December 13, 1981 (Sunday)
- Going on television and radio at 6:00 in the morning, General Wojciech Jaruzelski informed viewers and listeners that he had declared martial law in Poland, although he used the phrase "stari wojenny", literally, "a state of war". The army and police arrested thousands of members of the independent union Solidarity.
- In the United Kingdom, temperatures fell to -25.2C (-13.4F) at Shawbury, Shropshire. This was the lowest temperature in the UK since February 1895, and the lowest recorded in England. This record would be broken just 28 days later.
- Died: Dewey "Pigmeat" Markham, 77, African-American comedian
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Famous quotes containing the word december:
“For I have lost the race I never ran,
A rathe December blights my lagging May;”
—Hartley Coleridge (1796–1849)