December 21 holidays in 2021

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.