Lockerbie Bombing

Pan Am Flight 103 explodes over Scotland

Born on This Day

2024 TCM Classic Film Festival - Opening Night Gala And 30th Anniversary Screening of Pulp Fiction

Samuel L. Jackson

1948 -

Actor known for his iconic roles in films like "Pulp Fiction," "The Avengers" and "Django Unchained."

Toyota At The 33rd Annual Environmental Media Association Awards Gala

Jane Fonda

1937 -

Actress, activist and fitness guru known for her roles in films like "Klute," "Barbarella" and "9 to 5."

Rock at the Oval 1972

Frank Zappa

1940 - 1993

American musician, composer and bandleader known for his eclectic style, satirical lyrics and nonconformity when it came to sound and genre.

Samuel L. JacksonGetty Images for TCM

Jane FondaGetty Images for Toyota

Frank ZappaGetty Images

1913

DEC21

The first modern crossword puzzle is published in the "New York World," part of a set of what the paper called "mental exercises." Clues included: "sunk in mud," "the fibre of the gomuti palm" and "such and nothing more."

Timeline

Also on This Day in History

Discover more of the major events, famous births, notable deaths and everything else history-making that happened on December 21st

Native warriors ambush 81 U.S. soldiers in Fetterman Massacre

Determined to challenge the growing American military presence in their territory, Native Americans in northern Wyoming lure Lieutenant Colonel William Fetterman and his soldiers into a deadly ambush on December 21, 1866. With 81 fatalities, the Fetterman Massacre was the army’s worst defeat in the West until the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876. Tensions […]

2:28m read read

First basketball game played

On December 21, 1891, 30-year-old James Naismith introduces the first game of basketball. Based on 13 rules created by Naismith, the game is tested by 18 students at the International Young Men’s Christian Association Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts. Two teams of nine players each compete against each other, with the objective to throw a soccer […]

1:34m read read

General George S. Patton dies

General George S. Patton, commander of the U.S. 3rd Army, dies from injuries suffered not in battle but in a freak car accident. He was 60 years old. Descended from a long line of military men, Patton graduated from the West Point Military Academy in 1909. He represented the United States in the 1912 Olympics-as […]

2:04m read read

A sensationalized murder trial inspires “The Fugitive”

On December 21, 1954, Dr. Sam Sheppard is convicted for beating his wife, Marilyn, to death inside their suburban home in Cleveland, Ohio five months earlier. Sheppard claimed to have fallen asleep in the family’s living room and awakened to find a man with bushy hair fleeing the scene. The authorities, who uncovered the fact […]

1:36m read read

Charles de Gaulle elected president of France

Three months after a new French constitution was approved, Charles de Gaulle is elected the first president of the Fifth Republic by a sweeping majority of French voters. The previous June, France’s World War II hero was called out of retirement to lead the country when a military and civilian revolt in Algeria threatened France’s […]

1:48m read read

“The Graduate” opens in New York

The film The Graduate opens at two theaters in New York: the Coronet on Third Avenue and the Lincoln Art Theater on Broadway. The film, based on a 1963 novel by Charles Webb, had a simple premise: As its screenwriter explained it, “this kid graduates college, has an affair with his parents’ best friend and then falls […]

1:34m read read

Apollo 8 departs for lunar orbit

Apollo 8, the first manned mission to the moon, is successfully launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, with astronauts Frank Borman, James Lovell, Jr. and William Anders aboard. On Christmas Eve, the astronauts entered into orbit around the moon, the first manned spacecraft ever to do so. During Apollo 8‘s 10 lunar orbits, television images were […]

0:58m read read

President Nixon meets Elvis Presley

On December 21, 1970, rock star Elvis Presley is greeted at the White House by President Richard M. Nixon. Presley’s visit was not just a social call: He wanted to meet Nixon in order to offer his services in the government’s war on drugs. Three weeks earlier, Presley, who wanted to distance himself from rock-and-roll’s […]

2:40m read read

Socialite Sunny von Bulow is found comatose

Wealthy socialite Martha “Sunny” Crawford von Bulow is found in a coma—the result of what appeared to be an insulin overdose—on the marble bathroom floor of her Newport, Rhode Island, mansion. Following a long investigation, Sunny’s husband, Claus von Bulow, was charged with two counts of attempted murder and was convicted in a sensational trial […]

2:06m read read

“Curious George” co-creator Margret Rey dies

On December 21, 1996, Margret Rey, who with her husband Hans created the popular Curious George children’s books about a mischievous monkey, dies at age 90 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Reys, both German Jews, escaped wartime Europe in 1940 and fled to America. The following year, the first Curious George book was published in the […]

2:28m read read

Curious George book cover

“Gangnam Style” becomes the first YouTube video to reach one billion views

On December 21, 2012, the music video for “Gangnam Style,” a song by the Korean rapper Psy, becomes the first YouTube video to garner one billion views. The video’s global popularity is a case study in the power and unpredictability of viral internet content. Psy had been well-known in Korea for a decade, earning awards […]

1:52m read read

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