December 21

Events

• 69 - Vespasian becomes the fourth Roman Emperor in the Year of the four emperors.
• 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 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 Dwarfs
• 1958 - Charles de Gaulle is elected as the first President of 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.
• 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 near Calatayud (Zaragoza) a Madrid-bound van driven by ETA and loaded with 950 kg of explosives. The next day, another van loaded with 750 kg is found not far from there. The incident is known as "la caravana de la muerte" (the caravan of death). Shortly after 9/11, ETA confirmed their plan had been to blow down Torre Picasso.
• 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 Mayan calendar comes to an end... Experts disagree on whether this happens today or December 23, 2012.
  

  Births

• 1118 - Thomas Becket, English Lord Chancellor and Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1170)
• 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)
• 1859 - Gustave Kahn, French poet (d. 1936)
• 1872 - Albert Payson Terhune, American author (d. 1942)
• 1876 - Jack Lang, Australian politician (d. 1975)
• 1879 - Joseph Stalin, Soviet leader (d. 1953)
• 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)
• 1908 - Pat Weaver, television pioneer (d. 2002)
• 1914 - Ivan Generalić, Croatian painter (d. 1992)
• 1917 - Heinrich Böll, German author, 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, actress
• 1922 - Paul Winchell, American ventriloquist
• 1926 - Joe Paterno, American football coach
• 1935 - John G. Avildsen, director, 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, singer
• 1942 - Carla Thomas, singer
• 1944 - Michael Tilson Thomas, American conductor
• 1946 - Carl Wilson, musician (The Beach Boys) (d. 1998)
• 1947 - Paco de Lucía, musician
• 1948 - Samuel L. Jackson, actor
• 1948 - Willi Resetarits, Austrian musician and cabaret artist
• 1950 - Jeffrey Katzenberg, producer
• 1954 - Chris Evert, American tennis player
• 1955 - Jane Kaczmarek, actress
• 1957 - Tom Henke, baseball player
• 1957 - Ray Romano, comedian, actor
• 1959 - Florence Griffith Joyner, American runner (d. 1998)
• 1961 - Francis Ng, actor
• 1965 - Andy Dick, actor, comedian
• 1965 - Anke Engelke, comedian
• 1967 - Mikhail Saakashvili, President of the Republic of Georgia
• 1969 - Julie Delpy, actress
• 1973 - Karmen Stavec, Slovenian singer
• 1974 - Karrie Webb, golfer
  

  Deaths

• 1375 - Giovanni Boccaccio, Italian writer (b. 1313)
• 1807 - John Newton cleric and hymnist (b. 1725)
• 1935 - Kurt Tucholsky, German journalist and satirist (b. 1890)
• 1940 - F. Scott Fitzgerald, American writer (b. 1896)
• 1945 - George S. Patton, U.S. general (b. 1885)
• 1957 - Eric Coates, English composer (b. 1886)
• 1958 - Lion Feuchtwanger, German writer (b. 1884)
• 1992 - Albert King, blues musician (b. 1924)
• 1992 - Nathan Milstein, Ukrainian violinist (b. 1903)
• 2001 - Dick Schaap, sports journalist (b. 1931)
• 2002 - Giò Pomodoro, Italian sculptor (b. 1930)
  

  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

• BBC: On This Day

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