at Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for a routine navigational training.
All 14 Naval Aviators on the flight were lost, as were all 13 crew members of a Martin PBM Mariner flying boat that subsequently launched from Naval Air Station Banana River to search for Flight 19. More
The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) is established by the UN General Assembly on December 11, 1946.
The Children's emergency fund was initially created to meet the emergency needs of children in post-World War II devastation. It is now a permanent UN body focused on long-term child welfare globally. More
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris. A milestone document in the history of human rights, it sets out, for the first time, fundamental human rights to be universally protected as a common standard of achievements for all peoples and all nations. More
%20-%20PD%20-%20R.jpg?auto=format,compress&fit=clip&max-w=1600)
The Chinese Nationalists forces, unable to hold ground against Mao Zedong forces, depart for the island of Taiwan and establish their new capital. Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek joined them on the following day.
This action marked the beginning of the “two Chinas” phase and it wasn't until 1979 when the United States officially recognized the People’s Republic of China. More
%20R3.jpg?auto=format,compress&fit=clip&max-w=1600)
President Harry S. Truman Proclaims the "Existence of a National Emergency", stating that “the increasing menace of the forces of communist aggression spreading throughout the globe via North Korean forces requires that the national defense of the United States be strengthened as speedily as possible,”
The U.S. forces had seemed on the verge of victory in Korea. but in November, hundreds of thousands of communist Chinese troops. joined the fight and broke through the American lines driving them back just days after General Douglas MacArthur declared an “end to the war offensive". More
Idris becomes King of newly independent Libya on December 24, 1951. He ruled over Libya until September 1, when he was removed from power by a military coup led by Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. Libya.
The monarchy was abolished, and the country was renamed the Libyan Arab Republic. Gaddafi remained in control of Libya until October 20, 2011 when he was also deposed in a violent coup inspired by the Arab Spring protests.
Lethal smog covers the city of London for five days. It was caused by a combination of industrial pollution and high-pressure weather conditions bringing London to a near standstill and resulting in thousands of deaths.
Four years later, the UK Parliament passed the Clean Air Act marking a turning point in the history of environmentalism. More
Censure of Senator Joseph McCarthy - The U.S. Senate votes to censure Senator Joseph McCarthy, who had led the fight in Congress to root out suspected Communists from the Federal Government.
The censure described his behavior as "contrary to senatorial traditions". Senator Joseph R. McCarthy had been a little-known junior senator from Wisconsin until February 1950 when he claimed to have a list of 205 card-carrying Communists and members of a spy ring employed in the U.S. Department of State. McCarthy was never able to prove his sensational charge. More
%20PD-R.jpg?auto=format,compress&fit=clip&max-w=1600)
Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, sparking the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the civil rights movement. More
%20-%20Needs%20attribution%20-%2030%20-%20R.jpg?auto=format,compress&fit=clip&max-w=1600)
The First gorilla is born in captivity was born in the Columbus Zoo and was named Colo (a combination of Columbus and Ohio). The newborn female, western lowland gorilla weighing in at approximately 4 pounds.
Colo lived her entire life at the Columbus Zoo and died one month after her 60th birthday celebration on Jan. 17, 2017,. At the time of her death, Colo was the oldest gorilla ever on record. More
Becker1999 from Grove City, OH, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
A fire at Our Lady of the Angels Catholic elementary school in Chicago's Humboldt park community results in the death of 92 children and 3 nuns. The oldest part of the building was built in 1910.
Due to a "grandfather clause" in the city's fire code, the building officially met safety standards, even though it did not have the safety features required of modern buildings at that time. Thousands of older school buildings were brought up to code in the year following the fire.
The John Birch Society (JBS) is founded by Robert W. Welch Jr. More