December 21

December 21 is the 355th day of the year (356th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 10 days remaining.

Events

• 1620 - The Pilgrims leave the Mayflower at Plymouth Rock.
• 1719 - The first U.S. newspaper (the Boston Gazette[?] was published.
• 1861 - The Congressional Medal of Honor first authorized
• 1861 - Lord Lyons[?], the British minister to the United States, meets with United States Secretary of State William Seward concerning Confederate envoys James Mason[?] and John Slidell[?], arrested by the United States Navy aboard the British mail steamer Trent in order to prevent war between the United States and the United Kingdom.
• 1872 - HMS Challenger sails from Portsmouth on the 4 year scientific expedition that would lay the foundation for the science of oceanography
• 1880 - Isle of Man becomes first political body that allows women to vote.
• 1891 - First basketball game played
• 1898 - Marie and Pierre Curie discover radium.
• 1913 - First crossword puzzle published
• 1914 First feature-length silent film comedy, Tillie's Punctured Romance, starring Marie Dressler, Mabel Normand[?] and Charles Chaplin, is released
• 1923 - Nepal becomes independent
• 1933 - Newfoundland becomes a crown colony
• 1935 - First screening of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.
• 1958 - Charles De Gaulle is elected as the first President of the Fifth Republic
• 1968 - Apollo 8 launched
• 1979 - The United States government bails out the Chrysler Corporation
• 1988 - A terrorist bomb brings down Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland
• 1991 - The Commonwealth of Independent States is formed

Births

• 1118 - Thomas Becket, lord chancellor and archbishop of Canterbury (+ 1170)
• 1639 - Jean Baptiste Racine[?], dramatist
• 1804 - Benjamin Disraeli, British politician, writer (+ 1881)
• 1815 - Thomas Couture French painter & teacher (+ 1879)
• 1879 - Joseph Stalin, Soviet leader (+ 1953)
• 1878 - Jan Lukasiewicz[?], philosopher, mathematician
• 1889 - Sewall Wright, biologist
• 1892 - Walter Hagen[?], golf champion (+ 1969)
• 1892 - Rebecca West, writer (+ 1983)
• 1908 - Pat Weaver[?], television pioneer (+ 2002)
• 1917 - Heinrich Böll, author and recipient of the Nobel Prize in literature 1972 (+ 1985)
• 1918 - Donald Regan, Chief of Staff and U.S. Treasury Secretary (+ 2003)
• 1918 - Kurt Waldheim, United Nations Secretary-General[?]
• 1921 - Vampira[?], actress
• 1922 - Paul Winchell, ventriloquist
• 1926 - Joe Paterno[?], American football coach
• 1935 - Jane Fonda, actress, activist, exercise guru
• 1935 - Phil Donahue[?], talk show host
• 1935 - John G. Avildsen, director, editor
• 1940 - Frank Zappa, musician (+ 1993)
• 1942 - Reinhard Mey, singer
• 1946 - Carl Wilson[?], musician (The Beach Boys)
• 1948 - Samuel L. Jackson, actor
• 1950 - Jeffrey Katzenberg[?], producer
• 1954 - Chris Evert, tennis player
• 1957 - Ray Romano, comedian, actor
• 1959 - Florence Griffith Joyner, track and field champion (+ 1998)
• 1966 - Kiefer Sutherland[?], actor
• 1969 - Julie Delpy, actress

Deaths

• 1375 - Giovanni Boccaccio, writer
• 1807 - John Newton cleric, songwriter (Amazing Grace)
• 1940 - F. Scott Fitzgerald, writer
• 1945 - George S. Patton, American general
• 1935 - Kurt Tucholsky, German journalist and satirist
• 1958 - Lion Feuchtwanger[?], writer
• 2001 - Dick Schaap[?], sports journalist

Holidays and observances

• The winter solstice, sometimes known as Yule, occurs on or very close to this date.

December 20 - December 22 - November 21 - January 21 -- listing of all days

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