1st December

Every December 1st., World's AIDS Day is celebrated worldwide to remember the victims of HIV and AIDS, to learn more about the devastating effects of the disease around the world, and to reaffirm the world's commitment to fight HIV and AIDS. This year's theme is "Women, Girls, HIV and AIDS"; a theme that focuses on how the effects of HIV/AIDS have significantly increased among women.

Global HIV and AIDS estimates, end of 2009

The latest statistics of the global HIV and AIDS epidemic were published by UNAIDS in November 2010, and refer to the end of 2009.

	Estimate	Range
People living with HIV/AIDS in 2009	33.3 million	31.4-35.3 million
Adults living with HIV/AIDS in 2009	30.8 million	29.2-32.6 million
Women living with HIV/AIDS in 2009	15.9 million	14.8-17.2 million
Children living with HIV/AIDS in 2009	2.5 million	1.6-3.4 million
People newly infected with HIV in 2009	2.6 million	2.3-2.8 million
Adults newly infected with HIV in 2009	2.2 million	2.0-2.4 million
AIDS deaths in 2009	1.8 million	1.6-2.1 million
Orphans (0-17) due to AIDS in 2009	16.6 million	14.4-18.8 million

At the end of 2009, women accounted for just over half of all adults living with HIV worldwide.

1st December

• 1955 – American Civil Rights Movement: In Montgomery, Alabama, seamstress Rosa Parks refuses to give up her bus seat to a white man and is arrested for violating the city's racial segregation laws, an incident which leads to the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

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2nd December

1930 – Great Depression: US President Herbert Hoover goes before the United States Congress and asks for a US$150 million public works program to help generate jobs and stimulate the economy.

3rd December

1973 – Pioneer program: Pioneer 10 sends back the first close-up images of Jupiter.

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4th December

1619 – 38 colonists from Berkeley Parish in England disembark in Virginia and give thanks to God (this is considered by many to be the first Thanksgiving in the Americas).

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5th December

1484 – Pope Innocent VIII issues the Summis desiderantes, a papal bull that deputizes Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger as inquisitors to root out alleged witchcraft in Germany and leads to one of the most oppressive witch hunts in European history.

6th December

1877 – Thomas Edison creates the first recording of a human voice, reciting "Mary Had a Little Lamb."
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