Historical Events on December 21

  • 1861: United States’ President Abraham Lincoln signs Public Resolution 82. Among other things, one of its provisions call for a Navy Medal of Valor be created.
  • 1872: Captain George Nares commands the HMS Challenger as it leaves from Portsmouth, England on its scientific expedition.
  • 1879: “A Doll House” by Henrik Ibsen premiers at the Royal Theater in Copenhagen, Denmark.
  • 1907: Over 2,000 striking miners in Iquique, Chile are massacred by the Chilean Army.
  • 1913: The first crossword puzzle is published in the New York World.
  • 1946: Over thirteen hundred people are killed and over thirty-eight thousand homes destroyed, when a 8.1 Mw earthquake and then tsunami, hits Nankaido, Japan.
  • 1962: Norway gets its first National Park on this day – the Rondane National Park.
  • 1968: The Apollo 8 moon mission is launched from Kennedy Space Center.
  • 1998: 270 people are killed when a bomb explodes on Pan Am Flight 103.

Famous Birthdays on December 21

  • Japanese samurai, Minamoto no Yorinobu is born in 968.
  • Catholic cardinal Luigi d’Este is born in 1538.
  • Colonial governor of Rhode Island, Benedict Arnold is born in 1615.
  • American computer programmer, Adele Goldstine is born in 1920.
  • American actor and ventriloquist, Paul Winchell is born in 1922.
  • American author Edward Hoagland is born in 1932.
  • American TV host and producer, Phil Donahue is born in 1935.
  • American actress Jane Fonda is born in 1937.
  • American director and screenwriter, Roy Karch is born in 1946.
  • American actor Barry Gordon is born in 1948.
  • American actor Samuel L. Jackson is born in 1948.
  • American actress Jane Kaczmarek is born in 1955.
  • American comedian and screenwriter, Andy Dick is born in 1965.
  • Canadian actor and director, Kiefer Sutherland is born in 1966.
  • President of France, Emmanuel Macron is born in 1977.
  • English actor Tom Payne is born in 1982.
  • English actor Tom Sturridge is born in 1985.
  • American football player Mark Ingram, Jr. is born in 1989.