December 21
From Wikipedia, a free encyclopedia written in simple English for easy reading.
[edit] Births
[edit] Deaths
- 1295 - Marguerite Berenger of Provence, queen of Louis IX of France
- 1308 - Henry I of Hesse (born 1244)
- 1375 - Giovanni Boccaccio, Italian writer (born 1313)
- 1504 - Bertold von Henneberg-Römhild, German archbishop and elector (born 1442)
- 1549 - Marguerite of Navarre, queen of Henry II of Navarre (born 1492)
- 1579 - Vicente Masip, Spanish painter
- 1597 - Petrus Canisius, Dutch Jesuit (born 1521)
- 1807 - John Newton, English cleric and hymnist (born 1725)
- 1873 - Francis Garnier, French explorer (born 1839)
- 1935 - Kurt Tucholsky, German journalist and satirist (born 1890)
- 1937 - Frank B. Kellogg, United States Secretary of State, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (born 1856)
- 1940 - F. Scott Fitzgerald, American writer (born 1896)
- 1945 - George S. Patton, U.S. general (born 1885)
- 1956 - Don Lorenzo Perosi, Italian composer (born 1872)
- 1957 - Eric Coates, English composer (born 1886)
- 1958 - Lion Feuchtwanger, German writer (born 1884)
- 1988 - Nikolaas Tinbergen, Dutch ornithologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (born 1907)
- 1992 - Albert King, American musician (born 1924)
- 1992 - Nathan Milstein, Ukrainian violinist (born 1903)
- 2001 - Dick Schaap, American sports journalist (born 1931)
- 2004 - Autar Singh Paintal, Indian medical scientist (born 1925)
[edit] 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.
- 1987 - The passenger ferry Doña Paz sinks after colliding with the oil tanker Vector 1.
- 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.
