December 21

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

Table of contents

1 Events
2 Births
3 Deaths
4 Holidays and observances

Events

1620 - The Pilgrims land at Plymouth Rock
1719 - The first U.S. newspaper (the Boston Gazette) is 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 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
1923 - Nepal changes from British protectorate to independent state
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 explodes and crashes Pan Am flight 103 a Boeing 747, over Lockerbie, Scotland killing 270, including 11 on the ground
2012 - The Mayan calendar comes to an end... maybe. Experts disagree on whether this happens today or December 23, 2012.

Births

1118 - Thomas Becket, lord chancellor and archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1170)
1804 - Benjamin Disraeli, British politician, writer (d. 1881)
1815 - Thomas Couture French painter and teacher (d. 1879)
1879 - Joseph Stalin, Soviet leader (d. 1953)
1878 - Jan Łukasiewicz, philosopher, mathematician
1889 - Sewall Wright, biologist
1892 - Walter Hagen, golf champion (d. 1969)
1892 - Rebecca West, writer (d. 1983)
1908 - Pat Weaver, television pioneer (d. 2002)
1917 - Heinrich B�ll, author, Nobel laureate 1972 (d. 1985)
1918 - Donald Regan, Chief of Staff and U.S. Treasury Secretary (d. 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 (d. 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 (d. 1998)
1961 - Francis Ng, actor
1965 - Andy Dick, actor, comedian
1966 - Kiefer Sutherland, actor
1967 - Mikhail Saakashvili, Georgian politician, President of the Republic of Georgia since January 4, 2004.
1969 - Julie Delpy, actress
1974 - Karrie Webb, golf champion

Deaths

1375 - Giovanni Boccaccio, writer
1807 - John Newton cleric, songwriter (Amazing Grace)
1940 - F. Scott Fitzgerald, writer
1945 - George S. Patton, U.S. general
1935 - Kurt Tucholsky, German journalist and satirist
1958 - Lion Feuchtwanger, writer
2001 - Dick Schaap, sports journalist
2002 - Gi� Pomodoro, Italian sculptor

Holidays and observances

The winter solstice, sometimes known as Yule, occurs on or very close to this date. It is an important festival in the Chinese calendar.

See Also:

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

January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December\n