| 135961 | December 1 | Event | 1973 – Papua New Guinea gains self-governance from Australia. |
| 135962 | December 1 | Event | 1974 – TWA Flight 514, a Boeing 727, crashes northwest of Dulles International Airport, killing all 92 people on board. |
| 135963 | December 1 | Event | 1974 – Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 6231, another Boeing 727, crashes northwest of John F. Kennedy International Airport. |
| 135964 | December 1 | Event | 1976 – Angola joins the United Nations. |
| 135965 | December 1 | Event | 1981 – Inex-Adria Aviopromet Flight 1308, a McDonnell Douglas MD-80, crashes in Corsica, killing all 180 people on board. |
| 135966 | December 1 | Event | 1984 – NASA conducts the Controlled Impact Demonstration, wherein an airliner is deliberately crashed in order to test technologies and gather data to help improve survivability of crashes. |
| 135967 | December 1 | Event | 1988 – Benazir Bhutto is appointed Prime Minister of Pakistan. |
| 135968 | December 1 | Event | 1989 – Philippine coup attempt: The right-wing military rebel Reform the Armed Forces Movement attempts to oust Philippine President Corazon Aquino in a failed bloody coup d'état. |
| 135969 | December 1 | Event | 1989 – Cold War: East Germany's parliament abolishes the constitutional provision granting the Communist Party the leading role in the state. |
| 135970 | December 1 | Event | 1990 – Channel Tunnel sections started from the United Kingdom and France meet 40 metres beneath the seabed. |
| 135971 | December 1 | Event | 1991 – Cold War: Ukrainian voters overwhelmingly approve a referendum for independence from the Soviet Union. |
| 135972 | December 1 | Event | 1997 – In the Indian state of Bihar, Ranvir Sena attacked the CPI(ML) Party Unity stronghold Lakshmanpur-Bathe, killing 63 lower caste people. |
| 135973 | December 1 | Event | 2001 – Captain Bill Compton brings Trans World Airlines Flight 220, an MD-83, into St. Louis International Airport bringing to an end 76 years of TWA operations following TWA's purchase by American Airlines. |
| 135974 | December 1 | Event | 2009 – The Treaty of Lisbon, which amends the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty establishing the European Community, which together comprise the constitutional basis of European Union, comes into effect. |
| 135975 | December 1 | Event | 2013 – China launches Yutu or Jade Rabbit, its first lunar rover, as part of the Chang'e 3 lunar exploration mission. |
| 135976 | December 1 | Event | 2013 – A derailment of a Metro-North Railroad train near Spuyten Duyvil, Bronx, New York City kills four and injures 61. |
| 135977 | December 1 | Birth | 1081 – Louis VI of France (d. 1137) |
| 135978 | December 1 | Birth | 1083 – Anna Komnene, Byzantine physician and scholar (d. 1153) |
| 135979 | December 1 | Birth | 1521 – Takeda Shingen, Japanese daimyo (d. 1573) |
| 135980 | December 1 | Birth | 1525 – Tadeáš Hájek, Czech physician and astronomer (d. 1600) |
| 135981 | December 1 | Birth | 1580 – Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc, French astronomer and historian (d. 1637) |
| 135982 | December 1 | Birth | 1690 – Philip Yorke, 1st Earl of Hardwicke, English lawyer and politician, Lord Chancellor of the United Kingdom (d. 1764) |
| 135983 | December 1 | Birth | 1709 – Franz Xaver Richter, Czech singer-songwriter, violinist, and conductor (d. 1789) |
| 135984 | December 1 | Birth | 1716 – Étienne Maurice Falconet, French sculptor (d. 1791) |
| 135985 | December 1 | Birth | 1743 – Martin Heinrich Klaproth, German chemist and academic (d. 1817) |
| 135986 | December 1 | Birth | 1761 – Marie Tussaud, French sculptor, founded Madame Tussauds Wax Museum (d. 1850) |
| 135987 | December 1 | Birth | 1792 – Nikolai Lobachevsky, Russian mathematician and geometer (d. 1856) |
| 135988 | December 1 | Birth | 1844 – Alexandra of Denmark (d. 1925) |
| 135989 | December 1 | Birth | 1846 – Ledi Sayadaw, Burmese monk and philosopher (d. 1923) |
| 135990 | December 1 | Birth | 1847 – Julia A. Moore, American poet (d. 1920) |