50 Fun Facts About December

December's name comes from the Latin word for which number, a leftover from the early Roman calendar?

Ten is 'decem' in Latin, and December was the tenth month of Rome's earliest calendar. Two months were later added to the front of the year, but the old name stuck.

Which sitcom made a hit of Festivus, the December 23 holiday with an aluminum pole?

Seinfeld put Festivus on the map in the 1997 episode 'The Strike'. The holiday was real: writer Dan O'Keefe's father had invented it, and the family was celebrating it as early as 1966.

Whose arrest on a Montgomery bus on December 1, 1955, set off a boycott that lasted more than a year?

Rosa Parks was arrested after refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger. Fifteen-year-old Claudette Colvin had been arrested for the same refusal earlier that year.

Which sport did British and German soldiers play in no man's land during the Christmas truce of 1914?

Soccer, which the troops called football, was played at several points along the front that Christmas. Men from both sides also met between the trenches to swap food, tobacco, buttons and hats.

Which season begins on December 1 in Australia, where calendar months rather than solstices mark the change?

Summer begins on December 1 in Australia and New Zealand and ends on the last day of February. The school year there ends in December, so Christmas falls in the long summer break.

Which pop star, born on December 13, named her fifth studio album after the year of her birth?

Taylor Swift was born on December 13, 1989, and titled her 2014 album 1989. She meant the name as a symbolic rebirth as she moved from country music to pop.

Which New York City spot has hosted a midnight ball drop almost every December 31 since 1907?

Times Square got its ball drop from newspaper owner Adolph Ochs, who wanted a bigger spectacle than fireworks at his headquarters. The drop was skipped only in 1942 and 1943, during wartime blackouts.

In which country do people eat twelve grapes, one per clock chime, at midnight on December 31?

Spain welcomes the New Year with las doce uvas, a grape for each of the twelve bell strikes. Eating all twelve is said to bring a year of good luck and prosperity.

Which president told Congress that December 7, 1941, was 'a date which will live in infamy'?

Franklin Roosevelt delivered the line the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Congress declared war almost unanimously soon after the speech, bringing the United States into World War II.

Which river did George Washington's army cross on Christmas night 1776 to surprise Hessian troops at Trenton?

Delaware River ice was the crossing's worst danger and kept the artillery from getting over until 3 am. The Hessian garrison was caught by surprise and defeated all the same that morning.

Which eight-night Jewish holiday, often falling in December, recalls the Maccabees recovering the Second Temple?

Hanukkah means 'dedication' in Hebrew. Foods fried in oil, such as latkes and jelly doughnuts, recall the small flask said to have kept the Temple's menorah alight for eight days.

Which celebration of African American culture, created by Maulana Karenga in 1966, begins each December 26?

Kwanzaa takes its name from a Swahili phrase meaning 'first fruits'. It runs through January 1 and builds to a communal feast called Karamu, usually held on the sixth day.

Which December 26 holiday in Britain, Canada and Australia is known for big sales and a packed sports calendar?

Boxing Day is usually traced to the 'Christmas box', a gift or tip that tradespeople and employees received the day after Christmas. The name is recorded in Britain from 1743.

Which former Beatle was shot outside the Dakota, his New York apartment building, on December 8, 1980?

John Lennon had signed a copy of his new album Double Fantasy for his killer earlier that day. Crowds gathered outside the Dakota as the news spread, part of a worldwide outpouring of grief.

Which ship brought the Pilgrims to Plymouth in December 1620, weeks after first anchoring off Cape Cod?

Mayflower passengers numbered 102, and only about half of them lived through the first winter at Plymouth. Local indigenous peoples helped the colonists gather food.

Which James Cameron film opened in US theaters on December 19, 1997, and topped the all-time box office?

Titanic was postponed to December by its studio, then became the first film to gross a billion dollars. It stayed number one for twelve years, until Cameron's own Avatar passed it.

Which author's 'A Christmas Carol' went on sale on December 19, 1843, and sold out by Christmas Eve?

