Portal:University of Oxford/Selected anniversaries/December


 * 1 December 1971: Emily Mortimer (Lincoln), English actress, is born.
 * 2 December 1985: Philip Larkin (St John's), English poet, dies.
 * 3 December 1882: Archibald Campbell Tait (Balliol), Archbishop of Canterbury 1868–1882, dies.
 * 3 December 1944: Craig Raine (Exeter), English poet and cricket, is born.
 * 4 December 2000: Colin Cowdrey (Brasenose), English cricketer, dies.
 * 6 December 1932: Sir Paul Reeves (St Peter's), Archbishop of New Zealand and Governor-General of New Zealand, is born.
 * 7 December 1978: Sir Charles Symonds (New College), British neurologist, dies.
 * 9 December 1929: Bob Hawke (University), Prime Minister of Australia, is born.
 * 10 December 1949: Yasmin Alibhai-Brown (Linacre), Ugadan-born British journalist and author, is born.
 * 10 December 1994: Keith Joseph (Magdalen), British Conservative politician, dies.
 * 11 December 1960: Rachel Portman (Worcester), British Academy Award-winning composer, is born.
 * 12 December 1920: James McFarlane (St Catherine's), British academic of European literature, is born.
 * 13 December 1983: Mary Renault (St Hugh's), British historical novelist, dies.
 * 14 December 1997: Owen Barfield (Wadham), British author and philosopher, dies.
 * 15 December 1761: Sir John Willes (Trinity), Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, dies.
 * 16 December 1798: Thomas Pennant (Oriel), Welsh naturalist and antiquary, dies.
 * 17 December 1915: Sir John Rhys (Jesus and Merton), Celtic scholar, dies.
 * 19 December 1928: Michael John Hurd (Pembroke), British composer, is born.
 * 19 December 1942: John Godfrey (Balliol and St Antony's), Canadian academic and politician, is born.
 * 21 December 1988: Nikolaas Tinbergen (Merton and Wolfson), Dutch ethologist and Nobel Prize winner, dies.
 * 22 December 1696: James Oglethorpe (Corpus Christi), founder of the Colony of Georgia, is born.
 * 24 December 2007: Sir Nicholas Pumfrey (St Edmund Hall), British judge, dies.
 * 25 December 2005: John Hayes (Keble), art historian and museum director, dies.
 * 26 December 2006: John Heath-Stubbs (Queen's), English poet, dies.
 * 27 December 1986: George Dangerfield (Hertford), journalist and historian, dies.
 * 27 December 2007: Benazir Bhutto (Lady Margaret Hall and St Catherine's), former Prime Minister of Pakistan, is assassinated.
 * 28 December 2008: Susan Sontag (St Anne's), American author and literary theorist, dies.
 * 29 December 1809: William Ewart Gladstone (Christ Church), four times Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, is born.
 * 29 December 1893: Vera Brittain (Somerville), English writer and pacifist, is born.
 * 31 December 1946: Sheila Forbes (St Hilda's), Principal of St Hilda's from 2007, is born.
 * 31 December 1948: Rick Trainor (Merton and Nuffield), American academic, is born.