12 December

12 December 164 BC	Palestine, Seleucid Kingdom [political events]	Judas Maccabaeus, leader of the rebellion against the rule of King Antiochus IV of Syria, defeats the Seleucid forces by guerrilla tactics and gains control of Jerusalem. He cleanses and rededicates the temple, destroys the idols, and restores Judaism.
12 December 1058	Holy Roman Empire, Italy [administration]	Bishop Gerard of Florence is elected as Pope Nicholas II at Siena, Italy, by the reforming party of cardinals under the protection of Godfrey, Duke of Lorraine.
12 December 1105	Holy Roman Empire, Germany [political events]	Emperor Henry IV is captured and imprisoned in Mainz, capital of the Rhineland palatinate, Germany, by his son King Henry V of Germany who is in rebellion against him, fearing that the conflict with the papacy is undermining royal authority.
12 December 1189	England, Palestine [administration]	Having raised money by the sale of offices and privileges, King Richard I the Lionheart leaves England to join the Third Crusade, leaving William de Mandeville, Earl of Essex and Hugh Puiset, bishop of Durham, in charge of England as justiciars (vice regents in the king's absence).
12 December 1254	Papal States, Italy [administration]	Rinaldo Conti is elected Pope Alexander IV.
12 December 1317	Sweden [political events]	Eric, Duke of Södermanland, leader of the baronial opposition to the monarchy in Sweden, is captured by King Birger of Sweden, his brother, and presumably murdered. This is followed by a general rebellion.
12 December 1329	Holy Roman Empire, Italy [colonization]	King Ludwig IV of Bavaria returns to Germany from Italy, ending the final attempt to restore German imperial authority in Italy.
12 December 1474	Castile, Aragon, Spain [administration]	Henry IV the Impotent, King of Castile, dies and is succeeded by his sister Isabella and her husband Ferdinand V, son and heir of John II of Aragon.
12 December 1741	Russia [political events]	Elizabeth, the surviving daughter of the former tsar Peter I the Great, becomes empress of Russia after a bloodless coup d'etat, ousting the infant Ivan VI and the regent Anna Leopoldovna (Princess Anna Leopoldovna of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel).
12 December 1741	Spain, Tuscany, Holy Roman Empire, Italy [War of the Austrian Succession (1740–46)]	Spanish troops land in Tuscany. King Philip V of Spain is ambitious to acquire for Philip, his second son by Elizabeth Farnese, the major part of the lands of Maria Theresa, Archduchess of Austria, in Italy and, if possible, those of her consort Francis Stephen, Grand Duke of Tuscany.
12 December 1821	France [law and government]	Armand du Plessis, duc de Richelieu, is succeeded as French prime minister by Jean Villèle, ending the rule of the right centre and leading to a period of reaction under the ultra-conservatives.
12 December 1821	France [births and deaths]	Gustave Flaubert, French realist novelist best known for Madame Bovary (1857), born in Rouen, France (–1880).
12 December 1863	Norway [births and deaths]	Edvard Munch, Norwegian painter of psychological subjects such as The Scream, born in Löten, Norway (–1944).
12 December 1865	Sweden [legislation]	A new constitution in Sweden abolishes the traditional four estates and replaces them with two chambers, following long-standing demands for political reform.
12 December 1896	UK, Italy [technology]	The Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi publically demonstrates his system for commercially viable radio communication in Britain and obtains a patent.
12 December 1901	[communications]	Italian physicist Guglielmo Marconi, in St John's, Newfoundland, Canada, receives the letter ‘S’ in Morse code, from Poldhu, Cornwall, England. It is the first transmission of a radio signal across the Atlantic Ocean, a distance of 3,200 km/2,000 mi, and it inaugurates the development of radio communication.
12 December 1905	Persia [revolution]	A revolution begins in Persia against the corrupt rule of Shah Mohammed Ali.
12 December 1909	Honduras [wars]	Civil war breaks out in Honduras between the supporters of President Miguel Dávila and ex-president Manuel Bonilla, and continues until 1911.
12 December 1915	[births and deaths]	Frank Sinatra, US singer and actor, born in Hoboken, New Jersey.
12 December 1916	USA, Japan [legislation]	The US Senate passes its Immigration Bill, with an amended literacy test clause designed to meet Japanese criticism.
12 December 1931	UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Newfoundland [decolonization]	The British Parliament passes the Statute of Westminster, establishing the equality of Britain and its dominions of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and Newfoundland.
12 December 1936	UK [political events]	The Duke of York, younger brother of Edward VIII, succeeds to the British throne as George VI, following Edward's abdication on 11 December.
12 December 1936	Ireland [legislation]	The Constitution (amendment) Act in the Irish Free State removes the king from membership of the Irish parliament and deprives the British governor general of most of his functions.
12 December 1951	USA [energy]	The first power station in the USA to produce electricity from atomic energy begins operating at Arco, Idaho. Built by the US Department of Energy's Idaho National Engineering Laboratory and known as experimental breeder reactor No. 1 (EBR-I), it is built to demonstrate the feasibility of nuclear power. It generates 300 kW.
12 December 1963	British East Africa, Kenya [decolonization]	Kenya becomes independent within the British Commonwealth.
12 December 1964	Kenya [decolonization]	Kenya becomes a republic within the Commonwealth, with Jomo Kenyatta as president.
12 December 1982	UK [weapons]	More than 20,000 women encircle the Greenham Common air base in England in protest against the proposed siting of US cruise missiles there.
12 December 1997	USA [legislation]	The US Justice Department orders Microsoft to sell its Internet browser separately from its Windows operating system to prevent it from building a monopoly of Web access programs.
12 December 1999	UK [boxing]	Former US boxer Muhammad Ali is named British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Sports Personality of the Century.
12–13 December 2003	Belgium [international organizations]	European Union (EU) leaders at a summit meeting in Brussels, Belgium, fail to agree on countries' voting powers in the proposed new constitution for an enlarged EU from May 2004. The main protagonists are Poland and Spain on one side and Germany and France on the other.

December 12

12 December