December 1
1768 – The slave ship Fredensborg sinks off Tromøya in Norway.
1821 – José Núñez de Cáceres wins the independence of the Dominican Republic from Spain and names the new territory the Republic of Spanish Haiti.
1822 – Pedro I is crowned Emperor of Brazil.
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.
1828 – Argentine general Juan Lavalle stages a coup against Governor Manuel Dorrego, marking the beginning of the Decembrist Revolution.
December 2
1697 – St Paul's Cathedral, rebuilt to the design of Sir Christopher Wren following the Great Fire of London, is consecrated.
1763 – Dedication of the Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island, the first synagogue in what will become the United States.
1766 – The Swedish parliament approves the Swedish Freedom of the Press Act and implements it as a fundamental law, thus becoming the first country in the world to guarantee freedom of speech.
1804 – At Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, Napoleon Bonaparte crowns himself Emperor of the French.
1805 – War of the Third Coalition: Battle of Austerlitz: French troops under Napoleon decisively defeat a joint Russo-Austrian force.
1823 – Monroe Doctrine: In a State of the Union message, U.S. President James Monroe proclaims American neutrality in future European conflicts, and warns European powers not to interfere in the Americas.
December 3
1775 – American Revolution: USS Alfred becomes the first vessel to fly the Continental Union Flag (precursor to the "Stars and Stripes"); the flag is hoisted by John Paul Jones.
1799 – War of the Second Coalition: Battle of Wiesloch: Austrian Lieutenant Field Marshal Anton Sztáray defeats the French at Wiesloch.
1800 – War of the Second Coalition: Battle of Hohenlinden: French General Jean Victor Marie Moreau decisively defeats the Archduke John of Austria near Munich. Coupled with First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte's earlier victory at Marengo, this will force the Austrians to sign an armistice and end the war.
1800 – United States presidential election: The Electoral College casts votes for president and vice president that result in a tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr.
1818 – Illinois becomes the 21st U.S. state.
1834 – The Zollverein (German Customs Union) begins the first regular census in Germany.
December 4
1745 – Charles Edward Stuart's army reaches Derby, its furthest point during the Second Jacobite Rising.
1783 – At Fraunces Tavern in New York City, U.S. General George Washington bids farewell to his officers.
1786 – Mission Santa Barbara is dedicated (on the feast day of Saint Barbara).
1791 – The first edition of The Observer, the world's first Sunday newspaper, is published.
1804 – The United States House of Representatives adopts articles of impeachment against Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase.
1808 – Napoleonic Wars: Under the orders of Commander Tomás de Morla, the city of Madrid surrenders to French Emperor Napoleon I after a 4 day long siege.
December 5
1757 – Seven Years' War: Battle of Leuthen: Frederick II of Prussia leads Prussian forces to a decisive victory over Austrian forces under Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine.
1766 – In London, auctioneer James Christie holds his first sale.
1770 – 29th Regiment of Foot privates Hugh Montgomery and Matthew Kilroy are found guilty of the manslaughter of Crispus Attucks and Samuel Gray, respectively, in the Boston Massacre.
1775 – At Fort Ticonderoga, Henry Knox begins his historic transport of artillery to Cambridge, Massachusetts.
1776 – Phi Beta Kappa, the oldest academic honor society in the U.S., holds its first meeting at the College of William & Mary.
1831 – Former U.S. President John Quincy Adams takes his seat in the House of Representatives.
December 6
1745 – Charles Edward Stuart's army begins retreat during the second Jacobite Rising.
1790 – The U.S. Congress moves from New York City to Philadelphia.
1803 – Five French warships attempting to escape the Royal Naval blockade of Saint-Domingue are all seized by British warships, signifying the end of the Haitian Revolution.
December 7
1703 – The Great Storm of 1703, the greatest windstorm ever recorded in the southern part of Great Britain, makes landfall. Winds gust up to 120 mph, and 9,000 people die.
1724 – Tumult of Thorn: Religious unrest is followed by the execution of nine Protestant citizens and the mayor of Thorn (Torun) by Polish authorities.
1732 – The Royal Opera House opens at Covent Garden, London, England.
1776 – Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, arranges to enter the American military as a major general.
