| 143679 | December 21 | Death | 1889 – Friedrich August von Quenstedt, German geologist and palaeontologist (b. 1809) |
| 143680 | December 21 | Death | 1900 – Roger Wolcott, American lawyer and politician, 39th Governor of Massachusetts (b. 1847) |
| 143681 | December 21 | Death | 1907 – Klara Hitler, Austrian mother of Adolf Hitler (b. 1860) |
| 143682 | December 21 | Death | 1920 – Mohammed Abdullah Hassan, Somalian general, founded the Dervish state (b. 1856) |
| 143683 | December 21 | Death | 1933 – Knud Rasmussen, Greenlandic anthropologist and explorer (b. 1879) |
| 143684 | December 21 | Death | 1935 – Ted Birnie, English footballer and manager (b. 1878) |
| 143685 | December 21 | Death | 1935 – Kurt Tucholsky, German-Swedish journalist and author (b. 1890) |
| 143686 | December 21 | Death | 1937 – Frank B. Kellogg, American lawyer and politician, 45th United States Secretary of State, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1856) |
| 143687 | December 21 | Death | 1940 – F. Scott Fitzgerald, American novelist and short story writer (b. 1896) |
| 143688 | December 21 | Death | 1941 – David Howard, American film director (b. 1896) |
| 143689 | December 21 | Death | 1945 – George S. Patton, American general (b. 1885) |
| 143690 | December 21 | Death | 1952 – Kenneth Edwards, American golfer (b. 1886) |
| 143691 | December 21 | Death | 1953 – Kaarlo Koskelo, Finnish-American wrestler (b. 1888) |
| 143692 | December 21 | Death | 1957 – Eric Coates, English-American viola player and composer (b. 1886) |
| 143693 | December 21 | Death | 1958 – Lion Feuchtwanger, German-American author and playwright (b. 1884) |
| 143694 | December 21 | Death | 1959 – Rosanjin, Japanese calligrapher, engraver, and painter (b. 1883) |
| 143695 | December 21 | Death | 1962 – Gary Hocking, Welsh-Rhodesian motorcycle racer (b. 1937) |
| 143696 | December 21 | Death | 1963 – Jack Hobbs, English cricketer and journalist (b. 1882) |
| 143697 | December 21 | Death | 1964 – Carl Van Vechten, American author and photographer (b. 1880) |
| 143698 | December 21 | Death | 1965 – Claude Champagne, Canadian violinist, pianist, and composer (b. 1891) |
| 143699 | December 21 | Death | 1967 – Stuart Erwin, American actor (b. 1903) |
| 143700 | December 21 | Death | 1968 – Vittorio Pozzo, Italian footballer, coach, and manager (b. 1886) |
| 143671 | December 21 | Death | 1375 – Giovanni Boccaccio, Italian author and poet (b. 1313) |
| 143672 | December 21 | Death | 1504 – Berthold von Henneberg, German archbishop (b. 1442) |
| 143673 | December 21 | Death | 1549 – Marguerite de Navarre, French wife of Henry II of Navarre (b. 1492) |
| 143674 | December 21 | Death | 1597 – Peter Canisius, Dutch priest and saint (b. 1521) |
| 143675 | December 21 | Death | 1807 – John Newton, English soldier and minister (b. 1725) |
| 143676 | December 21 | Death | 1824 – James Parkinson, English physician and paleontologist (b. 1755) |
| 143677 | December 21 | Death | 1869 – Friedrich Ernst Scheller, German jurist and politician (b. 1791) |
| 143678 | December 21 | Death | 1873 – Francis Garnier, French admiral and explorer (b. 1839) |