Here are 31 newsworthy and notable historical anniversaries in December 2023 (listed six months in advance so you have time to write about them)
Historical anniversaries are great for ‘On This Day in History’ features, articles, biographies and other anniversary tie-ins. They’re popular with newspaper and magazine readers and radio stations, and editors, producers and presenters love them. They’re easy to research too. You can also turn them into movies, documentaries, novels, use them to plan events and exhibitions, and much more. (Find out more at the end of this article.)
We’ve randomly picked one anniversary for each day of the month from The Date-A-Base Book 2023, which lists more than 3,000 anniversaries.
1 Dec 1948 – 75 years ago
The board game Scrabble was copyrighted and trademarked, and the first sets went on sale. It was designed by James Brunot of Connecticut, USA. It was a revised version of an earlier game by Alfred Mosher Butts.
2 Dec 1823 – 200 years ago
U.S. President James Monroe issued his ‘Monroe Doctrine’. It stated that European interference in any state in the Americas would be treated as an act of hostility against the USA. This was a warning to European countries that were seeking to annex Latin American countries as they gained independence from Spain and Portugal. The doctrine also declared that the USA would remain neutral in European conflicts, and would not interfere in European affairs, but its sphere of interest included the entire Western Hemisphere.
3 Dec 1998 – 25 years ago
The first commercially successful MP3 player, the Diamond Rio PMP300 went on sale in the USA after an injunction filed by the RIAA was lifted. (It was not the first MP3 player, but it was the first successful one, selling around 200,000 units.)
4 Dec 1973 – 50 years ago
The U.S. space probe Pioneer 10 made its closest approach to Jupiter and sent back the first close-up images of the planet.
5 Dec 1933 – 90 years ago
Prohibition was repealed in the USA after more than 13 years.
6 Dec 1923 – 100 years ago
U.S. President Calvin Coolidge gave the first presidential address to be broadcast on radio.
7 Dec 1963 – 60 years ago
Videotaped instant replay was first used in a live sports broadcast in the USA. CBS broadcast an instant replay of a touchdown during the Army-Navy football game.
(Replays had been used since 1955, using film rather than tape, but it had taken several minutes to process them.)
8 Dec 1943 – 80 years ago
World War II: Colossus Mark I, the world’s first programmable, electronic, digital computer, was completed, tested, and found to work satisfactorily. It was then dismantled and shipped (on 18th January 1944) to Britain’s secret cryptanalysis headquarters at Bletchley Park. It began operating there on 5th February, helping with the cryptanalysis of the Lorenz cipher.
9 Dec 1953 – 70 years ago
Red Scare: General Electric announced that all communist employees would be fired.
10 Dec 1898 – 125 years ago
The Spanish–American War officially ended when the USA and Spain signed the Treaty of Paris.
Spain relinquished its sovereignty of Cuba, and ceded Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines to the USA.
The USA paid compensation of $20 million in exchange for the Philippines.
11 Dec 1993 – 30 years ago
The novelty song Mr Blobby reached No. 1 in the UK Singles Chart. It was also the Christmas No. 1 single in the UK that year. It is regarded as one of the worst pop songs ever recorded.
12 Dec 1963 – 60 years ago
Kenya became independent from the UK. Jomo Kenyatta became its first president.
13 Dec 1948 – 75 years ago
Birth of Lillian Board, South African-born British athlete. 400 m and 800 m sprinter whose career was cut short when she developed cancer and died in 1970, aged 22.
14 Dec 1948 – 75 years ago
Thomas T. Goldsmith, Jr and Estle Ray Mann were granted a U.S. patent for their ‘Cathode Ray Amusement Device’ – the first electronic game. (U.S. Patent No. 2,455,992). They built a few prototypes, but it was never produced commercially.
15 Dec 1973 – 50 years ago
The American Psychiatric Association declared that homosexuality was not a mental illness, and removed it from its list of mental disorders.
