- 1991 – Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev went on television to announce his resignation as leader of a Communist superpower that had already gone out of existence.
- 1998 – Seven days into their journey, Richard Branson, Steve Fossett and Per Lindstrand of Sweden gave up their attempt to make the first nonstop round-the-world balloon flight. They ditched near Hawaii.
- 2000 – Over 300 people were killed and dozens were injured by fire at a Christmas party in the Chinese city of Luoyang. The incident occurred at the Dongdu Disco.
- 2003 – UTAGE Flight 141, a Boeing 727-223, crashes at the Cotonou Airport in Benin, killing 141 people.
- 2003 – The ill-fated Beagle 2 probe, released from the Mars Express spacecraft on December 19, stops transmitting shortly before its scheduled landing.
- 2004 – The Cassini orbiter releases Huygens probe which successfully landed on Saturn’s moon Titan on January 14, 2005.
- 2012 – An Antonov An-72 plane crashes close to the city of Shymkent, killing 27 people.
- 2016 – A Russian Defence Ministry Tupolev Tu-154 carrying members of the Alexandrov Ensemble crashes into the Black Sea shortly after takeoff, killing all 92 people on board.
- 2019 – Twenty people are killed and thousands are left homeless by Typhoon Phanfone in the Philippines.[
Celebrating Birthday Today
- 1981 – Trenesha Biggers, American wrestler and model
- 1981 – Christian Holst, Danish-Faroese footballer
- 1981 – Willy Taveras, Dominican baseball player
- 1982 – Shawn Andrews, American football player
- 1982 – Rob Edwards, Welsh footballer
- 1982 – Ethan Kath, Canadian keyboard player, songwriter and producer
- 1982 – Chris Rene, American singer-songwriter and producer
- 1984 – Chris Cahill, Samoan footballer
- 1984 – Alastair Cook, English cricketer
- 1984 – Jessica Origliasso, Australian singer, actress, and fashion designer
- 1984 – Lisa Origliasso, Australian singer, actress, and fashion designer
- 1984 – Chris Richard, American basketball player
- 1985 – Martin Mathathi, Kenyan runner
- 1985 – Rusev, Bulgarian-American professional wrestler
- 1987 – Ceyhun Gülselam, Turkish footballer
- 1987 – Demaryius Thomas, American football player
- 1988 – Joãozinho, Brazilian footballer
- 1988 – Eric Gordon, American basketball player
- 1988 – Lukas Hinds-Johnson, German rugby player
- 1992 – Mitakeumi Hisashi, Japanese sumo wrestler
