On 3rd December…

1894 - The Scottish writer and author Robert Louis Stevenson died. His most famous books are Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

On 4th December…

1154 - The only Englishman ever to become pope, Nicolas Breakspear, was elected as pope and began his papacy in Rome as Pope Adrian IV.

1214 - King William I of Scotland, also known as William the Lion, died. He fought England to regain the lands of Northumberland but ended up being captured during battle. To gain his freedom he was made to sign the Treaty of Falaise which ordered him to tax the Scottish people and give the tax to King Henry II of England to keep English armies in Scottish castles. The treaty also made William acknowledge Henry as his overlord and superior. When Henry II died William was able to buy back the English rights and gain Scottish freedom from England because the new English king, Richard I, needed money to finance his crusades abroad.

1791 - The Observer newspaper was first published in London. It is Britain’s oldest Sunday newspaper.

On 5th December…

1901 - Walt Disney, the man behind cartoon characters such as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, was born in Chicago, U.S.A. He is the founder of the Disney Company and also designed the Disneyland theme parks in Los Angeles and Florida before he died.

1952 - A thick dense smog descended over London. It was a mixture of fog and chimney smoke which was being kept down at ground level, unable to escape, because of the air pressure from the weather conditions. The air quality became so bad that thousands of people died from breathing difficulties during the five days that it lasted. At one point visibility was so bad that you couldn’t see further than a metre in front of you. The consequences of the smog prompted the Clean Air Act to be passed by Parliament which restricted the burning of coal in fireplaces and industrial furnaces in certain areas. The Clean Air Act is considered to be a major event in the history of environmentalism.

2013 - Nelson Mandela died at the age of 95 years. He was a South African, anti-apartheid, activist who was imprisoned for 26 years for his political actions. On his release from prison he went on to become the first black president of South Africa.

On 6th December…

On 7th December…

1941 - During World War II the Japanese launched a surprise attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbour in Hawaii. This action brought the previously neutral U.S.A. directly into the war.

On 8th December…

On 9th December…

1165 - King Malcolm IV of Scotland died at the age of 24 years. He had been king since he was 11 years old after his grandfather King David I died. Malcolm IV died before he married or had any children and was given the nickname of the Maiden. On his death Malcolm’s younger brother William became King William I of Scotland also known as William the Lion.