| 135931 | December 1 | Event | 1834 – Slavery is abolished in the Cape Colony in accordance with the Slavery Abolition Act 1833. |
| 135932 | December 1 | Event | 1862 – In his State of the Union Address President Abraham Lincoln reaffirms the necessity of ending slavery as ordered ten weeks earlier in the Emancipation Proclamation. |
| 135933 | December 1 | Event | 1864 – Great Fire of Brisbane |
| 135934 | December 1 | Event | 1865 – Shaw University, the first historically black university in the southern United States, is founded in Raleigh, North Carolina. |
| 135935 | December 1 | Event | 1885 – First serving of the soft drink Dr Pepper at a drug store in Waco, Texas. |
| 135936 | December 1 | Event | 1913 – The Buenos Aires Metro, the first underground railway system in the Southern Hemisphere and in Latin America, begins operation. |
| 135937 | December 1 | Event | 1913 – The Ford Motor Company introduces the first moving assembly line. |
| 135938 | December 1 | Event | 1913 – Crete, having obtained self rule from Turkey after the First Balkan War, is annexed by Greece. |
| 135939 | December 1 | Event | 1918 – Transylvania unites with the Kingdom of Romania, following the incorporation of Bessarabia (March 27) and Bukovina (November 28), thus concluding the Great Union. |
| 135940 | December 1 | Event | 1918 – The Kingdom of Iceland becomes a sovereign state, yet remains a part of the Danish kingdom. |
| 135941 | December 1 | Event | 1918 – The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later known as the Kingdom of Yugoslavia) is proclaimed. |
| 135942 | December 1 | Event | 1919 – Lady Astor becomes the first female Member of Parliament to take her seat in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. (She had been elected to that position on November 28.) |
| 135943 | December 1 | Event | 1919 – The first issue of Diário de Noite is published from Goa. |
| 135944 | December 1 | Event | 1934 – In the Soviet Union, Politburo member Sergey Kirov is shot dead by Leonid Nikolaev at the Communist Party headquarters in Leningrad. |
| 135945 | December 1 | Event | 1941 – World War II: Emperor Hirohito of Japan gives the final approval to initiate war against the United States. |
| 135946 | December 1 | Event | 1941 – World War II: Fiorello La Guardia, Mayor of New York City and Director of the Office of Civilian Defense, signs Administrative Order 9, creating the Civil Air Patrol. |
| 135947 | December 1 | Event | 1948 – Taman Shud Case: The body of an unidentified man is found in Adelaide, Australia, involving an undetectable poison and a secret code in a very rare book the case remains unsolved and is "one of Australia's most profound mysteries." |
| 135948 | December 1 | Event | 1952 – The New York Daily News reports the news of Christine Jorgensen, the first notable case of sexual reassignment surgery. |
| 135949 | December 1 | Event | 1955 – American Civil Rights Movement: In Montgomery, Alabama, seamstress Rosa Parks refuses to give up her bus seat to a white man and is arrested for violating the city's racial segregation laws, an incident which leads to the Montgomery Bus Boycott. |
| 135950 | December 1 | Event | 1958 – The Central African Republic attains self-rule within the French Union. |
| 135951 | December 1 | Event | 1958 – The Our Lady of the Angels School fire in Chicago kills 92 children and three nuns. |
| 135952 | December 1 | Event | 1959 – Cold War: Opening date for signature of the Antarctic Treaty, which sets aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve and bans military activity on the continent. |
| 135953 | December 1 | Event | 1960 – Paul McCartney and Pete Best are arrested (and later deported) from Hamburg, Germany, after accusations of attempted arson. |
| 135954 | December 1 | Event | 1963 – Nagaland becomes the 16th state of India. |
| 135955 | December 1 | Event | 1964 – Vietnam War: U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson and his top-ranking advisers meet to discuss plans to bomb North Vietnam. |
| 135956 | December 1 | Event | 1964 – Malawi, Malta and Zambia join the United Nations. |
| 135957 | December 1 | Event | 1965 – India's Border Security Force is established. |
| 135958 | December 1 | Event | 1966 – The first Gävle goat, an annual Swedish Yule Goat tradition, is erected in Gävle. |
| 135959 | December 1 | Event | 1969 – Vietnam War: The first draft lottery in the United States is held since World War II. |
| 135960 | December 1 | Event | 1971 – Cambodian Civil War: Khmer Rouge rebels intensify assaults on Cambodian government positions, forcing their retreat from Kompong Thmar and nearby Ba Ray. |