December 3, 1981 (Thursday)
- Tibetan dissident Lobsang Wangchuk was arrested in China after police found the manuscript and copies of a book he had written, A History of Tibetan Independence. Initially sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison, the 67 year old religious leader was given a death sentence, then had his term commuted to 18 years. He died, still incarcerated, on November 4, 1987.
- Born: Brian Bonsall, American TV actor, in Torrance, California; and David Villa, Spanish national team footballer, in Langreo
- Died: Walter Knott, 91 American farmer who created the Knott's Berry Farm theme park
Read more about this topic: December 1981
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)