What are the important events that happened on December 3? Here are historical events, facts, and some myths about this day.

December 3: Facts & Myths About This Day

December 3 is the 337^th day of the year 2025 in the Gregorian calendar. There are 28 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Wednesday.

Under the Julian calendar, this day is November 20, 2025 – a Wednesday. Both day of the week are the same but did you notice the difference with the Gregorian calendar?

When this day started, 1,764,720,000 seconds has elapsed since midnight of January 1, 1970 – the Unix epoch.

Strange as it may, if we name this day after a polygon then it will be called ‘trihectatriacontaheptagon’ day.

Sagittarius is the zodiac sign of a person born on this day. Turquoise is the modern birthstone for this month. Onyx is the mystical birthstone from Tibetan origin that dates back over a thousand years.

According to the lunisolar Chinese calendar, there are 76 days remaining before the start of the next Chinese New Year.

The ancient Maya civilization believes that the end of the world will happen on December 21, 2012. There are now 4,730 days since this fabled cataclysmic event.

December 3 Historical Events

• 1799 –
  War of the Second Coalition: Battle of Wiesloch, Austrian Lieutenant Field Marshal Sztáray de Nagy-Mihaly defeats the French at Wiesloch.
• 1818 –
  Illinois becomes the 21st U.S. state.
• 1912 –
  Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro, and Serbia (the Balkan League) sign an armistice with Turkey, ending the two-month long First Balkan War.
• 1912 –
  First Balkan War: The Naval Battle of Elli takes place.
• 1984 –
  Bhopal Disaster: A methyl isocyanate leak from a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, kills more than 3,800 people outright and injures 150,000–600,000 others (some 6,000 of whom would later die from their injuries) in one of the worst industrial disasters in history.
• 1990 –
  At Detroit Metropolitan Airport, Northwest Airlines Flight 1482 collides with Northwest Airlines Flight 299 on the runway, killing 7 passengers and 1 crew member aboard flight 1482.
• 1992 –
  A test engineer for Sema Group uses a personal computer to send the world’s first text message via the Vodafone network to the phone of a colleague.
• 1992 –
  UN Security Council Resolution 794 is unanimously passed, approving a coalition of United Nations peacekeepers led by the United States to form UNITAF, with the task of establishing peace and ensuring that humanitarian aid is distributed in Somalia.
• 1999 –
  NASA loses radio contact with the Mars Polar Lander moments before the spacecraft enters the Martian atmosphere.
• 2007 –
  Winter storms cause the Chehalis River to flood many cities in Lewis County, Washington, also closing a 20-mile portion of Interstate 5 for several days. At least eight deaths and billions of dollars in damages are blamed on the floods.

Who were born on December 3?

• 1933 –
  Paul J. Crutzen, Dutch chemist, Nobel laureate
• 1940 –
  Jeffrey R. Holland, American religious leader
• 1951 –
  Nicky Stevens, British singer (Brotherhood of Man)
• 1957 –
  Valerie Quennessen, French actress (d. 1989)
• 1960 –
  Daryl Hannah, American actress
• 1970 –
  Paul Byrd, American baseball player
• 1975 –
  Csaba Czébely, Hungarian drummer (Pokolgép)
• 1976 –
  Mark Boucher, South African cricketer
• 1977 –
  Adam Małysz, Polish ski-jumper
• 1987 –
  Alicia Sacramone, American gymnast

Who died on December 3?

• 1154 –
  Pope Anastasius IV
• 1533 –
  Vasili III, Grand Prince of Moscow (b. 1479)
• 1610 –
  Honda Tadakatsu, Japanese general (b. 1548)
• 1892 –
  Afanasy Fet, Russian poet (b. 1820)
• 1902 –
  Robert Lawson, New Zealand architect (b. 1833)
• 1973 –
  Bea Miles, Australian eccentric and writer (b. 1902)
• 1981 –
  Walter Knott, American farmer (b. 1889)
• 1994 –
  Elizabeth Glaser, AIDS activist (b. 1947)
• 2008 –
  Robert Zajonc, Polish-American social psychologist (b. 1923)
• 2011 –
  Dev Anand, Indian actor (b. 1923)