On December 9

Same-sex marriage in Australia became legal as the Marriage Amendment (Definition and Religious Freedoms) Act 2017 came into effect.

Park Geun-hye, the president of South Korea, was impeached, marking the culmination of the country's political scandal.

Rod Blagojevich, the governor of Illinois, was arrested on corruption charges, including for attempting to sell the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by president-elect Barack Obama.

In Serbia's first multi-party election, Slobodan Milošević won the presidential election and the Socialist Party of Serbia won the majority of seats in the National Assembly.

Mumia Abu-Jamal was arrested for the murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner; his subsequent conviction and death sentence generated controversy in the United States.

A World Health Organization commission of scientists certified the global eradication of smallpox (virus pictured), making it the only human infectious disease to date to have been completely eradicated.

U.S. secretary of state William P. Rogers proposed a plan, later called the Rogers Plan, for a ceasefire in the War of Attrition; Egypt's and Jordan's acceptance of the plan over Palestine Liberation Organization objections led to civil war in Jordan in September 1970.

Douglas Engelbart gave what became known as "The Mother of All Demos", publicly debuting the computer mouse (pictured), hypertext, and the bit-mapped graphical user interface using the computer system NLS.

A large, brilliant fireball was seen by thousands in midwestern North America before landing in Kecksburg, Pennsylvania.

Tanganyika Territory gained independence from Britain before becoming part of Tanzania three years later.

The United Nations General Assembly adopted the Genocide Convention, which defines genocide in legal terms and obligates its signatories to pursue the enforcement of its prohibition.

Second World War: British and Commonwealth forces began Operation Compass, the first major Allied military operation of the Western Desert campaign.

First World War: Hussein al-Husayni, the Ottoman mayor of Jerusalem, surrendered the city to British forces (pictured).

A mine explosion near Briceville, Tennessee, killed 84 miners despite a well-organized rescue effort led by the United States Bureau of Mines.

French actress, journalist and leading suffragette Marguerite Durand founded the feminist newspaper La Fronde.

The English association football club Newcastle United was founded by the merger of Newcastle East End and West End.

The first edition of the Argosy magazine was published under the title The Golden Argosy.

In a memoir read to the French Academy of Sciences, Augustin-Jean Fresnel coined the terms linear, circular, and elliptical polarization, and reported a direct refraction experiment verifying his theory that optical rotation is a form of birefringence.

American Revolutionary War: After their loss in the Battle of Great Bridge, British authorities were forced to evacuate from the Colony of Virginia.

In one of two substantial military actions in England during the Glorious Revolution, forces loyal to William of Orange were decisively victorious at the Battle of Reading.