155 things happened on 1 December, from AD 624 to 2024. UK stories come first, then the rest of the world.
1420 · 606 years ago
King Henry V of England entered Paris alongside King Charles VI of France, who was his father-in-law. Earlier that year, the Treaty of Troyes had named Henry as heir to the French throne. It also made him regent of France, which meant ruling on the king's beh…
UK history first: stories from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
UK story
King Henry V of England entered Paris alongside King Charles VI of France, who was his father-in-law. Earlier that year, the Treaty of Troyes had named Henry as heir to the French throne. It also made him regent of France, which meant ruling on the king's behalf. This came after his famous victory at Agincourt in 1415. It was the high point for England in the long Hundred Years' War.
UK story
The diarist John Evelyn recorded skating on the frozen lake in St James's Park, London. King Charles II and Queen Catherine were there watching. Evelyn was a writer, gardener and courtier, and one of the founding Fellows of the Royal Society. St James's Park began as a deer park for King Henry VIII in the 1530s.
UK story
Nancy Astor became the first woman to take her seat as a Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons. She had been elected a few days earlier, on 28 November. Astor was born in Virginia in the United States and later moved to England. She went on to serve as an MP from 1919 to 1945.
UK story
Tunnels dug from Britain and from France met beneath the seabed of the English Channel. The finished Channel Tunnel is a railway tunnel about 50 kilometres long. It links Folkestone in England with Coquelles in northern France. It opened in 1994 and is still the only fixed link between Great Britain and mainland Europe. Some people call it the Chunnel.
UK story
English Courtiers Christopher Hatton and Thomas Heneage are knighted by Queen Elizabeth I.
UK story
Nicaragua sells canal rights to U.S. for $5 million. The canal agreement fails in March 1901. Great Britain rejects the amended treaty.
UK story
Vivianne Miedema scored six goals and had four assists for Arsenal W.F.C. in their 11–1 victory over Bristol City W.F.C., which broke the record for the most goals scored in a FA Women's Super League match.
Slavery was abolished in the Cape Colony, a British colony in what is now South Africa. This followed the Slavery Abolition Act 1833, a law passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Act ended slavery across the British Empire. Under the law, the British government paid to buy the freedom of enslaved people, which meant paying money to their owners.
The first section of the Buenos Aires Underground opened in Argentina. It was the first underground railway in Latin America. It was also the first in the whole Southern Hemisphere, the half of Earth south of the equator. It was also the first in the Spanish-speaking world, opening nearly six years before the Madrid Metro in Spain. Local people call it the Subte.
In Montgomery, Alabama, in the United States, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white passenger. At that time, unfair laws kept Black and white people apart, which is called segregation. She was arrested, and her stand sparked the Montgomery bus boycott, when people refused to ride the city's buses. She is sometimes called the 'mother of the civil rights movement'.
Twelve countries signed the Antarctic Treaty, an agreement about how Antarctica should be used. It banned military activity there and set the continent aside for science, with freedom for scientists to study it. It was the first agreement to control weapons made during the Cold War. Antarctica is the only continent on Earth with no native human population.
Benazir Bhutto was named Prime Minister of Pakistan, the head of the country's government. She was the first woman elected to lead a democratic government in a country where most people are Muslim. Bhutto served as prime minister twice, from 1988 to 1990 and again from 1993 to 1996.
The Arecibo Telescope in Puerto Rico collapsed. It was a radio telescope with a dish 305 metres wide, built into a natural sinkhole. When it was finished in 1963, it became the world's largest single-dish telescope, and it held that record for 53 years. In November 2020, it had been announced that the telescope would be closed down for good.
A council is convened in the Vatican, at which Charlemagne is to judge the accusations against Pope Leo III.
End of the Iberian Union: Portugal acclaims as King João IV of Portugal, ending 59 years of personal union of the crowns of Portugal and Spain and the end of the rule of the Philippine Dynasty.
French Revolutionary Wars: Austrian forces, led by Archduke John of Austria, defeated two divisions of the French First Republic, led by Paul Grenier, at the Battle of Ampfing.
José Núñez de Cáceres wins the independence of the Dominican Republic from Spain and names the new territory the Republic of Spanish Haiti.
Pedro I was crowned the first emperor of Brazil, seven weeks after his reign began on his 24th birthday.
United States presidential election: Since no candidate received a majority of the total electoral college votes in the election, the United States House of Representatives is given the task of deciding the winner in accordance with the Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Returning to Buenos Aires with troops who fought in the Cisplatine War, Juan Lavalle (pictured) deposed provincial governor Manuel Dorrego, reigniting the Argentine Civil Wars.
American Civil War: In his second State of the Union Address, President Abraham Lincoln reaffirms the necessity of ending slavery as ordered ten weeks earlier in the Emancipation Proclamation.
