Events 1620 - The Pilgrims land at Plymouth Rock 1719 - The first U.S. newspaper (the Boston Gazette) is published 1861 - The Congressional Medal of Honor first authorized 1861 - Lord Lyons, the British minister to the United States, meets with United States Secretary of State William Seward concerning Confederate envoys James Mason and John Slidell, arrested by the United States Navy aboard the British mail steamer Trent in order to prevent war between the United States and the United Kingdom. 1872 - HMS Challenger sails from Portsmouth on the 4 year scientific expedition that would lay the foundation for the science of oceanography 1880 - Isle of Man becomes first political entity that allows women to vote 1891 - First basketball game played 1898 - Marie and Pierre Curie discover radium 1913 - First crossword puzzle published 1914 - First feature-length silent film comedy, Tillie's Punctured Romance, starring Marie Dressler, Mabel Normand and Charles Chaplin, is released 1923 - Nepal changes from British protectorate to independent state 1933 - Newfoundland becomes a crown colony 1935 - First screening of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves 1958 - Charles de Gaulle is elected as the first President of the Fifth Republic 1968 - Apollo 8 launched 1979 - The United States government bails out the Chrysler Corporation 1988 - A terrorist bomb explodes and crashes Pan Am flight 103 a Boeing 747, over Lockerbie, Scotland killing 270, including 11 on the ground 2012 - The Mayan calendar comes to an end... maybe. Experts disagree on whether this happens today or December 23, 2012. Births 1118 - Thomas Becket, lord chancellor and archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1170) 1804 - Benjamin Disraeli, British politician, writer (d. 1881) 1815 - Thomas Couture French painter and teacher (d. 1879) 1879 - Joseph Stalin, Soviet leader (d. 1953) 1878 - Jan Łukasiewicz, philosopher, mathematician 1889 - Sewall Wright, biologist 1892 - Walter Hagen, golf champion (d. 1969) 1892 - Rebecca West, writer (d. 1983) 1908 - Pat Weaver, television pioneer (d. 2002) 1917 - Heinrich Böll, author, Nobel laureate 1972 (d. 1985) 1918 - Donald Regan, Chief of Staff and U.S. Treasury Secretary (d. 2003) 1918 - Kurt Waldheim, United Nations Secretary-General 1921 - Vampira, actress 1922 - Paul Winchell, ventriloquist 1926 - Joe Paterno, American football coach 1935 - Jane Fonda, actress, activist, exercise guru 1935 - Phil Donahue, talk show host 1935 - John G. Avildsen, director, editor 1940 - Frank Zappa, musician (d. 1993) 1942 - Reinhard Mey, singer 1946 - Carl Wilson, musician (The Beach Boys) 1948 - Samuel L. Jackson, actor 1950 - Jeffrey Katzenberg, producer 1954 - Chris Evert, tennis player 1957 - Ray Romano, comedian, actor 1959 - Florence Griffith Joyner, track and field champion (d. 1998) 1961 - Francis Ng, actor 1965 - Andy Dick, actor, comedian 1966 - Kiefer Sutherland, actor 1967 - Mikhail Saakashvili, Georgian politician, President of the Republic of Georgia since January 4, 2004. 1969 - Julie Delpy, actress 1974 - Karrie Webb, golf champion Deaths 1375 - Giovanni Boccaccio, writer 1807 - John Newton cleric, songwriter (Amazing Grace) 1940 - F. Scott Fitzgerald, writer 1945 - George S. Patton, U.S. general 1935 - Kurt Tucholsky, German journalist and satirist 1958 - Lion Feuchtwanger, writer 2001 - Dick Schaap, sports journalist 2002 - Giò Pomodoro, Italian sculptor Holidays and observances The winter solstice, sometimes known as Yule, occurs on or very close to this date. It is an important festival in the Chinese calendar. See Also: December 20 - December 22 - November 21 - January 21 -- listing of all days January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December\n
December 20 - December 22 - November 21 - January 21 -- listing of all days
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December\n