| 1 December 1095 | France [Crusades (1095–1272)] | Count Raymond IV of Toulouse becomes the first major figure to join the First Crusade. |
| 1 December 1521 | Rome [births and deaths] | Pope Leo X (Giovanni de' Medici), pope 1513–21, noted for his political skill and personal extravagance, dies in Rome, Italy (56). |
| 1 December 1640 | Portugal, Spain [political events] | Portugal joins the revolt against Spain, which is already troubled by civil war in Catalonia. The Duke of Braganza accepts the throne of an independent Portugal and becomes King John IV. |
| 1 December 1804 | UK [aircraft] | English aviation pioneer George Cayley develops an instrument to measure wind resistance. About this time he also begins to construct models of gliders with fixed wings, fuselage, elevators and a rudder – the basic configuration of the modern aeroplane. |
| 1 December 1821 | West Indies, Spain [decolonization] | The West Indian colony of San Domingo establishes itself as a republic independent of Spain. |
| 1 December 1825 | Russia [administration] | Alexander I, emperor of Russia 1801–25 who was instrumental in defeating the French emperor Napoleon I, dies in Taganrog, Russia, and is succeeded by Nicholas I, his younger brother. |
| 1 December 1934 | USSR [political events] | Sergey Kirov, Party leader in Leningrad and a senior communist leader in the USSR, is assassinated, probably with the connivance of the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. The assassination marks the beginning of the Great Purge (1934–38). |
| 1 December 1935 | China [administration] | Jiang Jie Shi (Chiang Kai-shek) is elected chairman of the Guomindang (Nationalist Party) Executive Council, so becoming virtual ruler of China. |
| 1 December 1935 | [births and deaths] | Woody Allen, US film director, screenwriter, actor, and author, born in Brooklyn, New York City. |
| 1 December 1943 | USA [World War II (1939–45)] | Gas rationing begins in the USA. |
| 1 December 1959 | Antarctica [ecology] | An Antarctic Treaty is signed, suspending territorial claims and aiming to prevent development in the region (valid 23 June 1961–December 1989). |
| 1 December 1966 | USA [births and deaths] | Walt Disney, US motion-picture producer and creator of Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and other characters, dies in Los Angeles, California (65). |
| 1 December 1973 | Israel [births and deaths] | David Ben-Gurion, Zionist statesman and first prime minister of the newly formed state of Israel 1948–53 and 1955–63, dies in Tel Aviv, Israel (87). |
| 1 December 1989 | Vatican [Catholicism] | Mikhail Gorbachev becomes the first leader of the USSR to visit the Vatican. He and Pope John Paul II agree to re-establish diplomatic relations between their states. |
| 1 December 1990 | UK, France [other structures] | British and French tunnelling engineers, working from opposite sides of the English Channel to build the Channel Tunnel, break through the last few yards of ground separating their excavations. |
