On December 6

Under President Donald Trump, the United States government officially recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

The Recording Industry Association of America filed a lawsuit against the peer-to-peer file sharing network Napster, alleging that the service facilitated widespread copyright infringement.

The Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, India, was demolished by Hindu Kar Sevaks, who believed that it was built on the birthplace of Rama.

An Italian Air Force military jet, abandoned by its pilot after an on-board fire, crashed into a high school near Bologna, killing 12 students and injuring 88 other people.

25-year-old Marc Lépine, claiming to be "fighting feminism", killed fourteen women before committing suicide at the École Polytechnique in Montreal, Canada.

Self-government was granted to the Australian Capital Territory.

The Irish National Liberation Army exploded a time bomb in Ballykelly, Northern Ireland, killing eleven British Army soldiers and six civilians.

Four members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army took two people hostage in a house on Balcombe Street in London, surrendering six days later.

American physician Adrian Kantrowitz and his team performed the world's first pediatric heart transplant at Maimonides Medical Center in New York City.

The first U.S. attempt to launch a satellite failed with an explosion on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral.

In what became known as the Blood in the Water match at the Melbourne Olympics, the Hungarian water polo team defeated the Soviet Union 4–0 against the background of the Hungarian Revolution.

At the Melbourne Olympics, 14-year-old swimmer Sandra Morgan became the youngest Australian to win an Olympic gold medal.

The Holocaust: Members of the German Ordnungspolizei massacred 31 people in Stary Ciepielów and Rekówka within occupied Poland for helping Jews.

The British Secret Intelligence Service established a facility known as Camp X (pictured) in Ontario, Canada, to train covert agents in clandestine operations.

In United States v. One Book Called Ulysses Judge John M. Woolsey ruled that James Joyce's novel Ulysses was not obscene, allowing it to be imported into the United States.

World War I: USS Jacob Jones became the first American destroyer to be sunk by enemy action when it was torpedoed by German submarine SM U-53.

A ship carrying TNT and picric acid in Halifax Harbour, Canada, caught fire after a collision and caused one of the largest accidental explosions in history (pictured).

The Nefertiti Bust, listed among the "Top 10 Plundered Artifacts" by Time, was found in Amarna, Egypt, before being taken to Germany.

A mine explosion in Monongah, West Virginia, killed 362 people and led to the establishment of the United States Bureau of Mines.

President Theodore Roosevelt announced the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, justifying the exercise of "international police power" by the U.S. in the Western Hemisphere.