Pirates baseball player and manager (b. 1917) December 3 Alfredo Dinale, Italian Olympic cyclist (b. 1900) Angelo Iachino, Italian admiral (b. 1889) Mary Nash, American actress (b. 1884) December 4 Tommy Bolin, American guitarist (b. 1951) Benjamin Britten, English composer (b. 1913) December 6 – João Goulart, Brazilian politician, 24th President of Brazil (b. 1918) December 12 – Jack Cassidy, American actor (b. 1927) December 15 – Grégoire Kayibanda, Rwandan politician, 2nd President of Rwanda (b. 1924) December 19 – Giuseppe Caselli, Italian painter (b. 1893) December 20 Richard J. Daley, Mayor of Chicago since 1955 (b. 1902) Ned Washington, American lyricist (b. 1901) December 28 – Freddie King, American rock guitarist (b. 1934) Nobel Prizes Physics – Burton Richter, Samuel Chao Chung Ting Chemistry – William Nunn Lipscomb, Jr Physiology or Medicine – Baruch S. Blumberg, D Carleton Gajdusek Literature – Saul Bellow Peace – Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan Economics – Milton Friedman References Leap years in the Gregorian calendar