Inline videos. See also:Category: Articles with embedded Videos..

December 21

From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.

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

Template:DecemberCalendar2008

Contents

1 Events

2 Births

3 Deaths

4 Holidays and observances

5 External links

[edit]

Events

69 - Vespasian becomes the fourth Roman Emperor in the Year of the four emperors.
1780 - Great Britain declares war on The Netherlands in response for 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 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.
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 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.
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 Mayan calendar comes to an end... Experts disagree on whether this happens today or December 23, 2012.

[edit]

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)
1850 - Zdenek 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)
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
1966 - Kiefer Sutherland, actor
1967 - Mikhail Saakashvili, President of the Republic of Georgia
1969 - Julie Delpy, actress
1973 - Karmen Stavec, Slovenian singer
1974 - Karrie Webb, golfer
1984 - Darren Potter, Irish footballer

[edit]

Deaths

1295 - Marguerite Berenger of Provence, queen of Louis IX of France
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)

[edit]

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.

[edit]