December 21

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Template:Linked-title is the 355th day of the year (356th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 10 days remaining. It is the most common day for autumn to end in the Northern Hemisphere and for spring to end in the Southern Hemisphere.

Events

• 69 - Year of the four emperors: Following Galba, Otho and Vitellius, Vespasian becomes the fourth Emperor of Rome within a year.
• 1620 - Plymouth Colony: William Bradford and the Mayflower Pilgrims land on what is now known as Plymouth Rock in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
• 1861 - Medal of Honor: Public Resolution 82, containing a provision for a Navy Medal of Valor, is signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln.
• 1872 - Challenger expedition: HMS Challenger, commanded by Captain George Nares, sails from Portsmouth.
• 1912 - The movie Das Mirakel premiered in Germany.
• 1913 - Arthur Wynne's "word-cross", the first crossword puzzle, is published in the New York World.
• 1917 - Meiji Dairies, a Japanese dairy industry company, is founded.
• 1936 - First flight of the Junkers JU-88 bomber prototype.
• 1937 - The film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is premiered at the Carthay Circle Theater in Los Angeles.
• 1958 - French presidential election, 1958: Charles de Gaulle is elected President of France as his Union des Démocrates pour la République party gain 78.5% of the vote.
• 1962 - Rondane National Park is established as Norway's first national park.
• 1967 - Louis Washkansky, the first man to undergo a heart transplant, dies in Cape Town, South Africa, after living for 18 days.
• 1968 - Project Apollo: Apollo 8, crewed by Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and William Anders, is launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.First mission to go to the moon.
• 1970 - Elvis Presley meets with President Richard Nixon to discuss the war on drugs.
• 1971 - The United Nations Security Council chooses Kurt Waldheim to succeed U Thant as Secretary-General.
• 1973 - The Geneva Conference on the Arab-Israeli conflict opens.
• 1979 - Lancaster House Agreement: An independence agreement for Rhodesia is signed in London by Lord Carrington, Sir Ian Gilmour, Robert Mugabe, Joshua Nkomo, Bishop Abel Muzorewa and Dr S C Mundawarara.
• 1987 - The passenger ferry Doña Paz sinks after colliding with the oil tanker Vector 1 in the Tablas Strait in the Philippines, killing 1,565.
• 1988 - A bomb explodes on board Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, killing 270.
• 1992 - A Dutch DC-10, flight Martinair MP 495, crashes at Faro Airport (Portugal), killing 56 people.
• 1995 - The city of Bethlehem passes from Israeli toPalestinian control.
• 1999 - The Spanish Civil Guard intercepts a van loaded with 950 kg of explosives that ETA intended to use to blow up Torre Picasso in Madrid.
• 2004 - 22 people, including 14 US Army servicemen, are killed in a suicide bombing in Mosul, Iraq.
• 2006 - Australian spin bowler Shane Warne announces his retirement from International and Domestic Cricket at a press conference at the MCG. This comes ten days after fellow team mate Damien Martyn announced his own retirement.
• 2012 - The Long Count of the Maya calendar recycles according to the most popular correlation. A minority argues 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 - Petro Mohyla, Moldovan Orthodox Metropolitan Bishop of Kiev and Galicia (d. 1646)
• 1603 - Roger Williams, English theologian and colonist (d. 1684)
• 1714 - John Bradstreet, Canadian-born soldier (d. 1774)
• 1804 - Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1881)
• 1805 - Thomas Graham, British chemist (d. 1869)
• 1811 - Archibald Campbell Tait, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1882)
• 1815 - Thomas Couture French painter and teacher (d. 1879)
• 1843 - Thomas Bracken, Irish-born New Zealander poet (d. 1898)
• 1850 - Zdeněk Fibich, Bohemian composer (d. 1900)
• 1851 - Thomas Chipman McRae, American politician, 34th Governor of Arkansas (d. 1929)
• 1859 - Gustave Kahn, French poet (d. 1936)
