On December 1:
1640 End of the Iberian Union: Portugal acclaimed João IV as King of Portugal, thus ending a 60 year period of personal union of the crowns of Portugal and Spain and the end of the rule of the House of Habsburg ( (also called the Philippine Dynasty).
1761 Marie Tussaud, French creator of wax sculptures (Madame Tussauds), was born.
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1913 The Ford Motor Company introduced the first moving assembly line.
1913 Crete, was annexed by Greece.
1918 The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later known as the Kingdom of Yugoslavia) was proclaimed
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1932 Matt Monro, English singer, was born.
1933 Pilot E. F. ‘Teddy’ Harvie and his passenger, Miss Trevor Hunter, set a record for the longest flight within New Zealand in a single day. They flew approximately 1880 kms from North Cape to Invercargill in a time of 16 hrs 10 mins.
1935 Woody Allen, American film director, actor, and comedian, was born.
1939 Lee Trevino, American golfer, was born.
1940 Richard Pryor, American actor, comedian, was born.
1945 Bette Midler, American actress and singer, was born.
1946 Gilbert O’Sullivan, Irish singer, was born.
1955 In Montgomery, Alabama, seamstress Rosa Parks refused to give her bus seat to a white man and was arrested for violating the city’s racial segregation laws, an incident which led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
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1969 The first draft lottery in the United States was held since World War II.
1973 Papua New Guinea gains self government from Australia.
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1981 The AIDS virus iwa officially recognized.
1982 At the University of Utah, Barney Clark becomes the first person to receive a permanent artificial heart.
Sourced from NZ History ONline & Wikipedia.