Wednesday, December 1st
1994: Cindy Crawford and Richard Gere announce their separation. The pair finalized their divorce in 1995, before both remarrying.
2012: The Bachelorette star Ashley Hebert marries Bachelorette contestant J.P. Rosenbaum in Pasadena, California. The two met on the show and have two children together.
Thursday, December 2nd
1933: The first transatlantic telephone wedding occurs. Bertil Clason and Singrid Carlson are married via the phone.
1946: Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace is born in Calabria, Italy. His fashion influences changed international fashion before his murder in 1997.
Friday, December 3rd
1960: Julianne Moore is born in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Her work includes The End of the Affair, Boogie Nights, The Hours, and Crazy, Stupid, Love.
1984: The world’s oldest groom gets married. Harry Stevens is 103 when he marries his bride Thelma Lucas, 83, in Wisconsin.
Saturday, December 4th
1999: Crown Prince Phillippe of Belgium marries Countess Mathilde of Belgium in Brussels. The two have sat on the throne since 2013.
2015: Actors Melanie Griffith and Antonio Banderas divorce following 19 years of marriage. The two had met on the set of Two Much and started dating during filming.
Sunday December 5th
1956: Thorton Wilder’s play Matchmaker makes it premiere in NYC. The play ran for over 400 performances and has been reproduced many times.
2003: Coldplay singer Chris Martin marries actress Gwyneth Paltrow at the San Ysidro Ranch in Montecito California. The pair split in 2014, before officially divorcing in 2016.
Monday, December 6th
1930: Pablo Neruda, Chilean poet and author, marries Marie Hagenaar Vogelzang in Batavia. The pair had a child, but after their divorce in 1938, Neruda never saw his ex-wife or daughter again.
1933: The United States lifts the ban on James Joyce’s Ulysses. The novel featured masturbation which was considered obscene.
Tuesday, December 7th
1940: Mexican painters Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo remarry after their divorce in 1939. The pair married in San Francisco, but both had many affairs.
2017: Same-sex marriage is legalized in Australia. The first same-sex marriage in Australia was held December 15th.
Wednesday December 8th
1872: Religious leader Brigham Young marries his 55th wife, Hannah Tapfield, 65. Young was 71 at the time. It is rumored that 25 years after his death he had over 1,000 living relatives.
1952: First acknowledgement of pregnancy on television on I Love Lucy, as Lucille Ball and husband Ricky Ricardo prepare to welcome their son little Ricky to the world and TV audiences.
Thursday, December 9th
1854: Alfred Tennyson’s poem Charge of the Light Brigade is first published in The Examiner. The poem’s real-life events had occurred only six weeks before its publication.
1964: John Coltrane’s Quartet Plays records A Love Supreme. The album was recorded at Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey and is considered to be their greatest work.
Friday, December 10th
1947: Jazz musician Ella Fitzgerald marries bassist Ray Brown. The pair adopted a child together, before splitting in 1953.
1978: Superman: The Movie premieres at Washington D.C.’s Uptown Theater. The movie stars Christopher Reeve, Marlon Brando, Gene Hackman and Margot Kidder.
Saturday, December 11th
1936: British king Edward VII announces in a radio broadcast that he is abdicating the throne to marry the twice-divorced American Wallis Simpson.
2015: Hugh Heifner’s Playboy magazine publishes its last issue with naked women in it. Pamela Anderson dons the cover.
Sunday, December 12th
1991: Actor Richard Gere, known as one of the 1980’s biggest male sex symbols, marries American supermodel Cindy Crawford. The two remained married for four years before a divorce in 1995.
2014: Nick Cannon files to divorce Mariah Carey. The pair were married for six years and have twins together.
Monday, December 13th
1989: Morgan Freeman and Jessica Tandy star in Bruce Beresford’s Driving Miss Daisy. It wins Best Picture Oscar in 1990.
2017: Actress Salma Hayek claims that directing mogul Harvey Weinstein sexually harassed her. She further accuses that he threatened to murder her.
Tuesday, December 14th
1978: Ballroom, a play about a widow who finds happiness in ballroom dancing with an apparently married man, opens at the Majestic Theater. It runs for 116 shows.
1984: Broadway star Bette Midler marries Martin Von Hasselberg in Las Vegas. The pair have been married since then.
Wednesday, December 15th
1939: Gone With the Wind premieres in Atlanta. It receives the Best Picture Oscar of 1940.
