| 136711 | December 3 | Event | 1982 – A soil sample is taken from Times Beach, Missouri, that will be found to contain 300 times the safe level of dioxin. |
| 136712 | December 3 | Event | 1984 – Bhopal disaster: A methyl isocyanate leak from a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, kills more than 3,800 people outright and injures 150,000–600,000 others (some 6,000 of whom would later die from their injuries) in one of the worst i |
| 136713 | December 3 | Event | 1989 – Cold War: In a meeting off the coast of Malta, U.S. President George H. W. Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev release statements indicating that the Cold War between NATO and the Soviet Union may be coming to an end. |
| 136714 | December 3 | Event | 1990 – The 1990 Wayne County Airport runway collision kills seven passengers and one crew member. |
| 136715 | December 3 | Event | 1992 – The Greek oil tanker Aegean Sea, carrying 80,000 tonnes of crude oil, runs aground in a storm while approaching A Coruña, Spain, and spills much of its cargo. |
| 136716 | December 3 | Event | 1992 – A test engineer for Sema Group uses a personal computer to send the world's first text message via the Vodafone network to the phone of a colleague. |
| 136717 | December 3 | Event | 1994 – The PlayStation was released in Japan |
| 136718 | December 3 | Event | 1997 – In Ottawa, Canada, representatives from 121 countries sign the Ottawa Treaty prohibiting manufacture and deployment of anti-personnel landmines. The United States, People's Republic of China, and Russia do not sign the treaty, however. |
| 136719 | December 3 | Event | 1999 – NASA loses radio contact with the Mars Polar Lander moments before the spacecraft enters the Martian atmosphere. |
| 136720 | December 3 | Event | 1999 – Six firefighters are killed in the Worcester Cold Storage and Warehouse fire in Worcester, Massachusetts. |
| 136721 | December 3 | Event | 2005 – XCOR Aerospace makes the first manned rocket aircraft delivery of U.S. Mail in Kern County, California. |
| 136722 | December 3 | Event | 2007 – Winter storms cause the Chehalis River to flood many cities in Lewis County, Washington, and close a 20-mile portion of Interstate 5 for several days. At least eight deaths and billions of dollars in damages are blamed on the floods. |
| 136723 | December 3 | Event | 2009 – A suicide bombing at a hotel in Mogadishu, Somalia, kills 25 people, including three ministers of the Transitional Federal Government. |
| 136724 | December 3 | Event | 2012 – At least 475 people are killed after Typhoon Bopha makes landfall in the Philippines. |
| 136725 | December 3 | Event | 2012 – In Northern Ireland, 15 police officers are injured during rioting at Belfast City Hall following a vote to change Belfast City Council's policy on flying the union flag. |
| 136726 | December 3 | Event | 2014 – The Japanese space agency, JAXA, launches the space explorer Hayabusa 2 from the Tanegashima Space Center on a six-year round trip mission to a asteroid to collect rock samples. |
| 136727 | December 3 | Birth | 1368 – Charles VI of France (d. 1422) |
| 136728 | December 3 | Birth | 1560 – Jan Gruter, Dutch scholar and critic (d. 1627) |
| 136729 | December 3 | Birth | 1596 – Nicola Amati, Italian violin maker (d. 1684) |
| 136730 | December 3 | Birth | 1722 – Hryhorii Skovoroda, Ukrainian poet, composer, and philosopher (d. 1794) |
| 136731 | December 3 | Birth | 1729 – Antonio Soler, Spanish composer and theorist (d. 1783) |
| 136732 | December 3 | Birth | 1755 – Gilbert Stuart, American painter (d. 1828) |
| 136733 | December 3 | Birth | 1800 – France Prešeren, Slovenian poet and lawyer (d. 1849) |
| 136734 | December 3 | Birth | 1826 – George B. McClellan, American general and politician, 24th Governor of New Jersey (d. 1885) |
| 136735 | December 3 | Birth | 1833 – Carlos Finlay, Spanish-Cuban physician (d. 1915) |
| 136736 | December 3 | Birth | 1838 – Cleveland Abbe, American meteorologist and academic (d. 1916) |
| 136737 | December 3 | Birth | 1838 – Octavia Hill, English activist and author (d. 1912) |
| 136738 | December 3 | Birth | 1842 – Phoebe Hearst, American philanthropist and activist (d. 1919) |
| 136739 | December 3 | Birth | 1842 – Charles Alfred Pillsbury, American businessman, founded the Pillsbury Company (d. 1899) |
| 136740 | December 3 | Birth | 1842 – Ellen Swallow Richards, American chemist, ecologist, and educator (d. 1911) |