16 Dec 1773 – 250 years ago
The Boston Tea Party, Massachusetts, USA.
American patriots boarded ships and threw chests of tea belonging to the British East India Company into Boston Harbor, in a protest against the British Parliament’s tax on tea.
17 Dec 1983 – 40 years ago
An IRA car bomb exploded outside Harrods department store in London, killing 3 police officers and 3 members of the public.
18 Dec 1898 – 125 years ago
The first officially recognised land speed record (39.24 mph) was set by Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat of France in a Jeantaud Duc electric car.
19 Dec 1848 – 175 years ago
Death of Emily Brontë, British novelist and poet. Best known for her only novel Wuthering Heights. (Tuberculosis, aged 30.)
20 to 24 Dec 1963 – 60 years ago
Cyprus Crisis: Bloody Christmas.
Intercommunal violence between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots. 174 Greek Cypriots and 364 Turkish Cypriots were killed. About 25,000 Turkish Cypriots from 104 villages were displaced into enclaves, and their houses were ransacked or destroyed.
21 Dec 1963 – 60 years ago
The Daleks made their first appearance on the British science fiction TV series Doctor Who.
22 Dec 1943 – 80 years ago
Death of Beatrix Potter, British children’s writer and illustrator. She created animal characters including Peter Rabbit, Squirrel Nutkin, Mrs Tiggy-Winkle, Jemima Puddle-Duck, and many more.
23 Dec 1823 – 200 years ago
The poem A Visit From St. Nicholas (commonly known as The Night Before Christmas) was first published (anonymously) in the Sentinel newspaper in Troy, New York, USA. It was written by Clement Clarke Moore.
24 Dec 1923 – 100 years ago
The USA’s first National Christmas Tree was lit up in the grounds of the White House.
25 Dec 1223 – 800 years ago
St. Francis of Assisi created the first nativity scene, in Greccio, Italy, after visiting Jesus’s birthplace in the Holy Land.
It proved enormously popular and inspired other communities to stage their own nativity scenes.
26 Dec 1933 – 90 years ago
The Nissan Motor Company was founded in Tokyo, Japan.
27 Dec 1923 – 100 years ago
Death of Gustave Eiffel, French civil and structural engineer and architect. Best known for designing the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France and the framework for the Statue of Liberty in New York City, USA.
28 Dec 1958 – 65 years ago
The 1958 National Football League (NFL) Championship Game – widely known as ‘the greatest football game ever played’.
The Baltimore Colts beat the New York Giants 23 – 17 in sudden-death overtime.
It was the first championship game to go into overtime, and marked the beginning of NFL’s surge in popularity.
29 Dec 1923 – 100 years ago
Russian-born inventor Vladimir K. Zworykin filed a U.S. patent for the first electronic television system. (It was not granted until 1938.)
30 Dec 1948 – 75 years ago
The musical Kiss Me, Kate by Cole Porter opened on Broadway.
It ran for a total of 1,077 performances.
In 1949 it won the first Tony Award presented for Best Musical.
31 Dec 1923 – 100 years ago
The BBC broadcast the chimes of Big Ben for the first time, to welcome in the New Year. The tradition continues to this day.
More anniversaries:
You’ll find hundreds more anniversaries for this month in The Date-A-Base Book 2023. The 2024, 2025, 2026, 2027 and 2028 editions are also available if you work further ahead. The anniversaries are available as PDF ebooks, Excel spreadsheets, and printed paperback books.
How to use the anniversaries:
If you’d like to know more about how to turn the anniversaries listed here and in The Date-A-Base Books into articles for magazines and newspapers, take a look at our free 68-page guide, Ditch Your Day Job: the easiest way to make a living (or earn some extra cash) as a writer.
It has some terrific bonuses too, including a complete month of anniversaries from The Date-A-Base Book 2023, hundreds of article-writing tips and ideas, plus a 25 percent discount when you buy two or more editions of The Date-A-Base Book.