| History By Day |
| December 21st |
| History by Day - Copyright 2009-2011 |
| About December 21st 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 calendar year. The winter solstice, known as Yule, takes place on or near December 21st in the Northern Hemisphere. The summer solstice takes place on or near December 21st in the Southern Hemisphere. Births 1908 - Herbert Hutner, chairman Presidential Advisory Committee on the Arts 1911 - Josh Gibson, Hall of Fame baseball catcher 1926 - Joe Paterno, Penn State football coach 1935 - Phil Donahue, media personality, writer (The Phil Donahue Show) 1937 - Jane Fonda, actress, political activist 1940 - Frank Zappa, guitarist, singer, film director 1943 - Jack Nance, stage and screen actor (Eraserhead, Twin Peaks) 1948 - Samuel L. Jackson, actor (Pulp Fiction) 1957 - Ray Romano, comedian, actor (Everybody Loves Raymond) 1959 - Florence Griffith-Joyner, Olympic gold-medalist 1965 - Andy Dick, comedian, actor (NewsRadio) 1966 - Kiefer Sutherland, actor (24) Deaths 1824 - James Parkinson, discovered Parkinson's disease 1945 - George S. Patton, WWII United States Army general 1992 - Stella Adler, actress, acting teacher (founded Stella Adler Conservatory) 2001 - Dick Schaap, sports journalist, broadcaster Events 1861 - The United States Congress establishes the Medal of Honor, the highest U.S. military decoration. 1913 - Arthur Wynne publishes the world's first crossword puzzle in the New York World. 1937 - Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarves premiers in Los Angeles as one of the first feature-length animated movies. 1968 - Apollo 8, the first manned mission to orbit the moon, is launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. 1988 - A bomb explodes on board Pan Am flight 103, en route to New York City, over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270. |
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