December 21
From Wikipedia, 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 until the end of the year.
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Births [change]
- 1118 – Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1170)
- 1401 - Tommaso Masaccio, Italian painter (d. 1428)
- 1596 - Peter Mogila, Moldovan religious figure (d. 1646)
- 1603 - Roger Williams, English theologian (d. 1684)
- 1728 - Hermann Raupach, German composer (d. 1778)
- 1795 - John Russell, English dog breeder (d. 1883)
- 1795 – Leopold von Ranke, German historian (d. 1886)
- 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)
- 1818 – Amalia of Oldenburg, Queen of Greece (d. 1875)
- 1823 - Jean-Henri Fabre, French entomologist, writer and poet (d. 1915)
- 1840 – Namik Kemal, Turkish nationalist poet (d. 1888)
- 1850 – Zdenek Fibich, Bohemian composer (d. 1900)
- 1872 – Don Lorenzo Perosi, Italian composer (d. 1956)
- 1872 - Sidney Ainsworth, British actor (d. 1922)
- 1878 - Jan Lukasiewicz, Polish philosopher and mathematician (d. 1956)
- 1879 – Joseph Stalin, Soviet leader (d. 1953)
- 1890 – H.J. Muller, American geneticist (d. 1967)
- 1892 – Walter Hagen, American golfer (d. 1969)
- 1892 – Rebecca West, British writer (d. 1983)
- 1896 – Leroy Robertson, American composer (d. 1971)
- 1902 – Ulrich Wilhelm Graf Schwerin von Schwanenfeld, German Resistance activist (d. 1944)
- 1905 – Anthony Powell, British author (d. 2000)
- 1909 – Seicho Matsumoto, Japanese writer and journalist (d. 1992)
- 1914 – Frank Fenner, Australian scientist (d. 2010)
- 1915 – Werner von Trapp, Austrian singer (d. 2007)
- 1917 – Heinrich Boell, German writer (d. 1982)
- 1918 – Kurt Waldheim, Austrian politician (d. 2007)
- 1920 - Alicia Alonso, Cuban ballerina
- 1926 - Arnost Lustig, Czech writer (d. 2011)
- 1926 – Joe Paterno, American football coach (d. 2012)
- 1930 – Kalevi Sorsa, Prime Minister of Finland (d. 2004)
- 1935 – Edward Schreyer, Canadian politician
- 1935 – Lorenzo Bandini, Italian racing driver (d. 1967)
- 1937 – Jane Fonda, American actress
- 1940 – Frank Zappa, American musician (d. 1993)
- 1942 – Hu Jintao, Chinese politician
- 1942 – Reinhard Mey, German singer-songwriter
- 1942 - Crispin Wright, British philosopher
- 1942 - Carla Thomas, American singer
- 1943 - Albert Lee, English guitarist
- 1944 - Bill Atkinson, English footballer
- 1945 - Doug Walters, English cricketer
- 1946 – Carl Wilson, American musician (The Beach Boys) (d. 1998)
- 1948 – Samuel L. Jackson, American actor
- 1949 – Thomas Sankara, President of Burkina Faso (d. 1987)
- 1950 – Jeffrey Katzenberg, American movie producer
- 1953 - Betty Wright, American soul singer
- 1954 – Chris Evert, American tennis player
- 1955 – Jane Kaczmarek, American actress
- 1957 – Ray Romano, Italian-American comedian
- 1959 – Florence Griffith-Joyner, American athlete (d. 1998)
- 1961 – Ryuji Sasai, Japanese video game designer
- 1965 – Cem Oezdemir, German politician
- 1965 – Anke Engelke, German comedienne
- 1966 – Kiefer Sutherland, Canadian actor
- 1967 – Mikheil Saakashvili, President of Georgia
- 1970 - Jamie Theakston, English television presenter
- 1972 - Claudia Poll, Costa Rican swimmer
- 1976 – Lukas Rossi, Canadian rock singer
- 1978 - Alexander Wolf, German biathlete
- 1980 – Stefan Liv, Polish-born Swedish ice hockey player (d. 2011)
- 1981 – Cristian Zaccardo, Italian footballer
- 1982 – Mike Gansey, American basketball player
- 1982 – Iljo Keisse, Belgian cyclist
- 1984 – Darren Potter, Irish footballer
- 1985 – Tom Sturridge, British actor
- 1987 – Brad Howard, Australian footballer
- 1988 - Alexa Goddard, British singer
- 1988 - Yasmin, British singer
Deaths [change]
- 72 – Thomas the Apostle
- 1295 – Marguerite Berenger of Provence, queen of Louis IX of France (b. 1221)
