Historical Events
John Brown Hanged
Dec 2 Abolitionist John Brown hanged for murder, treason, and conspiring slaves to revolt at Charles Town, Virginia
The Octaroon
Dec 5 Dion Boucicault's stage melodrama "The Octaroon" opens at The Winter Garden Theatre, NYC
- Dec 15 GR Kirchoff describes chemical composition of the Sun
- Dec 16 Frederiksborg Castle, largest Renaissance complex in Scandinavia, is badly damaged in a fire - later restored and turned into a museum
- Dec 19 Grading started for Market Street RR in San Francisco
- Dec 31 Dutch colony in Dutch Indies counts 4,800 slaves
Famous Birthdays
Georges Seurat (1859-1891)
Dec 2 French post-impressionist painter (A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of Grande Jatte), born in Paris, France
John Jellicoe (1859-1935)
Dec 5 1st Earl Jellicoe, British Admiral of the Fleet in World War I (Battle of Jutland), born in Southampton, England
- Dec 9 Algernon Ashton, British composer, born in Durham, England (d. 1937)
- Dec 12 Edward R. Bradley, American businessman and horse owner (1st to own 4 Kentucky Derby winners), born in Johnstown, Pennsylvania (d. 1946)
- Dec 12 Maurice Donnay, French playwright (Lovers), born in Paris (d. 1945)
- Dec 15 L. L. Zamenhof, Polish physician and linguist (Esperanto), born in Białystok, Poland, Russian Empire (d. 1917)
- Dec 17 Paul César Helleu, French artist (d. 1927)
- Dec 20 Antonius Derkinderen, Dutch painter and artist, born in 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands (d. 1925)
- Dec 21 Gustave Kahn, French symbolist poet and art critic, born in Metz, France (d. 1936)
- Dec 24 Roman Statkowski, Polish composer, born in Szczypiorno, Poland (d. 1925)
- Dec 25 Raoul Gunsbourg, French composer, impresario and opera director (Opéra de Monte-Carlo, 1892-1951), born in Bucharest, Romania (d. 1955)
- Dec 26 Johan Frans van Bemmelen, Dutch zoologist, born in Groningen, Netherlands (d. 1956)
- Dec 26 William Stephens, U.S. political figure (d. 1944)
- Dec 27 William Henry Hadow, British educational reformer and musicologist (Oxford History of Music, Studies in Modern Music), born in Ebrington, Gloucestshire, England (d. 1937)
- Dec 28 Gerard Brucken Fock, Dutch composer and painter, born in Koudekerke, Netherlands (d. 1935)
- Dec 28 John W Fortescue, British military historian and archivist at Windsor Castle, born in Madeira (d. 1933)
- Dec 29 Jack Simpson, Scottish golfer (British Open 1884), born in Earlsferry, Fife, Scotland (d. 1895)
- Dec 29 Venustiano Carranza, Mexican revolutionary and President of Mexico (1915-20), born in Cuatro Ciénegas, Coahuila, Mexico (d. 1920)
- Dec 30 Josef Bohuslav Foerster, Czech composer, born in Prague, Kingdom of Bohemia (d. 1951)
- Dec 31 Max Fiedler, German conductor and composer, born in Zittau, Saxony, (d. 1939)
Famous Deaths
John Brown (1800-1859)
Dec 2 American abolitionist and revolutionary (Harpers Ferry), hanged at 59
Wilhelm Grimm (1786-1859)
Dec 16 German story teller (Grimm's Fairy Tales), dies at 73
- Dec 21 Nicolaas Christiaan Kist, Dutch Reformed theologian and church historian, dies at 66
- Dec 28 Thomas Babington Macaulay, English poet (Ivy), historian (The History of England), and politician (British India education reform), dies of a heat attack at 59
- Dec 31 Luigi Ricci, Italian composer, dies at 54
