What Happened in December?

The 1876 Ottoman Constitution is approved on December 23, 1876.  it established a constitutional monarchy and limited the power of Sultan Abdül Hamid II, although he still retained key sovereign rights and executive powers including, suspending the parliament, declaring war, making treaties, and appointing ministers.  Expand +

Thomas Edison successfully demonstrates the phonograph for the first time. Although some believe it happened in mid August, most historians believe December 6 to be the correct date.  Expand +

Thomas Edison filed for a patent for the phonograph on December 24, 1877 and the patent was issued on February 19, 1878. The original phonograph was invented and patented by French Inventor, Edouard-Leon Scott in 1857. He called his device the phonautograph. His invention made a recording of sound waves on a glass plate, but it was not able to play back the sounds. More

Thomas Edison demonstrates incandescent lighting to the public for the first time on New Year's Eve, December 31, 1879 by illuminating some 100 bulbs in and around his laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey. Expand +

The First Anglo-Boer War begins as Boer forces invade British territories (Transvaal)  on December 16, 1880. The war was a result of the Boers' desire to regain their independence after Britain had annexed the South African Republic (Transvaal) in 1877. The conflict is also known as the Transvaal Rebellion. More

The popular Ring Theater in Vienna, Austria, catches fire on December 8, 1881. The official casualty estimate was that 384 people perished in the fire, although other estimates were that up to one thousand could have been killed.  Expand +

The construction of the Washington Monument is completed with the placement of an 8.9 inch tall, 100-ounce pyramid of solid aluminum atop the capstone. Inscribed on the capstone is the Latin phrase “Laus Deo”, meaning “Praise be to God.”  Expand +

Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" is first published on December 10, 1884 in the United Kingdom and Canada, followed by the first U.S. edition on February 18, 1885. Expand +

The first session of the Indian National Congress (INC), A key moment in the Indian Independence Movement, takes place in Bombay (now Mumbai) from December 28 to 31, 1885. The historic meeting took place in the hall of the Gokuldas Tejpal Sanskrit College, with 72 delegates in attendance, and was presided over by Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee.

The Wounded Knee Massacre, also known as the Battle of Wounded Knee takes place. Nearly three hundred Lakota people are massacred by soldiers of the United States Army. More

The first official basketball game with its original first 13 rules is played on December 21, 1891 at the YMCA International Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts. The game was invented by Canadian Dr. James Naismith as a less injury-prone indoor winter sport, using peach baskets and a soccer ball. More

French army officer Alfred Dreyfus is convicted of treason in a highly controversial trial, sparking the Dreyfus Affair.

The world’s first commercial movie screening takes place at the Grand Cafe in Paris on December 28, 1895; showing a series of short scenes from everyday French life and charged admission for the first time.  Expand +

Philippine nationalist José Rizal is publicly executed on December 30, 1896 by the Spanish Colonial government enraging and uniting Filipinos against Spain. Rizal came from a prosperous family, was educated in Manila and at the University of Madrid.  Expand +

The Treaty of Paris is signed by representatives of Spain and the United States, concluding the Spanish-American War.

Quantum Theory is born when German theoretical physicist Max Planck shares his hypothesis that radiation energy is emitted, not continuously, but rather in discrete packets called quanta. The energy E of the quantum is related to the frequency ν by E = hν. The quantity h, now known as Planck’s constant, is a universal constant with the approximate value of 6.62607 × 10−34 joule-second. In 1905 Einstein extended Planck’s hypothesis to explain the photoelectric effect. More

The first Five Nobel Prizes are presented on December 10, 1901, on the fifth anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death. In accordance to Nobel's will; the Peace Prize, was presented in Christiania, as Oslo was then called and the others in Stockholm.  Expand +

Guglielmo Marconi and his assistant, George Kemp, confirmed the reception of the first transatlantic radio signals on December 12, 1901, from their test site in St. John, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Expand +

The Short Magazine Lee-Enfield rifle (SMLE Mk) becomes the official service rifle of the British Army on December 23, 1902. It replaced older Lee-Enfield models and carbines for all branches.

Orville Wright makes the first powered, controlled, and sustained flight in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina as his brother Wilbur looks on. Orville Wright covered 120 feet in 12 seconds during the first flight of the day. The Wright brothers made four flights that day, each longer than the last (More). Expand +