- Dec 3 Settlers arrive at Petach Tikvah, Israel
Pulitzer Buys St. Louis Dispatch
Dec 9 Joseph Pulitzer buys the St. Louis Dispatch for $2,500
Anglo-Zulu War
Dec 11 Anglo-Zulu War: British high commissioner Henry Bartle Frere presents an ultimatum to the Zulu Kingdom to submit to British rule or face war
- Dec 12 Joseph Pulitzer begins publishing the "St. Louis Post-Dispatch"
- Dec 18 French SS Byzantin sinks after collision in Dardanelles, 210 killed
- Dec 18 John Kehoe, the last of the Molly Maguires, is executed in Pennsylvania
- Dec 26 1st US store to install electric lights, Philadelphia