| 1817 | Mississippi is admitted as the 20th state. | |
| 1861 | Kentucky is admitted to the Confederate States of America. | |
| 1862 | The U.S. House of Representatives passes a bill creating the state of West Virginia. | |
| 1869 | Governor John Campbell signs the bill that grants women in Wyoming Territory the right to vote as well as hold public office. | |
| 1898 | The United States and Spain sign the Treaty of Paris, ceding Spanish possessions, including the Philippines, to the United States. | |
| 1917 | The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to the International Red Cross. | |
| 1936 | Edward VIII abdicates to marry Wallis Warfield Simpson, an American-born divorcee. | |
| 1950 | Dr. Ralph J. Bunche becomes the first African-American to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. | |
| 1977 | On UN Human Rights Day, the Soviet Union places 20 prominent dissidents under house arrest, cutting off telephones and threatening to break up a planned silent demonstration in Moscow’s Pushkin Square. Soviet newspapers decry human rights violations elsewhere in the world. | |
| 1978 | President of Egypt Anwar Sadat and Prime Minister of Israel Menachem Begin are jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. | |
| 1983 | Democracy restored to Argentina with the assumption of Raul Alfonsin. | |
| Born on December 10 | ||
| 1830 | Emily Dickinson, American poet of more than 1,000 poems, seven published in her lifetime. | |
| 1851 | Melvil Dewey, American librarian who created the Dewey Decimal System. | |
| 1891 | Nelly Sachs, Nobel Prize-winning poet. | |
| 1903 | Mary Norton, English children’s author (Bedknobs and Broomsticks). | |
| 1907 | Rumor Godden, English novelist (Black Narcissus). | |
| 1908 | Oliver Messian, French composer (Quartet for the End of Time). | |
| 1914 | Dorothy Lamour, actress, best remembered for co-starring with Bing Crosby and Bob Hope in their "Road to" movie series. | |
| 1934 | Howard Martin Temin, geneticist; shared 1975 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. | |