United States (US) Historical Events is a daily guide to the important events that shaped America to what it is today. This is a compilation of significant events for the month of December including the birth and death of famous Americans as well as laws promulgated by authorities. The list is constantly updated to incorporate the most recent events.
United States Historical Events in December
| Day | Year | Event |
| 1 | 1955 | Modern American civil rights movement is born with the arrest of Rosa Parks in Montgomery, Alabama, for refusing to give up her seat to a white man. |
| 2 | 1899 | The United States and Germany sign the Tripartite Convention of 1899 which concluded the Second Samoan Civil War and resulting in the formal partition of the Samoan archipelago into a German colony and a United States territory. |
| 2 | 1942 | Enrico Fermi leads a team of physicists that carried out the world’s first successful nuclear chain reaction at the University of Chicago. |
| 2 | 1970 | President Richard Nixon signed an executive order creating the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). |
| 3 | 1818 | Illinois became the 21st State to be admitted to the Union. |
| 3 | 1819 | Montgomery, the capital of Alabama, was incorporated as a city. |
| 4 | 1881 | Publication of the first edition of the Los Angeles Times |
| 5 | 1782 | Birthday: Martin Van Buren, the 8th US president, was born in New York, USA. |
| 5 | 1955 | The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL–CIO) was formed through the merger of the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations. |
| 6 | 1884 | The Washington Monument in Washington, D.C. is completed. |
| 6 | 1865 | Ratification by the required 27 of the then 36 states of the Thirteenth Amendment (Amendment XIII) to the United States Constitution abolishing slavery and involuntary servitude. |
| 7 | 1787 | Delaware became the first State to be admitted to the Union. |
| 7 | 1942 | Birthday: Reginald Lewis was born in Baltimore, Maryland. He was the first black American to build a billion-dollar company, TLC Beatrice International Holdings Inc. See his biography here. |
| 7 | 1941 | Japan attacks Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. |
| 8 | 1886 | The American Federation of Labor (A.F. of L.), a national federation of labor unions in the United States, was founded in Columbus, Ohio. |
| 8 | 1941 | The United States formally enters World War Two following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. |
| 8 | 1993 | President William Clinton signed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) Law. |
| 8 | 2017 | Construction of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. was completed. |
| 9 | 1872 | P. B. S. Pinchback becomes the first African-American governor of a U.S. state in Louisiana. |
| 10 | 1817 | Mississippi became the 20th State to be admitted to the Union. |
| 10 | 1898 | The Treaty of Paris was signed between the United States and Spain providing, among others, that Spain relinquishes all claim of sovereignty over and title to Cuba and also cedes Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines to the United States. |
| 10 | 1941 | Naval Governor of Guam George McMillin surrendered to the Japanese forces and thus ceding control of the islands. |
| 11 | 1816 | Indiana became the 19th State to be admitted to the Union. |
| 12 | 1787 | Pennsylvania was admitted to the Union. |
| 12 | 1980 | Apple Computer held an initial public offering (IPO) and created around 300 millionaires as its stock price went from $22 to #29 at the end of the trading day. |
| 13 | 1962 | NASA launches Relay 1, the first active repeater communications satellite in orbit. |
| 13 | 1769 | Dartmouth College, a private Ivy League research university, was founded by Eleazar Wheelock in Hanover, New Hampshire. |
| 14 | 1799 | Death: George Washington dies in Virginia, United States. |
| 14 | 1819 | Alabama became the 22nd State to be admitted to the Union. |
| 15 | 1791 | The United States Bill of Rights becomes law when the Virginia General Assembly ratified it. |
| 16 | 1773 | 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. |
| 17 | 1777 | France formally recognizes the United States. |
| 17 | 1903 | The Wright Brothers made the first successfully sustained flight by a manned heavier-than-air powered and controlled aircraft. |
| 17 | 1992 | The leaders of Canada, United States and Mexico signed the he North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). |
| 18 | 1787 | New Jersey was admitted to the Union. |
| 18 | 1957 | The Shippingport Atomic Power Station in Pennsylvania, United States, the world’s first full scale power station solely devoted to electricity production, was connected to the grid of Duquesne Light Company. |
| 19 | 1907 | Darr Mine Disaster happened in Jacobs Creek, Pennsylvania. With 239 dead miners, it is one of the deadliest coal mine disasters in US history. |
| 19 | 1852 | Birth: Albert Abraham Michelson, the first American to win the Nobel Prize in Physics |
| 20 | 1946 | The popular Christmas film It’s a Wonderful Life is first released in New York City. |
| 20 | 1951 | Electricity was generated for the first time by a nuclear reactor at the EBR-I experimental station near Arco, Idaho, which initially produced about 100 kW. |
| 21 | 1620 | William Bradford and the Mayflower Pilgrims land on what is now known as Plymouth Rock in Plymouth, Massachusetts. |
| 22 | 1807 | At the urging of President Thomas Jefferson, US Congress passes the Embargo Act to forbid trade with all foreign countries. |
| 23 | 1899 | President William McKinley signs Executive Order 108-A transferring control of Guam to the United States Navy following the Treaty of Paris of 1898. |
| 23 | 1913 | The Federal Reserve Act, creating the Federal Reserve System, is signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson. |
| 24 | 1814 | The Treaty of Ghent is signed by representatives from the United Kingdom and the United States to end the War of 1812. |
| 25 | 1809 | American surgeon Dr. Ephraim McDowell performs the first ovariotomy to remove a 22-pound tumor. |
| 26 | 1972 | Death: Harry Truman, the 33rd US president, died in Kansas City, Missouri at the age of 88. |
| 26 | 2006 | Death: Gerard Ford, the 38th US president, died in California at the age of 93. |
| 27 | 1845 | For the first time, ether anesthetic is used for childbirth by Dr. Crawford Long in Jefferson, Georgia. |
| 28 | 1846 | Iowa became the 29th State to be admitted to the Union. |
| 28 | 1856 | Birthday: Woodrow Wilson, the 28th US president, was born in Staunton, Virginia. |
| 29 | 1809 | Birthday: Andrew Johnson, the 17th US president, was born in Raleigh, North Carolina. |
| 29 | 1845 | Texas became the 28th State to be admitted to the Union. |
| 29 | 1847 | Atlanta, the capital and largest city of the United States, was incorporated as a town. |
| 29 | 1970 | President Richard M. Nixon signed into law the Occupational Safety and Health Act OSH Act. |
| 30 | 1813 | British soldiers burn Buffalo in New York State during the War of 1812. |
| 31 | 1796 | Baltimore in Maryland is incorporated as a city. |
| 31 | 1844 | Birth: Charles A. Coffin, first president of General Electric Company which became one of the largest American multinational corporation until its separation into three public companies in 2021. |
RELATED: United States Historical Events in January, February, March, April, May,June, July, August, September, October, November
