| 1492 | | Christopher Columbus lands on the island of Santo Domingo in search of gold. |
| 1776 | | Phi Beta Kappa, the first scholastic fraternity, is founded at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg. |
| 1812 | | The majority of Napoleon Bonaparte's Grand Armeé staggers into Vilna, Lithuania, ending the failed Russian campaign. |
| 1861 | | Union General George G. Meade leads a foraging expedition to Gunnell's farm near Dranesville, Virginia. |
| 1862 | | President Abraham Lincoln orders the hanging of 39 of the 303 convicted Indians who participated in the Sioux Uprising in Minnesota. They are to be hanged on December 26. |
| 1863 | | The monitor Weehawken sinks in Charleston Harbor. |
| 1876 | | Jack McCall is convicted for the murder of Wild Bill Hickok and sentenced to hang. |
| 1877 | | Thomas A. Edison makes the first sound recording when he recites "Mary had a Little Lamb" into his phonograph machine. |
| 1906 | | Lieutenant Thomas E. Selfridge flies a powered, man-carrying kite that carries him 168 feet in the air for seven minutes at Baddeck, Nova Scotia. |
| 1917 | | The Bolsheviks imprison Czar Nicholas II and his family in Tobolsk. |
| 1921 | | Ireland's 26 southern counties become independent from Britain forming the Irish Free State. |
| 1922 | | Benito Mussolini threatens Italian newspapers with censorship if they keep reporting "false" information. |
| 1934 | | American Ambassador Davis says Japan is a grave security threat in the Pacific. |
| 1938 | | France and Germany sign a treaty of friendship. |
| 1939 | | Britain agrees to send arms to Finland, which is fighting off a Soviet invasion. |
| 1941 | | President Franklin D. Roosevelt issues a personal appeal to Emperor Hirohito to use his influence to avoid war. |
| 1945 | | The United States extends a $3 billion loan to Great Britain to help compensate for the termination of the Lend-Lease agreement. |
| 1947 | | Florida's Everglades National Park is established. |
| 1948 | | The "Pumpkin Spy Papers" are found on the Maryland farm of Whittaker Chambers. They become evidence that State Department employee Alger Hiss is spying for the Soviet Union. |
| 1976 | | Democrat Tip O'Neill is elected speaker of the House of Representatives. He will serve the longest consecutive term as speaker. |
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