Shaw University, the first historically black university in the southern United States, is founded in Raleigh, North Carolina.
President Rutherford B. Hayes gets the first telephone installed in the White House.
Crete, having obtained self rule from Turkey after the First Balkan War, is annexed by Greece.
With the signing of the Act of Union, Denmark recognized the Kingdom of Iceland as a fully sovereign state in personal union through a common monarch.
The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later known as the Kingdom of Yugoslavia) is proclaimed.
Transylvania unites with Romania, following the incorporation of Bessarabia (March 27) and Bukovina (November 28) and thus concluding the Great Union.
The National Hockey League's first United States–based franchise, the Boston Bruins, plays their first game in league play at home, at the still-extant Boston Arena indoor hockey facility.
A Soviet-backed communist 1924 Estonian coup d'état attempt fails in Estonia.
World War II: A day after the beginning of the Winter War in Finland, the Cajander III Cabinet resigns and is replaced by the Ryti I Cabinet, while the Finnish Parliament move from Helsinki to Kauhajoki to escape the Soviet airstrikes.
The Soviet Union establishes the Finnish Democratic Republic puppet state in Terijoki.
World War II: Emperor Hirohito of Japan gives his tacit approval to the decision of the imperial council to initiate war against the United States.
The Civil Air Patrol, the civilian auxiliary of the United States Air Force, was founded.
American men's magazine Playboy was founded in Chicago by Hugh Hefner and his associates.
The musical Flower Drum Song by Rodgers and Hammerstein premiered on Broadway.
The Central African Republic attains self-rule within the French Union.
Nagaland, became the 16th state of India.
The first Gävle goat, a Swedish Yule goat tradition, was constructed in Gävle and then burned to the ground on New Year's Eve.
The Pit, one of U.S. college basketball's premier arenas, opened on the campus of the University of New Mexico.
Vietnam War: The first draft lottery in the United States is held since World War II.
A period of political and economic reforms in the Socialist Republic of Croatia came to an end as the League of Communists of Yugoslavia decided to purge the state's reformist leadership.
Cambodian Civil War: Khmer Rouge rebels intensify assaults on Cambodian government positions, forcing their retreat from Kompong Thmar and nearby Ba Ray.
Papua New Guinea gains self-government from Australia.
Cold War: East Germany's parliament abolishes the constitutional provision granting the Communist Party the leading role in the state.
A referendum held to ratify the Act of Declaration of Independence of Ukraine passed with more than 92 percent of the vote.
Vicente Fox Quesada is inaugurated as the president of Mexico, marking the first peaceful transfer of executive federal power to an opposing political party following a free and democratic election in Mexico's history.
The United Russia political party was founded.
As a result of the merger of the Perm Oblast and the Komi-Permyak Autonomous Okrug, a new subject of the Russian Federation, the Perm Krai, was created.
The Treaty of Lisbon entered into force in the European Union.
The Alma-Ata Metro was opened.
The outbreak of coronavirus infection begins in Wuhan.
Every answer is somewhere on this page. Have a go, then check!
In which year did this happen: “Henry V rides into Paris with the French king”?
A: 1420. 1420 — that’s 606 years ago. Find it on the page
In which year did this happen: “The two halves of the Channel Tunnel meet under the sea”?
C: 1990. 1990 — that’s 36 years ago. Find it on the page
Which of these happened first?
A: Henry V rides into Paris with the French king. 1420: Henry V rides into Paris with the French king · 1990: The two halves of the Channel Tunnel meet under the sea · 1919: Nancy Astor becomes the first woman to take her seat as an MP Find it on the page
“Nancy Astor becomes the first woman to take her seat as an MP” happened in 1919. How many years ago was that?
A: 107 years. 2026 − 1919 = 107. Find it on the page
Famous people whose birthday is 1 December.
UK story
Alexandra of Denmark married Edward, who later became King Edward VII. As his wife, she was Queen of the United Kingdom from 1901 to 1910, while he was king. During those years she was also Empress of India. She died in 1925.
UK story
Marie Tussaud, often called Madame Tussaud, was a French artist known for her sculptures made of wax. In 1835 she founded a wax museum in London, which is named Madame Tussauds after her. The museum is still open in London. She died in 1850.
Well-known people who died on 1 December.
Festivals, holidays and saints’ days celebrated on 1 December somewhere in the world.
Content note: these entries mention things like war, violence, deaths, disasters or crime. They are part of history, but they can be upsetting. Grown-ups and teachers: you may want to read them first. They come straight from Wikipedia and have not been rewritten for children.
Stories with a heading have been written for young readers by A Day in the Past, using the linked articles as sources. Other entries show text from Wikipedia’s “December 1” page and its “On this day” feed, written by Wikipedia contributors and shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. Each “Read more” link goes to the article an entry is based on. Photos are credited under each picture. Spotted a mistake? Please tell us.