A side collision between an express train and passenger train in Herceghalom, Hungary killed 69 people, the deadliest rail disaster in the country's history.[4]
British submarine HMS E37 was lost in the North Sea with all 30 of her crew.[5]
Battle of the Argeș – Also known at the Battle of Bucharest, the 6th Turkish Infantry Division was mobilized to aid the surrounded Germans southwest of the Romanian capital.[8]
Died:Paolo Tosti, Italian composer, credited for popularizing salon music during the Belle Époque era with songs such as "Serenata", "Addio" and "Ancora" (b. 1846)
Battle of the Argeș – Both the intervention by Ottoman forces and slowed reinforcements on the Romanian side caused the attack to weaken against the Germans, allowing them to break out and route the counterattack.[10]
Capture of Yanbu – Arab forces retreated into the city limits of Yanbu and Ottoman forces surrounded them, but managed to build an emergency airstrip that allowed British aircraft to resupply the defenders until reinforcements arrived.[11]
French submarine Kanguroo was torpedoed and sunk in the Atlantic Ocean by German submarine SM U-38, along with two accompanying ships. In all, 41 sailors died in the attack.[12]
An explosion at Barnbow, a munitions factory near Leeds, killed 35 female workers and injured hundreds more.[16]
British Prime Minister H. H. Asquith resigned from office, allowing War Minister David Lloyd George to succeed him (on December 7) while Edward Stanley took over the ministry (on December 11).[17]
The last recorded stagecoach robbery occurred in Jarbidge, Nevada where wagon driver Fred Searcy was ambushed by Ben Kuhl, a known horse thief, along with Ed Beck and William McGraw. The three men robbed $4,000 from a mining payroll transported on the coach and shot Searcy dead. The three were arrested shortly after and Kuhl was tried and convicted of Searcy's murder.[19]
The Germans occupied Bucharest, forcing the capital of Romania to be moved to Iaşi. In total, the Romanian army lost 40 percent of its 150,000 force in battles against the Central Powers.[22]
The Yiddish drama The Dybbuk by S. Ansky premiered at the Elizeum Theater in Warsaw. A story about a Yiddish woman being possessed by a malicious spirit, the first production was done in Russian. Ansky would later translate the play to Yiddish, where it was performed in that language by Vilna Troupe in 1920 shortly after his death.[28]
German raiding ship SMS Möwe captured and scuttled British cargo ship Georgic off the coast of Newfoundland. One crew member was killed in the attack and the other 141 were taken prisoner.[32]
Monastir offensive – French General Joseph Joffre called off the Allied offensive in Macedonia after failure to break the military deadlock against Bulgaria and to save Romania from defeat. Estimates for Allied casualties, from both combat and disease, may have been as high as 130,000.[34]
An estimated 10,000 to 18,000 Austrian and Italian soldiers were killed by avalanches in the Dolomites, including 321 on "White Friday". According to some reports, both sides deliberately fired shells into the weakened snowpacks in an attempt to bury the other side.[40]
Capture of Yanbu – Constant naval bombardments forced Ottoman commander Fakhri Pasha to give up on taking Yanbu and began to direct his forces further south to recapture of the port of Rabegh.[41]
The Karl Troop Cross was created by Emperor Charles to be awarded for distinguished service to all soldiers in the Austrian-Hungarian Army.[47]
The Werner von Siemens Ring was established as one of the highest German awards in the technical sciences, on the centennial of the birth of German inventor and industrialist Werner von Siemens.[48]
Battle of Verdun – A French force of four divisions launched a second offensive against a German defense composed of five divisions, following a six-day bombardment, where some 1,169,000 shells, were fired from 827 guns. An intense creeping barrage collapsed the German defense, resulting in a loss of 13,500 men of the 21,000 in.[59]
American cargo ship Powhatan collided with British cargo ship Telena and sank in Chesapeake Bay off the coast of the United States. She was later salvaged and rebuilt as Cuba.[60][61]
Bulgaria ordered the mass arrest and internment of Serbian males that had served in the army as well as all government workers, educators, clergy and journalists in the occupied Serbian territories. This set off a chain of events that led to the Surdulica massacre the following year.[65]
Battle of Verdun – The battle officially ended in German defeat. Estimates of casualties varied, with most recent estimates placing the average at 377,000 French casualties and 337,000 German casualties.[74][75]
Died:Giulia Valle, Italian nun, member of the Sisters of Charity of Saint Joan Antida Thoure and known educator in Turin, beatified by Pope John Paul II in 2004 (b. 1847)
German flying ace Manfred von Richthofen (nicknamed the Red Baron) shot down and killed British flying ace Arthur Gerald Knight in an act of vengeance for Knight causing the mid-air collision that killed German ace Oswald Boelcke on October 28.[80]
Royal NavydestroyerHMS Hoste collided with fellow fleet destroyer HMS Negro in the North Sea during heavy weather. Both vessels sank, with the loss of all 80 crew on the Negro, while another destroyer was able to rescue most of the crew from the Hoste.[83]
Imperial German Navy airships made the first bombing mission against the Russian Empire, targeting Petrograd which was the royal seat of the empire. Bad weather prevented the airships from reaching their targets and one was forced to land in German-occupied Russia, where strong winds eventually destroyed her three days later.[93]
British flying ace John Quested shot down and killed German ace Gustav Leffers who was flying a captured French aircraft, before being forced down by another German plane.[97]
A strong La Niña created heavy rain and flooding in Clermont, Queensland, Australia, claiming more than 60 lives. Melbourne and Hobart each received a record 967.5 millimetres (38.09 in)[98] and 1,104.2 millimetres (43.47 in) of annual rainfall respectively.[99]
Six German Navy airships attempted a raid on England but are recalled due to bad weather. One airship was unable to return to base and landed nearby, where she was battered to pieces by wind.[100]
While ground crewman were walking the German Navy Zeppelin L 24 to her shed at Tondern, Germany, high winds picked up and slammed the airship against her hangar before catching fire. She and the Zeppelin L 17, which was in the hangar, were destroyed in the resulting blaze.[101]
Humberto Gómez and his mercenaries seized Arauca in Colombia and declared the Republic of Arauca. He proceeded to pillage the region before fleeing to Venezuela.
By the end of 1916, 17,341 commissioned officers and men were deployed in Great Britain for home air defense, including 12,000 to man antiaircraft guns and 2,200 assigned to 12 Royal Flying Corps squadrons composed of 110 aeroplanes.[111]
Died:Alice Ball, American chemist, first African-American woman to practice chemistry, developed an effective drug treatment for leprosy, died from chemical poisoning during her research (b. 1892)
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