Charles Dickens saw the first 6,000 copies sell out in five days. He had insisted on such costly production that the edition earned him only £230, not the £1,000 he expected.

Which ballet, first staged in St. Petersburg in December 1892, became a holiday staple only decades later?

The Nutcracker was less of a success at first than the short concert suite Tchaikovsky had drawn from it. Its great popularity came after George Balanchine's staging became a hit in New York City.

Which gemstone shares December on modern American birthstone lists with zircon and tanzanite?

Turquoise gets its name from an Old French word for 'Turkish', because the stone reached Europe by way of Turkish lands. The name is a misnomer: the prized stones were mined in Persia.

Near which North Carolina town did the Wright brothers make their first powered flight on December 17, 1903?

Kitty Hawk appealed to the brothers for its regular breezes and soft sand for landings. The flights themselves took off four miles to the south, at what is now Kill Devil Hills.

Which English scientist, later Master of the Royal Mint, was born on Christmas Day 1642?

Isaac Newton was born so early and so small that his mother said he could have fit inside a quart mug. England still used the Julian calendar, so elsewhere in Europe the date was already January 1643.

Which composer, baptized in Bonn on December 17, 1770, wrote only one opera, Fidelio?

Ludwig van Beethoven has no surviving birth record, only the baptism entry. Local custom was to baptize a baby within 24 hours of birth, which is why December 16 is the usual guess for his birthday.

In which country do girls in candle crowns lead Saint Lucy's Day processions each December 13?

Sweden celebrates with a girl chosen as Lucia, who wears a red sash and a crown of lit candles. Before calendar reform the feast once fell on the shortest day of the year.

Which Scottish poet wrote down 'Auld Lang Syne', sung as the clock strikes midnight on December 31?

Robert Burns sent the verses to a song collection in 1788, saying he had taken them down from an old man. Part of the lyric does match a ballad printed back in 1711.

Which Christmas plant has a US national day on December 12, the date its American namesake died?

Poinsettia honors Joel Roberts Poinsett, the first US minister to Mexico, who sent the plant home in the 1820s. Its flaming red 'petals' are actually leaves.

Which figure represents Sagittarius, the zodiac sign that covers December birthdays up to about the 21st?

Archer is what Sagittarius means in Latin, and the sign is often drawn as a centaur with a bow. Astrologers held that seers and prophets were born under it, since the bowman never misses the mark.

Which Soviet leader resigned on December 25, 1991, the night the red flag came down over the Kremlin?

Mikhail Gorbachev handed over control of the nuclear launch codes as he stepped down. That evening the Soviet flag was lowered from the Kremlin for the last time.

Which state joined the Union on December 29, 1845, after nearly a decade as an independent republic?

Texas had declared independence from Mexico in 1836, though the Mexican government never ratified the split. President Polk signed the bill that made it the 28th state.

Which region was set aside for peaceful science by a treaty that twelve nations signed on December 1, 1959?

Antarctica became a scientific preserve under the treaty, with military activity banned. It was the first arms control agreement of the Cold War.

Which waterway did the United States hand over to local control at noon on December 31, 1999?

Panama Canal operations passed to Panama under treaties signed by Jimmy Carter and Omar Torrijos. The handover ended the control the United States had exercised since 1903.

Which American socialite did Edward VIII give up the British throne to marry in December 1936?

Wallis Simpson was in the middle of divorcing her second husband when the crisis broke. Edward signed the instrument of abdication on December 10, alongside his three brothers.

Which explorer's five-man party became the first to reach the South Pole on December 14, 1911?

Roald Amundsen had learned from the Netsilik Inuit to use sled dogs and to wear animal skins instead of heavy wool. His party beat Robert Falcon Scott's British expedition by five weeks.

Which Roman festival, starting on December 17, had masters wait on their slaves and allowed open gambling?

Saturnalia opened with a sacrifice and a public banquet at a temple in the Roman Forum. Private gift-giving and nonstop partying followed, in a carnival mood that upended the usual social rules.

Which awards are handed out each December 10, the anniversary of their founder's death in 1896?

