21 December History
- 68 - Vespian, a gruff-spoken general of humble origins, enters Rome and is named emperor by the Senate.
- 1620 - The Pilgrims land at Plymouth Rock.
- 1708 - French forces seize control of the eastern shore of Newfoundland after winning a victory at St. John's.
- 1790 - Samuel Slater opens the first cotton mill in the United States (in Rhode Island).
- 1862 - The U.S. Congress authorizes the Medal of Honor to be awarded to Navy personnel who have distinguished themselves by their gallantry in action.
- 1866 - Indians, led by Red Cloud and Crazy Horse, kill Captain William J. Fetterman and 79 other men who had ventured out from Fort Phil Kearny to cut wood.
- 1910 - Over 2.5 million plague victims are reported in the An-Hul province of China.
- 1928 - President Calvin Coolidge signs the Boulder Dam bill.
- 1944 - German troops surround the 101st Airborne Division at Bastogne in Belgium.
- 1945 - General George S. Patton dies at the age of 60 after being injured in a car accident.
- 1946 - An earthquake and tidal wave kill hundreds in Japan.
- 1963 - The Turk minority riots in Cyprus to protest anti-Turkish revisions in the constitution.
- 1964 - Great Britain's House of Commons votes to ban the death penalty.
- 1965 - Four pacifists are indicted in New York for burning draft cards.
- 1969 - American draft evaders gather for a holiday dinner in Montreal, Canada.
- 1986 - 500,000 Chinese students gather in Shanghai's People's Square calling for democratic reforms, including freedom of the press.
- 1988 - Pan Am Flight 103 from London to New York explodes in midair over Lockerbie, Scotland, an hour after departure. All 259 passengers were killed in the explosion caused by a bomb– hidden inside an audio cassette player — that detonated inside the cargo area when the plane was at an altitude of 31,000 feet. A shower of airplane parts falling from the sky also killed 11 Lockerbie residents.
21 December Birthdays
- 1804 - Benjamin Disraeli, Prime Minister of Great Britain.
- 1879 - Joseph Stalin, Communist leader of the Soviet Union.
- 1911 - Josh Gibson, baseball player for the Negro Leagues, Home-Run King.
- 1918 - Kurt Waldheim, controversial fourth Secretary General of the United Nations.
- 1937 - Jane Fonda, actress, political activist, exercise guru; films include Klute and Coming Home.
- 1940 - Frank Zappa, bandleader, composer, guitarist, satirist, filmmaker and advocate of creative freedom.
- 1959 - Florence Griffith Joyner, track star, Olympic medalist. Died unexpectedly of heart failure at age thirty-eight on September 21, 1998.