1787 – Delaware becomes the first state to ratify the United States Constitution.
December 8
December 9
1775 – American Revolutionary War: British troops and Loyalists, misinformed about Patriot militia strength, lose the Battle of Great Bridge, ending British rule in Virginia.
1822 – French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel, in a memoir read to the Academy of Sciences, coins the terms linear polarization, circular polarization, and elliptical polarization, and reports a direct refraction experiment verifying his theory that optical rotation is a form of birefringence.
1824 – Patriot forces led by General Antonio José de Sucre defeat a Royalist army in the Battle of Ayacucho, putting an end to the Peruvian War of Independence.
December 10
1768 – The first edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica is published.
1799 – France adopts the metre as its official unit of length.
1817 – Mississippi becomes the 20th U.S. state.
December 11
1792 – French Revolution: King Louis XVI of France is put on trial for treason by the National Convention.
1815 – The U.S. Senate creates a select committee on finance and a uniform national currency, predecessor of the United States Senate Committee on Finance.
1816 – Indiana becomes the 19th U.S. state.
December 12
1787 – Pennsylvania becomes the second state to ratify the US Constitution.
December 13
1758 – The English transport ship Duke William sinks in the North Atlantic, killing over 360 people.
1769 – Dartmouth College is founded by the Reverend Eleazar Wheelock, with a royal charter from King George III, on land donated by Royal Governor John Wentworth.
1818 – Cyril VI of Constantinople resigns from his position as Ecumenical Patriarch under pressure from the Ottoman Empire.
December 14
1751 – The Theresian Military Academy is founded in Wiener Neustadt, Austria.
1780 – Founding Father Alexander Hamilton marries Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton at the Schuyler Mansion in Albany, New York.
1782 – The Montgolfier brothers first test-fly an unmanned hot air balloon in France; it floats nearly 2.5 km (1.6 mi).
1812 – The French invasion of Russia comes to an end as the remnants of the Grande Armée are expelled from Russia.
1814 – War of 1812: The Royal Navy seizes control of Lake Borgne, Louisiana.
1819 – Alabama becomes the 22nd U.S. state.
1836 – The Toledo War unofficially ends as the "Frostbitten Convention" votes to accept Congress's terms for admitting Michigan as a U.S. state.
December 15
1778 – American Revolutionary War: British and French fleets clash in the Battle of St. Lucia.
1791 – The United States Bill of Rights becomes law when ratified by the Virginia General Assembly.
1836 – The U.S. Patent Office building in Washington, D.C., nearly burns to the ground, destroying all 9,957 patents issued by the federal government to that date, as well as 7,000 related patent models.
December 16
1707 – Most Recent Eruption of Mount Fuji.
1761 – Seven Years' War: After a four-month siege, the Russians under Pyotr Rumyantsev take the Prussian fortress of Kolobrzeg.
1773 – American Revolution: Boston Tea Party: Members of the Sons of Liberty disguised as Mohawk Indians dump hundreds of crates of tea into Boston harbor as a protest against the Tea Act.
1777 – Virginia becomes the first state to ratify the Articles of Confederation.
1782 – British East India Company: Muharram Rebellion: Hada and Mada Miah led the first anti-British uprising in the subcontinent against Robert Lindsay and his contingents in Sylhet Shahi Eidgah.
1811 – The first two in a series of four severe earthquakes occur in the vicinity of New Madrid, Missouri.
1826 – Benjamin W. Edwards rides into Mexican-controlled Nacogdoches, Texas, and declares himself ruler of the Republic of Fredonia.
December 17
1718 – War of the Quadruple Alliance: Great Britain declares war on Spain.
1777 – American Revolution: France formally recognizes the United States.
1790 – The Aztec calendar stone is discovered at El Zócalo, Mexico City.
1807 – Napoleonic Wars: France issues the Milan Decree, which confirms the Continental System.
1812 – War of 1812: U.S. forces attack a Lenape village in the Battle of the Mississinewa.
1819 – Simón Bolívar declares the independence of Gran Colombia in Angostura (now Ciudad Bolívar in Venezuela).
1835 – The second Great Fire of New York destroys 53,000 square metres (13 acres) of New York City's Financial District.
