| On this date in: |
| 1620 |
Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower went ashore for the first time at present-day Plymouth, Mass. |
| 1879 |
Soviet dictator Josef Stalin was born Josef Dzhugashvili in Gori, Georgia. |
| 1898 |
Scientists Pierre and Marie Curie discovered the radioactive element radium. |
| 1913 |
The first crossword puzzle was published, in the New York World. |
| 1937 |
The Disney animated feature film “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” had its world premiere in Los Angeles. |
| 1948 |
Ireland became an independent republic. |
| 1958 |
Charles de Gaulle was elected the first president of France’s Fifth Republic. |
| 1968 |
Apollo 8 was launched on a mission to orbit the moon. |
| 1970 |
Elvis Presley met with President Richard M. Nixon in the Oval Office to discuss fighting drugs. |
 |
| AP Photo/White House |
|
| 1971 |
The U.N. Security Council chose Kurt Waldheim to succeed U Thant as secretary-general. |
| 1978 |
Police in Des Plaines, Ill., arrested John W. Gacy Jr. and began unearthing the remains of 33 men and boys he was later convicted of murdering. |
| 1991 |
Eleven of the 12 former Soviet republics proclaimed the birth of the Commonwealth of Independent States. |
| 1995 |
The city of Bethlehem passed from Israeli to Palestinian control. |
| 1996 |
After two years of denials, House Speaker Newt Gingrich admitted violating House ethics rules. |
