December 21
1620
The Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, Massachusetts.
1891
The first basketball game, invented at Springfield College in Massachusetts by James E. Naismith, was played.
1898
Pierre and Marie Curie discovered radium.
1913
The first crossword puzzle was printed in the New York World.
1937
Disney’s Snow White, the first feature length color and sound cartoon, premiered.
1970
Elvis Presley met with president Richard Nixon in the White House.
1988
A terrorist bomb exploded aboard a Pan Am Boeing 747 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people.
1991
Eleven of the former Soviet republics form the Commonwealth of Independent States.
1995
Palestinians took over the control of the city of Bethlehem.
Birthdays
Joseph Stalin
1879–1953, Soviet Communist Leader.
Benjamin Disraeli
statesman (1804)
Henrietta Szold
Zionist leader (1860)
Dame Rebecca West
novelist and critic (1892)
Josh Gibson
baseball player (1911)
Jane Fonda
actress (1937)
Frank Zappa
rock musician , composer, and pianist (1940)
Michael Tilson Thomas
conductor, composer, and pianist (1944)
Samuel L. Jackson
actor (1948)
Chris Evert
tennis player (1954)
Ray Romano
comedian, actor (1957)
Florence Griffith-Joyner
sprinter (1959)
Kiefer Sutherland
actor (1966)
Julie Delpy
actor (1969)
Jackie Stiles
basketball player (1978)