| 0 | | Feast of St. Maurus of Parentium, Bishop of Istria and Martyr, and that of St. Digain, Prince of Dumnonia, Confessor |
| 235 | | Accession of Pope St. Anterus (Nov. 21 235-Jan 3, 236), martyred |
| 533 | | the Emperor Justinian issued the "Institutiones", a codification of over a thousand years of Roman law |
| 1338 | | Robin Hood enlisted as an archer in the service of King Edward III at the garrison on the Isle of Wight |
| 1386 | | Timurlane of Samarkand captures and sacks Tbilisi, Georgia |
| 1521 | | Battle of Bicocca: Prospero Colonna's Italo-Spanish army crushes the French & Swiss |
| 1739 | | Adm. Lord Vernon captured Porto Bello, Panama -- Learn More |
| 1739 | | Adm Lord Edward Vernon captured Porto Bello from the Spanish after a short siege -- Learn More |
| 1783 | | Jean-Francois Pilatre de Rozier and the Marquis d’Alandes made the first untethered balloon ascent -- Learn More |
| 1818 | | Tsar Alexander I proposes a Jewish state in Palestine |
| 1894 | | Port Arthur is captured by the Japanese from the Chinese, amidst great slaughter |
| 1914 | | Battle of the Kolubara begins: Serbs defeat the second Austrian invasion by Dec 15th, routing two armies |
| 1918 | | German ammunition trains explode in Hamont, Belgium, 1,750 die |
| 1918 | | The German High Seas Fleet is interned at Scapa Flo, Scotland |
| 1918 | | Pogrom in Lwów: Polish inhabitants attack Jews and Ukrainians, over 300 die |
| 1920 | | "Bloody Sunday": After the IRA assassinates 12 British intelligence officers, plus two others, British security forces open fire at a football game in Dublin, killing 14, and later murder three prisoners |
| 1920 | | Mussolini's Blackshirts kill 11 political opponents in Bologna |
| 1927 | | Police officers in civilian clothes joined mine security guards in machine gunning striking workers at the Columbine Mine in Colorado, killing nine; no one was charged. |
| 1942 | | ALCAN (Alaska-Canada) Highway is officially opened |
| 1970 | | Operation Ivory Coast: A joint Army-Air Force commando raid on the Son Tây prisoner-of-war camp finds all Americans have been moved elsewere |
| 1971 | | Battle of Garibpur: Indian troops and Bangladeshi militia defeat the Pakistani Army |
| 1981 | | Amsterdam: 400,000 demonstrate for Peace through Disarmament |
| 1985 | | US Navy intelligence specialist Jonathan Pollard is arrested on charges of spying for Israel; convicted, he is released in 2015 |
| 1150 | | King García Ramírez "the Restorer" of Navarre (1134-1150, c. 48 |
| 1643 | | René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, French explorer of the Great Lakes, Mississippi Valley, & Gulf Coast, murdered 1687 |
| 1694 | | François-Marie Arouet, known as "Voltaire," philosopher, novelist, satirist, d. 1778 |
| 1725 | | Franz Moritz von Lacy, Austrian field marshal, d. 1801 |
| 1817 | | Richard B Garnett, Brig Gen, C.S.A., kia, July 3, 1863 |
| 1828 | | William McComb, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1918 |
| 1831 | | John Franklin Miller, Brig Gen, U.S., d.1886 |
| 1834 | | Joseph Jackson Bartlett, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1893 |
| 1834 | | Hetty Green, America's most miserable millionaire miser, d. 1916. |
| 1840 | | Victoria Adelaide Mary Louisa, Princess Royal of Great Britain, wife to German Emperor & King of Prussia Frederick III (1888), mother to Emperor-King Wilhelm II -- "Kaiser Bill", d. 1901 |
| 1851 | | Désiré-Félicien-François-Joseph Mercier, Belgian Cardinal, opponent of the German occupation (1814-1918), d. 1926 |
| 1854 | | Giacomo Paolo Giovanni Battista della Chiesa - Pope Benedict XV (1914-1922), scorned peacemaker |
| 1857 | | Manuel José Estrada Cabrera, sometime President/Dictator of Guatemala (1898-1920), d. 1924 |
| 1914 | | Michael Grant, classicist, historian ("Gladiators"), d. 2004 |
| 53 | BC | Marcus Licinius Crassus, c. 60, beheaded by the Parthians (no molten gold involved), his head is then used as a prop in a play |
| 496 | | Pope Gelasius I (492-496) |
| 1361 | | Philip I de Rouvres (16), Duke of Burgundy (1350-1361 |
| 1910 | | Count Leo Tolstoy, 82, veteran of Sebastopol, in a train station |
| 1916 | | Franz Joseph, Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, King of Bohemia, etc. (1848-1916), 86 -- Learn More |
| 1917 | | Lt. Rudolph von Eschwege, German ace with 20 confirmed kills, kia at 22 -- Learn More |
| 1942 | | Leopold Graf Berchtold von und zu Ungarschitz, 79, inept Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister who helped start the Great War |
| 1945 | | Alexander Patch, who commanded the Seventh Army in France, at 55 |
| 1969 | | MajGen Sir Edward Frederick William David Walugembe Mutebi Luwangula Mutesa II, King of Buganda (1939-1969) and First President of Uganda (1962-1966), at 45 |
| 2005 | | Alfred Anderson, 109, veteran of the Black Watch, the last survivor of the Christmas Truce of 1914, the last Scottish veteran of the Great War, and the oldest man in Scotland -- Learn More |