December 1 in history — What Happened Today in History

Cold War: Ukrainian voters overwhelmingly approve a referendum for independence from the Soviet Union.

Channel Tunnel sections started from the United Kingdom and France meet beneath the seabed.

Philippine coup attempt: The right-wing military rebel Reform the Armed Forces Movement attempts to oust Philippine President Corazon Aquino in a failed bloody coup d'état.

Cold War: East Germany's parliament abolishes the constitutional provision granting the Communist Party the leading role in the state.

World AIDS Day is proclaimed worldwide by the UN member states.

Benazir Bhutto, is named as the Prime Minister of Pakistan, becoming the first female leader to lead a Muslim nation.

NASA conducts the Controlled Impact Demonstration, wherein an airliner is deliberately crashed in order to test technologies and gather data to help improve survivability of crashes.

Inex-Adria Aviopromet Flight 1308, a McDonnell Douglas MD-80, crashes in Corsica, killing all 180 people on board.

TWA Flight 514, a Boeing 727, crashes northwest of Dulles International Airport, killing all 92 people on board.

Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 6231, another Boeing 727, crashes northwest of John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Papua New Guinea gains self-government from Australia.

Cambodian Civil War: Khmer Rouge rebels intensify assaults on Cambodian government positions, forcing their retreat from Kompong Thmar and nearby Ba Ray.

Purge of Croatian Spring leaders starts in Yugoslavia at the meeting of the League of Communists at the Karađorđevo estate.

Vietnam War: The first draft lottery in the United States is held since World War II.

Vietnam War: U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson and his top-ranking advisers meet to discuss plans to bomb North Vietnam.

Nagaland, became the 16th state of India.

Patrice Lumumba is arrested by Mobutu Sese Seko's men on the banks of the Sankuru River, for inciting the army to rebellion.

Cold War: Opening date for signature of the Antarctic Treaty, which sets aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve and bans military activity on the continent.

The Central African Republic attains self-rule within the French Union.

The Our Lady of the Angels School fire in Chicago kills 92 children and three nuns.

American Civil Rights Movement: In Montgomery, Alabama, seamstress Rosa Parks refuses to give up her bus seat to a white man and is arrested for violating the city's racial segregation laws, an incident which leads to that city's bus boycott.

The New York Daily News reports the news of Christine Jorgensen, the first notable case of sex reassignment surgery.

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.

World War II: Fiorello La Guardia, Mayor of New York City and Director of the Office of Civilian Defense, signs Administrative Order 9, creating the Civil Air Patrol.

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.

Sergei Kirov is assassinated, paving way for the repressive Great Purge, and Vinnytsia massacre by General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin.

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.

Masahudu Alhassan, Ghanaian footballer

Javier Báez, Puerto Rican baseball player

Linos Chrysikopoulos, Greek basketball player

Gary Payton II, American basketball player

Marco van Ginkel, Dutch footballer

Rakeem Christmas, American basketball player

Hilda Melander, Swedish tennis player

Sun Yang, Chinese swimmer

Tomáš Tatar, Slovak ice hockey player

Sotelúm, Mexican trumpet player, composer, and producer

Tyler Joseph, American musician and singer

Zoë Kravitz, American actress, singer, and model

Dan Mavraides, Greek-American basketball player

Mario Abramovich, Argentinian violinist and composer (born 1926)

Dimitrios Trichopoulos, Greek epidemiologist, oncologist, and academic (born 1938)

Rocky Wood, New Zealand-Australian author (born 1959)

Richard Coughlan, English drummer (born 1947)

Stirling Colgate, American physicist and academic (born 1925)

Edward Heffron, American soldier (born 1923)

Martin Sharp, Australian cartoonist and songwriter (born 1942)

Jovan Belcher, American football player (born 1987)

Arthur Chaskalson, South African lawyer and judge, 18th Chief Justice of South Africa (born 1931)

Rick Majerus, American basketball player and coach (born 1948)

Ed Price, American soldier, pilot, and politician (born 1918)

Israel Keyes, American serial killer (born 1978)

Christa Wolf, German author and critic (born 1929)