• 1872 - Sidney Ainsworth, British actor (d. 1922)
• 1872 - Don Lorenzo Perosi, Italian composer (d. 1956)
• 1872 - Albert Payson Terhune, American author (d. 1942)
• 1873 - Blagoje Bersa, Croatian composer (d. 1934)
• 1876 - Jack Lang (John Thomas Lang), Premier of New South Wales (d. 1975)
• 1878 - Jan Łukasiewicz, Polish philosopher and mathematician (d. 1956)
• 1879 - Josef Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union (d. 1953)
• 1885 - Frank Patrick, hockey player (d. 1960)
• 1889 - Sewall Wright, American biologist (d. 1988)
• 1890 - Hermann Joseph Muller, American geneticist and Nobel laureate (d. 1967)
• 1891 - John William McCormack, American politician (d. 1980)
• 1892 - Walter Hagen, American golfer (d. 1969)
• 1892 - Rebecca West, American writer (d. 1983)
• 1896 - Leroy Robertson, American composer (d. 1971)
• 1905 - Anthony Powell, British author (d. 2000)
• 1911 - Josh Gibson, American baseball player (d. 1947)
• 1914 - Ivan Generalić, Austro-Hungarian-born Croatian painter (d. 1992)
• 1917 - Heinrich Böll, German writer and Nobel laureate (d. 1985)
• 1918 - Donald Regan, American White House Chief of Staff (d. 2003)
• 1918 - Kurt Waldheim, Austrian United Nations Secretary-General and Federal President of Austria
• 1920 - Jean Gascon, Canadian actor (d. 1988)
• 1921 - Vampira (Maila Nurmi), Finnish-born actress
• 1921 - Alicia Alonso, Cuban ballerina
• 1922 - Paul Winchell, American ventriloquist (d. 2005)
• 1926 - Joe Paterno, American Football coach
• 1935 - John G. Avildsen, American film director
• 1935 - Yusuf Bey (Joseph Stephens), American activist (d. 2003)
• 1935 - Phil Donahue, American talk show host
• 1935 - Edward Schreyer, Canadian politician, Premier of Manitoba
• 1937 - Jane Fonda, American actress
• 1939 - Lloyd Axworthy, Canadian politician
• 1940 - Frank Zappa, American musician(d. 1993)
• 1940 - Ray Hildebrand, American singer (Paul & Paula)
• 1942 - Hu Jintao, Chinese president
• 1942 - Reinhard Mey, German singer
• 1942 - Carla Thomas, American singer
• 1943 - André Arthur. Quebec radio host
• 1944 - Michael Tilson Thomas, American conductor
• 1944 - Bill Atkinson, English footballer
• 1946 - Carl Wilson, American musician (The Beach Boys) (d. 1998)
• 1947 - Paco de Lucía, Spanish musician
• 1947 - Bryan Hamilton, Northern Irish footballer
• 1948 - Samuel L. Jackson, American actor
• 1948 - Willi Resetarits, Austrian musician
• 1948 - Dave Kingman, baseball player
• 1950 - Jeffrey Katzenberg, American producer
• 1952 - Joaquín Andújar, Baseball player
• 1953 - Betty Wright, American singer
• 1954 - Chris Evert, American tennis player
• 1955 - Jane Kaczmarek, American actress
• 1955 - Kazuyuki Sekiguchi, Japanese musician
• 1956 - Lee Roy Parnell, American country singer
• 1957 - Tom Henke, American baseball player
• 1957 - Ray Romano, American comedian
• 1959 - Florence Griffith Joyner, American sprinter (d. 1998)
• 1960 - Louis Demetrius Alvanis, London-based pianist
• 1960 - Andy Van Slyke, baseball player
• 1961 - Francis Ng, Hong Kong actor
• 1964 - Rob Kelly, English football manager
• 1964 - Fabiana Udenio, Argentine actress
• 1965 - Andy Dick, American actor and comedian
• 1965 - Anke Engelke, German comedienne
• 1966 - Kiefer Sutherland, British-born Canadian actor
• 1966 - Karri Turner, American actress
• 1967 - Mikhail Saakashvili, Soviet-born President of Georgia
• 1969 - Julie Delpy, French actress
• 1969 - Mihails Zemļinskis, Latvian footballer
• 1971 - Mathieu Chedid, French musician
• 1971 - Brett Scallions, American singer (Fuel, The X's)
• 1972 - Latroy Hawkins, baseball player
• 1972 - Dustin Hermanson, baseball player
• 1973 - Karmen Stavec, German-born Slovenian singer
• 1973 - Mike Alstott, American football player
• 1974 - Karrie Webb, Australian golfer
• 1975 - Paloma Herrera, Argentine ballet dancer
• 1977 - Jim Carson, American music producer
• 1978 - Mike Vitar, American actor
• 1981 - Cristian Zaccardo, Italian football player
• 1981 - Lynda Thomas, Mexican singer
• 1982 - Mike Gansey, American basketball player
• 1984 - Darren Potter, Irish footballer
• 1985 - Yanagi Kotarou, Japanese actor