December 18
1777 – The United States celebrates its first Thanksgiving, marking the recent victory by the American rebels over British General John Burgoyne at Saratoga in October.
1787 – New Jersey becomes the third state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
1793 – Surrender of the frigate Lutine by French Royalists to Lord Samuel Hood; renamed HMS Lutine, she later becomes a famous treasure wreck.
1833 – The national anthem of the Russian Empire, "God Save the Tsar!", is first performed.
December 19
1776 – Thomas Paine publishes one of a series of pamphlets in The Pennsylvania Journal entitled "The American Crisis".
1777 – American Revolutionary War: George Washington's Continental Army goes into winter quarters at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.
1783 – William Pitt the Younger becomes the youngest Prime Minister of the United Kingdom at 24.
1793 – War of the First Coalition: The Siege of Toulon ends when Napoleon's French artillery forces the British to abandon the city, securing southern France from invasion.
1796 – French Revolutionary Wars: Two British frigates under Commodore Horatio Nelson and two Spanish frigates under Commodore Don Jacobo Stuart engage in battle off the coast of Murcia.
1828 – Vice President of the United States John C. Calhoun sparks the Nullification Crisis when he anonymously publishes the South Carolina Exposition and Protest, protesting the Tariff of 1828.
December 20
1803 – The Louisiana Purchase is completed at a ceremony in New Orleans.
1808 – Peninsular War: The Siege of Zaragoza begins.
1832 – HMS Clio, under the command of Captain Onslow, arrives at Port Egmont under orders to take possession of the Falkland Islands.
December 21
1826 – American settlers in Nacogdoches, Mexican Texas, declare their independence, starting the Fredonian Rebellion.
1832 – Egyptian–Ottoman War: Egyptian forces decisively defeat Ottoman troops at the Battle of Konya.
December 22
1769 – Sino-Burmese War: The war ended with the Qing dynasty withdrawing from Burma forever.
1788 – Nguyen Hue proclaims himself Emperor Quang Trung, in effect abolishing on his own the Lê dynasty.
1790 – The Turkish fortress of Izmail is stormed and captured by Alexander Suvorov and his Russian armies.
1807 – The Embargo Act, forbidding trade with all foreign countries, is passed by the U.S. Congress at the urging of President Thomas Jefferson.
1808 – Ludwig van Beethoven conducts and performs in concert at the Theater an der Wien, Vienna, with the premiere of his Fifth Symphony, Sixth Symphony, Fourth Piano Concerto, and Choral Fantasy.
December 23
1773 – Moscow State Academy of Choreography was founded under the reign of Catherine II. It is the second ballet school in Russia after the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet.
1783 – George Washington resigns as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army at the Maryland State House in Annapolis, Maryland.
1793 – The Battle of Savenay: A decisive defeat of the royalist counter-revolutionaries in the War in the Vendée during the French Revolution.
1815 – The novel Emma by Jane Austen is first published.
December 24
1737 – The Marathas defeat the combined forces of the Mughal Empire, Rajputs of Jaipur, Nizam of Hyderabad, Nawab of Awadh, and Nawab of Bengal in the Battle of Bhopal.
1777 – Kiritimati, also called Christmas Island, was discovered by James Cook.
1800 – The Plot of the rue Saint-Nicaise fails to kill Napoleon Bonaparte.
1814 – Representatives of the United Kingdom and the United States sign the Treaty of Ghent, ending the War of 1812.
1818 – The first performance of "Silent Night" takes place in the Nikolauskirche in Oberndorf, Austria.
1826 – The Eggnog Riot at the United States Military Academy begins that night, wrapping up the following morning.
December 25
1724 – J. S. Bach leads the first performance of Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ, BWV 91, in Leipzig, based on Luther's 1524 Christmas hymn.
1725 – J. S. Bach leads the first performance of the Christmas cantata Unser Mund sei voll Lachens, BWV 110, making laughter audible in singing.
1758 – Halley's Comet is sighted by Johann Georg Palitzsch, confirming Edmund Halley's prediction of its passage. This was the first passage of a comet predicted ahead of time.
1766 – Mapuches in Chile launch a series of surprise attacks against the Spanish, starting the Mapuche uprising of 1766.
