Project SCORE, the world’s first communications satellite, is launched.
17 December 1967
Harold Holt, Prime Minister of Australia, disappears while swimming near Portsea, Victoria, and is presumed drowned.
15 December 1903
Italian American food cart vendor Italo Marchiony receives a U.S. patent for inventing a machine that makes ice cream cones
13 December 1967
Constantine II of Greece attempts an unsuccessful counter-coup against the Regime of the Colonels.
12 December 1956
United Nations Security Council Resolution 121 relating to acceptance of Japan to the United Nations is adopted.
11 December 2008
Bernard Madoff is arrested and charged with securities fraud in a $50 billion Ponzi scheme.
10 December 1953
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill receives the Nobel Prize in Literature.