| 137101 | December 4 | Event | 1984 – Sri Lankan Civil War: Sri Lankan Army soldiers kill 107–150 civilians in Mannar. |
| 137102 | December 4 | Event | 1984 – Hezbollah militants hijack a Kuwait Airlines plane, killing four passengers. |
| 137103 | December 4 | Event | 1991 – Journalist Terry A. Anderson is released after seven years in captivity as a hostage in Beirut. He is the last and longest-held American hostage in Lebanon. |
| 137104 | December 4 | Event | 1991 – Captain Mark Pyle pilots Clipper Goodwill, a Pan American World Airways Boeing 727-221ADV, to Miami International Airport, ending 64 years of Pan Am operations. |
| 137105 | December 4 | Event | 1992 – Somali Civil War: President George H. W. Bush orders 28,000 U.S. troops to Somalia in Northeast Africa. |
| 137106 | December 4 | Event | 1993 – A truce is concluded between the government of Angola and UNITA rebels. |
| 137107 | December 4 | Event | 1998 – The Unity Module, the second module of the International Space Station, is launched. |
| 137108 | December 4 | Event | 2005 – Tens of thousands of people in Hong Kong protest for democracy and call on the government to allow universal and equal suffrage. |
| 137109 | December 4 | Event | 2006 – Six black youths assault a white teenager in Jena, Louisiana. |
| 137110 | December 4 | Event | 2013 – Xavier Bettel becomes Luxembourg's first openly gay Prime Minister. |
| 137111 | December 4 | Birth | 1555 – Heinrich Meibom, German poet and historian (d. 1625) |
| 137112 | December 4 | Birth | 1585 – John Cotton, English-American minister and theologian (d. 1652) |
| 137113 | December 4 | Birth | 1595 – Jean Chapelain, French poet and critic (d. 1674) |
| 137114 | December 4 | Birth | 1646 – Alain Emmanuel de Coëtlogon, French field marshal (d. 1730) |
| 137115 | December 4 | Birth | 1647 – Daniel Eberlin, German soldier and composer (d. 1715) |
| 137116 | December 4 | Birth | 1660 – André Campra, French composer and conductor (d. 1744) |
| 137117 | December 4 | Birth | 1667 – Michel Pignolet de Montéclair, French composer (d. 1737) |
| 137118 | December 4 | Birth | 1670 – John Aislabie, English politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer (d. 1742) |
| 137119 | December 4 | Birth | 1711 – Barbara of Portugal (d. 1758) |
| 137120 | December 4 | Birth | 1713 – Gasparo Gozzi, Italian playwright and critic (d. 1786) |
| 137121 | December 4 | Birth | 1777 – Juliette Récamier, French businesswoman (d. 1849) |
| 137122 | December 4 | Birth | 1795 – Thomas Carlyle, Scottish-English historian, philosopher, and academic (d. 1881) |
| 137123 | December 4 | Birth | 1798 – Jules Armand Dufaure, French politician, 33rd Prime Minister of France (d. 1881) |
| 137124 | December 4 | Birth | 1817 – Nikoloz Baratashvili, Georgian poet (d. 1845) |
| 137125 | December 4 | Birth | 1835 – Samuel Butler, English author and critic (d. 1902) |
| 137126 | December 4 | Birth | 1844 – Franz Xavier Wernz, German religious leader, 25th Superior General of the Society of Jesus (d. 1914) |
| 137127 | December 4 | Birth | 1861 – Hannes Hafstein, Icelandic poet and politician, 1st Prime Minister of Iceland (d. 1922) |
| 137128 | December 4 | Birth | 1861 – Lillian Russell, American actress and singer (d. 1922) |
| 137129 | December 4 | Birth | 1865 – Edith Cavell, English nurse (d. 1915) |
| 137130 | December 4 | Birth | 1868 – Jesse Burkett, American baseball player, coach, and manager (d. 1953) |