December 3: French communist strikers derail the Paris-Tourcoing express train because of false rumors that it was transporting soldiers. 21 people are killed. - The Tennessee Williams play A Streetcar Named Desire, starring Marlon Brando in his first great role, opens at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Broadway. Jessica Tandy also stars as Blanche Du Bois.

December 4: The French Interior Minister, Jules S. Moch, takes emergency measures against his country's rioters after six days of violent arguments in the National Assembly.

December 6: Arturo Toscanini conducts a concert performance of the first half of Giuseppe Verdi's opera Otello, which was based on William Shakespeare's play Othello, for a broadcast on NBC Radio. The second half of the opera is broadcast a week later.

December 9: French labor unions call off the general strike and re-commence negotiations with the French government.

December 12: The Iranian Royal Army takes back power in the Azerbaijan province.

December 21: 400,000 slaughtered during mass migration of Hindus and Muslims into the new states India and Pakistan.

December 22: The Italian Constituent Assembly votes to accept the new Constitution of Italy. - The first practical electronic transistor is demonstrated by Bardeen, Brattain, and Shockley of the United States.

December 30: King Michael of Romania abdicates. (source: Wikipedia)