# 31 December 1600 – The British East India Company is chartered.
# 30 December 1927 – The Ginza Line, the first subway line in Asia, opens in Tokyo, Japan.
# 29 December 1998 – Leaders of the Khmer Rouge apologize for the 1970s genocide in Cambodia that claimed over one million lives.
# 28 December 1895 – The Lumière brothers perform for their first paying audience at the Grand Cafe(Salon indien du Grand Café) in Boulevard des Capucines : La Sortie de l'usine Lumière à Lyon d'Auguste et Louis Lumière.
# 27 December 2007 – Former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto is assassinated in a shooting incident.
# 26 December 1898 – Marie and Pierre Curie announce the isolation of radium.
# 25 December 1991 – Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as President of the Soviet Union (the union itself is dissolved the next day). Ukraine's referendum is finalized and Ukraine officially leaves the Soviet Union.
# 24 December 1871 – The Opera Aida opens in Cairo, Egypt.
# 23 December 2016 – The United Nations Security Council adopts Resolution 2334 condemning "Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories occupied since 1967".
# 22 December 1989 – Communist President of Romania Nicolae Ceaușescu is overthrown by Ion Iliescu after days of bloody confrontations. The deposed dictator and his wife flee Bucharest in a helicopter as protesters erupt in cheers.
# 21 December 1879 – World premiere of Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, Denmark.
# 20 December 1999 – Macau is handed over to China by Portugal.
# 19 December 1946 – Start of the First Indochina War.
# 18 December 1271 – Kublai Khan renames his empire "Yuan" (元 yuán), officially marking the start of the Yuan dynasty of Mongolia and China.
# 17 December 1989 – The Simpsons first premieres on television with the episode "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire".
# 16 December 1971 – Bangladesh Liberation War and Indo-Pakistani War of 1971: The surrender of the Pakistan Army brings an end to both conflicts. This is commemorated annually as Victory Day in Bangladesh, and as Vijay Diwas in India.
# 15 December 1970 – A South Korean ferry, Namyong Ho, capsizes in the Korea Strait, killing more than 300 people.
# 14 December 1940 – Plutonium (specifically Pu-238) is first isolated at Berkeley, California.
# 13 December 1949 – 1937 – Second Sino-Japanese War: Battle of Nanjing: The city of Nanjing(Nanking), defended by the National Revolutionary Army under the command of General Tang Shengzhi, falls to the Japanese. This is followed by the Nanjing(Nanking) Massacre, in which Japanese troops rape and slaughter hundreds of thousands of civilians.
# 12 December 1979 – Coup d'état of December Twelfth: South Korean Army Major General Chun Doo-hwan orders the arrest of Army Chief of Staff General Jeong Seung-hwa without authorization from President Choi Kyu-ha, alleging involvement in the assassination of ex-President Park Chung-hee.
# 11 December 1994 – First Chechen War: Russian President Boris Yeltsin orders Russian troops into Chechnya.
# 10 December 1799 – France adopts the metre as its official unit of length.
# 09 December 2016 – President Park Geun-hye of South Korea is impeached by the country's National Assembly in response to a major political scandal. Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn becomes Acting President, later declining to run for a full term.
# 08 December 1955 – The Flag of Europe is adopted by Council of Europe.
# 07 December 1963 – Instant replay makes its debut during the Army-Navy football game in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.
# 06 December 1917 – Finland declares independence from Soviet Russia.
# 05 December 1931 – Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow was destroyed on orders from Joseph Stalin.
# 04 December 1884년 - 조선에서 개화파에 의한 갑신정변 발생.
# 03 December 1997년 - IMF와 대한민국 정부간의 구제금융 협상이 타결되어, IMF 구제금융 사태가 시작되었다.
# 02 December 2001 – Enron files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
# 01 December 1990 – Channel Tunnel sections started from the United Kingdom and France meet 40 metres beneath the seabed.