December 21
From Freepedia
December 21 is the 355th day of the year (356th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 10 days remaining.
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Events
- 69 - Vespasian becomes the fourth Roman Emperor in the Year of the four emperors.
- 1620 - The Pilgrims land on what is now known as Plymouth Rock
- 1780 - Great Britain declares war on The Netherlands in response to the Dutch joining the League of Armed Neutrality and for assisting French and American forces during the American Revolution.
- 1861 - The 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 arrested by the United States Navy 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 entity 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
- 1919 - Municipal elections held in Senegal (First round, second round is held December 28). The multiracial lists of the Independent Socialist Republican Party (PRSI) wins in all four municipalities.
- 1923 - Nepal changes from British protectorate to independent state
- 1933 - Newfoundland becomes a crown colony
- 1935 - First screening of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first feature-length animated movie.
- 1958 - Charles de Gaulle is elected as the first President and establishes the Fifth Republic
- 1962 - Rondane National Park, the first national park in Norway, was established.
- 1968 - Apollo 8 launched
- 1979 - The United States government bails out the Chrysler Corporation
- 1979 - The Lancaster House Agreement was signed, effectively ending the white rule in Rhodesia under Ian Smith.
- 1983 - Former U.S. President Gerald Ford guest-stars as himself on the prime-time soap opera Dynasty.
- 1987 - The passenger ferry Doña Paz sinks after colliding with the oil tanker Vector 1; well over 1,000 die.
- 1988 - A terrorist bomb explodes and crashes Pan Am flight 103 a Boeing 747, over Lockerbie, Scotland killing 270, including 11 on the ground
- 1999 - The Spanish Civil Guard intercepts a van loaded with 950 kg of explosives intended by ETA to blow down Torre Picasso.
- 2001 - Japanese television performer Masashi Tashiro got No. 1 temporarily in the Internet vote of Time's Person of the Year.
- 2002 - Vancouver, British Columbia city council declares "D.O.A. Day" in observance of the Canadian punk band D.O.A.'s decades of influence and accomplishments.
- 2012 - The Long Count of the Maya calendar recycles according to the most popular correlation. A minority argues that it does so on December 23, 2012.
Births
- 1118 - Thomas Becket, Lord Chancellor of England and Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1170)
- 1401 - Tommaso Masaccio, Italian painter (d. 1428)
- 1596 - Peter Mogila, Orthodox Metropolitan of Kiev and Galicia (d. 1646)
- 1603 - Roger Williams, English theologian and colonist (d. 1684)
- 1804 - Benjamin Disraeli, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1881)
- 1811 - Archibald Campbell Tait, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1882)
- 1815 - Thomas Couture French painter and teacher (d. 1879)
- 1843 - Thomas Bracken, New Zealand writer (d. 1898)
- 1850 - Zdeněk Fibich, Czech composer (d. 1900)
- 1859 - Gustave Kahn, French poet (d. 1936)
- 1872 - Albert Payson Terhune, American author (d. 1942)
- 1876 - Jack Lang, Australian politician (d. 1975)
- 1878 - Jan Łukasiewicz, Polish philosopher and mathematician (d. 1956)
- 1889 - Sewall Wright, American biologist (d. 1988)
- 1892 - Walter Hagen, American golfer (d. 1969)
- 1892 - Rebecca West, American writer (d. 1983)
- 1896 - Leroy Robertson, American composer (d. 1971)
- 1914 - Ivan Generalić, Croatian painter (d. 1992)
- 1917 - Heinrich Böll, German writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1985)
- 1918 - Donald Regan, Chief of Staff and U.S. Treasury Secretary (d. 2003)
- 1918 - Kurt Waldheim, United Nations Secretary-General
- 1921 - Vampira, Finnish actress
- 1922 - Paul Winchell, American ventriloquist (d. 2005)
- 1926 - Joe Paterno, American football coach
- 1935 - John G. Avildsen, American film director and editor
- 1935 - Phil Donahue, American talk show host
- 1935 - Jane Fonda, American actress and activist
- 1940 - Frank Zappa, American musician (d. 1993)
- 1942 - Reinhard Mey, German singer
- 1942 - Carla Thomas, American singer
- 1942 - Hu Jintao, President of the People's Republic of China
- 1944 - Michael Tilson Thomas, American conductor
- 1946 - Carl Wilson, American musician (The Beach Boys) (d. 1998)
- 1947 - Paco de Lucía, Spanish guitarist
- 1948 - Samuel L. Jackson, American actor
- 1948 - Willi Resetarits, Austrian musician and cabaret artist
- 1950 - Jeffrey Katzenberg, American producer
- 1954 - Chris Evert, American tennis player
- 1955 - Jane Kaczmarek, American actress
- 1957 - Tom Henke, baseball player
- 1957 - Ray Romano, American comedian and actor
- 1959 - Florence Griffith Joyner, American runner (d. 1998)
- 1961 - Francis Ng, Hong Kong actor
- 1965 - Andy Dick, American actor and comedian
- 1965 - Anke Engelke, German comedienne
- 1966 - Kiefer Sutherland, Canadian actor
- 1967 - Mikhail Saakashvili, President of Georgia
- 1969 - Julie Delpy, French actress
- 1973 - Karmen Stavec, Slovenian singer
- 1974 - Karrie Webb, Australian golfer
- 1978 - Mike Vitar, American actor
- 1984 - Darren Potter, Irish footballer
Deaths
- 1295 - Marguerite Berenger of Provence, queen of Louis IX of France
- 1308 - Henry I of Hesse (b. 1244)
- 1375 - Giovanni Boccaccio, Italian writer (b. 1313)
- 1504 - Bertold von Henneberg-Römhild, German archbishop and elector (b. 1442)
- 1549 - Marguerite of Navarre, queen of Henry II of Navarre (b. 1492)
- 1579 - Vicente Masip, Spanish painter
- 1597 - Petrus Canisius, Dutch Jesuit (b. 1521)
- 1807 - John Newton cleric and hymnist (b. 1725)
- 1873 - Francis Garnier, French explorer (b. 1839)
- 1935 - Kurt Tucholsky, German journalist and satirist (b. 1890)
- 1937 - Frank B. Kellogg, United States Secretary of State, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1856)
- 1940 - F. Scott Fitzgerald, American writer (b. 1896)
- 1945 - George S. Patton, U.S. general (b. 1885)
- 1956 - Don Lorenzo Perosi, Italian composer (b. 1872)
- 1957 - Eric Coates, English composer (b. 1886)
- 1958 - Lion Feuchtwanger, German writer (b. 1884)
- 1992 - Albert King, American musician (b. 1924)
- 1992 - Nathan Milstein, Ukrainian violinist (b. 1903)
- 2001 - Dick Schaap, American sports journalist (b. 1931)
- 2004 - Autar Singh Paintal, Indian medical scientist (b. 1925)
Holidays and observances
- The summer solstice (Southern Hemisphere) or winter solstice (Northern Hemisphere), sometimes known as Yule, occurs on or very close to this date. It is an important festival in the Chinese calendar.
External links
December 20 - December 22 - November 21 - January 21 -- listing of all days
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