On December 14

Filmmakers Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner are stabbed to death in their Brentwood, Los Angeles residence.

A 20-year-old gunman shot twenty children and six adult staff members in a mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

During a press conference in Baghdad, Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi threw his shoes at U.S. president George W. Bush and Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki, yelling "This is for the widows and orphans and all those killed in Iraq".

Torrential rains caused flash floods in the Venezuelan state of Vargas, resulting in tens of thousands of deaths, the destruction of thousands of homes, and the complete collapse of the state's infrastructure.

Kosovo War: Yugoslav forces ambushed a group of Kosovo Liberation Army militants attempting to smuggle weapons into Yugoslavia from Albania.

War in Abkhazia: A helicopter carrying evacuees was shot down during the siege of Tkvarcheli, resulting in at least 52 deaths and catalysing more concerted Russian military intervention on behalf of Abkhazia.

The Knesset passed the Golan Heights Law, extending Israeli "laws, jurisdiction and administration" to the Golan Heights, effectively annexing the territory internationally recognized as part of Syria.

Upon completing the third extra-vehicular activity of Apollo 17, American astronaut Gene Cernan became the last person to date to walk on the Moon.

Australian cricketer Ian Meckiff was run out on the last day of the first Test match between Australia and the West Indies, resulting in the first tied Test in cricket history.

American physicists Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann were awarded a patent for their cathode-ray tube amusement device, the first interactive electronic game.

Wozzeck (poster pictured) by composer Alban Berg, described as the first atonal opera, premiered at the Berlin State Opera.

Giacomo Puccini's comic opera Gianni Schicchi premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.

Haruna (pictured), the fourth and last Japanese battlecruiser of the Kongō class, was launched and went on to serve in both world wars.

Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen and his team became the first people to reach the South Pole.

American Civil War: The Battle of Bean's Station, the final battle of the Knoxville campaign, was fought in Grainger County, Tennessee.

The Toledo War, a mostly bloodless territorial dispute between Ohio and the Michigan Territory, was unofficially ended with a resolution passed by the controversial "Frostbitten Convention".

English domestic servant Anne Greene survived being hanged for infanticide.

In the Sweet Dew incident, Emperor Wenzong of the Tang dynasty conspired to kill the powerful eunuchs of the Tang court, but the plot was foiled.