1985: Sylvester Stallone marries “Rocky IV” co-actor Bridgitte Nielsen in Beverly Hills. The two later starred together in Cobra.
Thursday, December 16th
1809: Napoleon Bonaparte gets a divorce from Empress Josephine via the French Senate. She had lovers and he adopted her children before the divorce.
1950: Shirley Temple weds her second husband, naval officer, Charles Alden. The couple were married for 54 years and had two children.
Friday, December 17th
1892: Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s ballet Casse-noisette makes it premiere. He was known for writing intense opera music.
1994: Twenty-six year old Canadian pop legend Celine Dion marries her 52 year-old manager Rene Angelil. The two were married until his death in 2016.
Saturday, December 18th
1926: The day after his ballet Casse-noisette premieres, Pyotr Tchaikovsky premieres another ballet. This time Tchaikovsky showcases Nutcracker Suite.
1926: Actor George Murphy marries his ballroom dancing co-partner, Juliette Henkel. The two were married until Henkel’s death in 1973.
Sunday December 19th
1980: Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull opens in the USA. Robert DeNiro plays a boxer while Cathy Moirarty plays his wife.
1995: Queen Elizabeth formally asks her son, Prince Charles to divorce Princess Diana. The two completed the divorce in 1996.
Monday, December 20th
1949: Gone with the Wind star Clark Gable marries Sylvia Ashley. She was the fourth out of Gable’s eventual five wives.
2005: Scotland has its first same sex civil partnership. As of 2013, the LGBTQ+ community has the right to marry in Scotland.
Tuesday, December 21st
1914: The first full-length film is released. The silent film Tillie’s Punctured Romance premieres starring Charlie Chapman.
1991: CNN founder Ted Turner marries Jane Fonda. The marriage takes place at Turner’s home in Northern Florida.
Wednesday, December 22nd
1932: Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers’ first movie together premieres. Flying Down to Rio which opens in NYC.
1965: Doctor Zhivago premieres in NYC. The movie is based on Boris Pasternak’s novel.
Thursday, December 23rd
1815: Emma, Jane Austen’s romance novel, is released in London. The book was the fourth of her romances to be released.
1997: Woody Allen marries Soon-Yi Previn, the adopted daughter of his ex-girlfriend, Mia Farrow, in Venice, Italy. Allen has been married to Previn for 24 years and they have two adopted children.
Friday, December 24th
1922: American actress Ava Gardner is born in North Carolina. She is known as one of the top 25 greatest film stars of the classic period.
1990: Actors Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman marry. The two have two adopted children together but divorced in 2001.
Saturday, December 25th
1945: John Wayne gets a divorce from Josephine Saenz. The two had been married for 12 years.
1967: Paul McCartney of The Beatles gets engaged to Jane Asher. Asher broke off the engagement after McCartney was supposedly unfaithful.
Sunday, December 26th
1940: George Cukor’s The Philadelphia Story premieres. The movie stars Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant.
1993: American comedian Rodney Dangerfield marries Joan Child. The two got married
in Las Vegas and remained married until Child’s death.
Monday, December 27th
1937: Mae West performs an Adam and Eve skit. The ski gets her banned from NBC radio.
2002: Chicago, the movie, premieres with Renee Zellweger, Richard Gere, and Catherine Zeta Jones. The movie is based on the musical and won the Best Picture Oscar in 2003.
Tuesday, December 28th
1942: A 14 year-old Janet Leigh files a divorce from 18 year-old John Carlisle. The two were married for four months.
2008: Actor Woody Harrelson marries Laura Louie. Louie had been Harrelson’s assistant before their relationship started.
Wednesday, December 29th
1965: The Supremes drop “My World is Empty Without You.” It was one of their first songs that did not reach number one.
2006: One Tree Hill co-stars Sophia Bush and Chad Michael Murray divorce. Bush cited fraud for the reason behind the marriage breaking.
Thursday, December 30th
1816: English poet Percy Shelley marries his second wife, Mary Shelly Godwin. Godwin goes on to write Frankenstein and was the daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft.
1918: Al Capone’s son, Sonny, gets married in Miami. Sonny weds Diane Ruth Casey, his high school sweetheart, after she had their baby earlier that year. They had four children and were married 71 years.
Friday, December 31st
1989: After 1420 performances the Stephen Fry revival of Me & My Girl closes. The Marquis Theater in NYC held the show from 1985 until 1989.
1997: Actor Will Smith marries Jada Pinkett in Baltimore. The pair have two children, Jaden and Willow.