1776 – American Revolutionary War: General George Washington and the Continental Army cross the Delaware River at night to attack Hessian forces serving Great Britain at Trenton, New Jersey, the next day.
1793 – Northwest Indian War: General "Mad Anthony" Wayne and a 300-man detachment identify the site of St. Clair's 1791 defeat by the large number of unburied human remains at modern Fort Recovery, Ohio.
1809 – Dr. Ephraim McDowell performs the first ovariotomy, removing a 22-pound tumor.
1814 – Rev. Samuel Marsden holds the first Christian service on land in New Zealand at Rangihoua Bay.
1815 – The Handel and Haydn Society, the oldest continually performing arts organization in the United States, gives its first performance.
1826 – The Eggnog Riot at the United States Military Academy concludes after beginning the previous evening.
December 26
1704 – Second Battle of Anandpur: In the Second Battle of Anandpur, Aurangzeb's two generals, Wazir Khan and Zaberdast Khan, executed two children of Guru Gobind Singh, Zorawar Sing, aged eight, ht and Fateh Singh, aged five, by burying them alive in a wall.
1709 – The opera Agrippina by George Frideric Handel premiered in Venice.
1723 – Bach led the first performance of Darzu ist erschienen der Sohn Gottes, BWV 40, his first Christmas Cantata composed for Leipzig.
1776 – American Revolutionary War: In the Battle of Trenton, the Continental Army under General George Washington executes a successful surprise attack and defeats a garrison of Hessian forces serving Great Britain.
1790 – Louis XVI of France gives his public assent to the Civil Constitution of the Clergy during the French Revolution.
1793 – Second Battle of Wissembourg: France defeats Austria.
1799 – Henry Lee III's eulogy to George Washington in Congress declares him as "first in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen".
December 27
1703 – Portugal and England sign the Methuen Treaty, which allows Portugal to export wines to England on favorable trade terms.
1814 – War of 1812: The destruction of the schooner USS Carolina brings to an end Commodore Daniel Patterson's makeshift fleet, which fought a series of delaying actions that contributed to Andrew Jackson's victory at the Battle of New Orleans.
1831 – Charles Darwin embarks on his journey aboard HMS Beagle, during which he will begin to formulate his theory of evolution.
December 28
1768 – King Taksin's coronation was achieved through conquest as the king of Thailand, and he established Thonburi as the capital.
1795 – Construction of Yonge Street, formerly recognized as the longest street in the world, begins in York, Upper Canada (present-day Toronto).
1832 – John C. Calhoun becomes the first Vice President of the United States to resign. He resigned after being elected Senator from South Carolina.
1835 – Osceola leads his Seminole warriors in Florida into the Second Seminole War against the United States Army.
December 29
1778 – American Revolutionary War: British forces under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Archibald Campbell defeat American forces under Major General Robert Howe and capture the port city of Savannah, Georgia.
1812 – USS Constitution, under the command of Captain William Bainbridge, captures HMS Java off the coast of Brazil after a three-hour battle.
1835 – The Treaty of New Echota is signed, ceding all the lands of the Cherokee east of the Mississippi River to the United States.
December 30
1702 – Queen Anne's War: James Moore, Governor of the Province of Carolina, abandons the Siege of St. Augustine.
1813 – War of 1812: British soldiers burn Buffalo, New York.
1816 – The Treaty of St. Louis between the United States and the United Ottawa, Ojibwa, and Potawatomi Indian tribes is proclaimed.
1825 – The Treaty of St. Louis between the United States and the Shawnee Nation is proclaimed.
December 31
1757 – Empress Elizabeth I of Russia issues her ukase incorporating Konigsberg into Russia.
1759 – Arthur Guinness signs a 9,000-year lease at £45 per annum and starts brewing Guinness.
1775 – American Revolutionary War: Battle of Quebec: British forces under General Guy Carleton repulse an attack by Continental Army General Richard Montgomery in a snowstorm.
1790 – Efimeris, the oldest Greek newspaper of which issues have survived till today, is published for the first time.
1796 – The incorporation of Baltimore as a city.
1831 – Gramercy Park is deeded to New York City.