Nobel Prizes were first awarded in 1901, five years to the day after Alfred Nobel died. His will astonished many by leaving his fortune to reward the 'greatest benefit on mankind'.

Which Bing Crosby song, first aired on December 25, 1941, became the world's best-selling single?

White Christmas had its first public performance on Crosby's radio show, a few weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Guinness World Records credits his recording with at least 50 million copies sold.

Which Edgar Allan Poe poem has its grieving narrator recall a midnight visit 'in the bleak December'?

The Raven sets its scene with the line 'Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December'. The mysterious bird then answers the mourning lover with one repeated word, 'Nevermore'.

Which famous photograph did astronaut Bill Anders take from lunar orbit on December 24, 1968?

Earthrise was shot with the 250 mm lens Anders had been using to photograph the Moon's surface moments before. Photographer Galen Rowell called it the most influential environmental photograph ever taken.

Which saint's feast on December 6 has Dutch children putting out a shoe with a carrot for his horse?

St. Nicholas goes by Sinterklaas in Dutch, a name that helped give America its Santa Claus. Children find candy or a small present in the shoe the next morning.

Which trading firm owned the tea that protesters dumped into Boston Harbor on December 16, 1773?

East India Company tea, about 340 chests of it, went overboard at the hands of Sons of Liberty disguised as American Indians. The Tea Act had just let the struggling firm sell in the colonies itself.

Which state's convention cast the deciding vote on December 5, 1933, to repeal Prohibition nationwide?

Utah's convention voted unanimously for the Twenty-first Amendment, supplying the last state needed. The repeal was certified in Washington just 17 minutes later.

Which mid-December meteor shower comes not from a comet but from an asteroid, 3200 Phaethon?

Geminids were first observed in 1862, far later than most of the famous showers. Their meteors are slow, and the display is usually at its best on the morning of December 14.

Which physicist led the team behind the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction on December 2, 1942?

Enrico Fermi's reactor was built in a rackets court under the stands of the University of Chicago's disused football stadium. He called it 'a crude pile of black bricks and wooden timbers'.

Which astronaut commanded Apollo 17 in December 1972, the final Apollo mission to land on the Moon?

Gene Cernan wrote his daughter Tracy's initials in the lunar dust as he left the rover to head home. A popular retelling wrongly has him writing them on a rock.

In which country did army officers later called Decembrists lead a failed uprising in December 1825?

Russia's rebel officers led about 3,000 troops into the heart of St. Petersburg to stop the army swearing loyalty to a new emperor. Five leaders were sentenced to hang and many others were exiled to Siberia.

Which Irish passage tomb, older than Stonehenge, is lit by the rising sun around the December solstice?

Newgrange has a 'roofbox' above its entrance that lets the solstice sunrise shine down the long passage and flood the inner chamber. The light show lasts for about 17 minutes.

Which World War II campaign opened on December 16, 1944, with a surprise German attack through the Ardennes?

Battle of the Bulge planners hoped to split the Allied lines and deny them the Belgian port of Antwerp. It became the largest and bloodiest single battle the United States fought in the war.

Which saint's feast falls on December 26, the day Good King Wenceslas 'looked out' in the carol?

St. Stephen is honored as the first Christian martyr, and the carol's king sets out to help a poor peasant 'on the Feast of Stephen'. In parts of Ireland the date is also known as Wren Day.

Which month opened the year in Rome's earliest calendar, the one credited to Romulus?

March began the calendar credited to Romulus, which is why the later months' names stopped matching their positions. The winter days after December at first belonged to no month at all.

Which December birth flower shares its name with a youth of Greek myth who fell for his own reflection?

Narcissus, in its paperwhite form, shares the month with holly. Paperwhites are bulbs usually grown indoors for their fragrant flowers in wintertime.

In which country did Christiaan Barnard perform the first human-to-human heart transplant on December 3, 1967?

South Africa's Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town was the setting. The patient, Louis Washkansky, woke and talked easily with his wife but died of pneumonia 18 days later.