Deaths

• 1295 - Marguerite Berenger of Provence, wife of Louis IX of France (bc. 1221)
• 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, wife of Henry II of Navarre (b. 1492)
• 1579 - Vicente Masip, Spanish painter
• 1597 - Petrus Canisius, Dutch Jesuit (b. 1521)
• 1807 - John Newton, English cleric and hymnist (b. 1725)
• 1824 - James Parkinson, English physician, geologist, paleontologist, and political activist (b. 1755)
• 1873 - Francis Garnier, French explorer (b. 1839)
• 1889 - Friedrich August von Quenstedt, German geologist (b. 1809)
• 1900 - Roger Wolcott, American political figure, 39th Governor of Massachusetts (b. 1847)
• 1933 - Knud Johan Victor Rasmussen, Greenlandic polar explorer and anthropologist (b. 1879)
• 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)
• 1957 - Eric Coates, English composer (b. 1886)
• 1958 - Lion Feuchtwanger, German writer (b. 1884)
• 1959 - Rosanjin, Japanese calligrapher, restaurateur and ceramicist (b. 1883)
• 1964 - Carl Van Vechten, American writer and photographer (b. 1880)
• 1965 - Claude Champagne, Quebec composer (b. 1891)
• 1967 - Stuart Erwin, American actor (b. 1903)
• 1974 - James Henry Govier, British artist (b. 1910)
• 1974 - Richard Long, American actor (b. 1927)
• 1981 - Allan Dwan, Canadian-born American director and screenwriter (b. 1885)
• 1983 - Paul de Man, Belgian-born literary critic (b. 1919)
• 1988 - Nikolaas Tinbergen, Dutch ornithologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1907)
• 1992 - Albert King, American musician (b. 1924)
• 1992 - Nathan Milstein, Ukrainian violinist (b. 1903)
• 2001 - Dick Schaap, American sports journalist (b. 1931)
• 2003 - Prince Alfonso of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, Spanish playboy and businessman (b. 1924)
• 2004 - Autar Singh Paintal, Indian medical scientist (b. 1925)
• 2005 - Elrod Hendricks, American baseball player and coach (b. 1940)
• 2006 - Scobie Breasley, Australian jockey (b. 1914)
• 2006 - Saparmurat Niyazov, President of Turkmenistan (b. 1940)

Holidays and observances

• Roman festivals - Divalia in honour of Angerona
• R.C. Saints - O Oriens, Saint Petrus Canisius; formerly feast day of Thomas the apostle
• The December solstice, sometimes known as Yule, occurs on or very close to this date. In the Northern Hemisphere, it marks the first official day of Winter. It is also an important festival in the Chinese calendar.
• Yalda, originally a religious holiday for Zoroastrians, is now a social holiday in Iran.

External links

• BBC: On This Day
• The New York Times: On This Day
• On This Day in Canada

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