- 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 (b. 1500)
- 1597 – Petrus Canisius, Dutch Jesuit (born 1521)
- 1807 – John Newton, English cleric and hymnist (born 1725)
- 1873 – Francis Garnier, French explorer (born 1839)
- 1920 – Mohammed Abdullah Hassan, Somalian nationalist leader (b. 1856)
- 1933 – Knud Rasmussen, Greenlandic explorer and anthropologist (b. 1879)
- 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, American general (born 1885)
- 1957 – Eric Coates, English composer (born 1886)
- 1958 – Lion Feuchtwanger, German writer (born 1884)
- 1964 – Carl Van Vechten, American writer and photographer (b. 1880)
- 1967 - Louis Washkansky, heart transplant patient (b. 1913)
- 1968 – Vittorio Pozzo, Italian FIFA World Cup-winning football manager (b. 1886)
- 1982 - Hafeez Jullundhri, Pakistani writer, poet and composer (b. 1900)
- 1987 - John Spence, American musician (b. 1969)
- 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)
- 2006 – Saparmurat Niyazov, President of Turkmenistan (b. 1940)
- 2009 – Edwin G. Krebs, American biochemist (b. 1918)
- 2010 – Enzo Bearzot, Italian footballer and FIFA World Cup-winning manager (b. 1927)
Events [change]
- 69 – Vespasian becomes the fourth Roman Emperor in the Year of the four emperors.
- 1471 – The first European reaches the island of Sao Tome in the Gulf of Guinea.
- 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.
- 1859 – Sam Houston becomes Governor of Texas.
- 1861 – The Medal of Honor is 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 – The first basketball game is played.
- 1898 – Marie and Pierre Curie discover radium.
- 1910 - An underground explosion at Hulton Bank Colliery in Westhoughton, England, kills 344 miners.
- 1913 – First crossword puzzle is published in the New York World paper, created by Arthur Wynne.
- 1914 – First feature-length silent movie 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.
- 1934 - President of Bolivia Daniel Salamanca is overthrown in a military coup.
- 1937 – First screening of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first feature-length animated movie.
- 1941 - A treaty of alliance is signed by Japan and Thailand.
- 1946 - The Nankaido earthquake in Japan kills over 1,300 people.
- 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.
- 1967 - Louis Washkansky, who received the first successful heart transplant in Cape Town on December 3, dies 18 days after the operation.
- 1968 – Apollo 8 is 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.
- 1984 - The Soviet Vega 2 probe is launched to the planet Venus.
- 1987 – The passenger ferry Doña Paz sinks after colliding with the oil tanker Vector 1 in the Philippines.
- 1988 – A terrorist bomb explodes and crashes Pan Am flight 103 a Boeing 747, over Lockerbie, Scotland killing 270, including 11 on the ground.
- 1994 – The Popocatepetl volcano in Mexico erupts.
- 1995 – Bethlehem goes from Israeli to Palestinian control.
- 1999 – Chadrika Kumaratunga is confirmed as Sri Lanka's Head of State.
- 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.
- 2006 – Turkmenistan's President Saparmurat Niyazov dies.
- 2007 – Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Hungary implement the Schengen Agreement.
- 2010 – A partial lunar eclipse occurs on the day of the December solstice.
- 2012 – The Long Count of the Mayan Calendar resets itself according to the most popular correlation. A minority argues that it does so on December 23, 2012. This has been central to various predictions about December 21, 2012, ranging from spiritual and transformative to apocalyptic.
Observances [change]
- Winter solstice (Northern Hemisphere), can also occur on December 22
- Summer solstice (Southern Hemisphere), can also occur on December 22
