On This Day:
Friday December 21, 2012
This is the 356th day of the year, with 10 days
remaining in 2012.
Fact of the Day: Snow White
In 1937, Walt Disney premiered the animated
cartoon feature film Snow White and the Seven
Dwarfs. Even though it was based on the Grimm
brothers' tale, Disney himself named the
individual dwarfs Doc, Happy, Grumpy, Sneezy,
Sleepy, Bashful, and Dopey. Other names and
caricatures, such as Wheezy, Puffy, Baldy, Jumpy,
Gabby, Nifty, Stumpy, Stuffy, and Biggo-Ego were
considered but discarded.
Holidays
Feast day of St. Thomas the Apostle, Saints
Themistocles and Dioscorus, St. John Vincent, St.
Anastasius II of Antioch, St. Peter Canisius, and
St. Glycerius.
United
States, New
England: Forefathers' Day.
Events
68
- Vespian,
a general, entered Rome
and was named emperor by the Senate.
1620
- The Pilgrims
of the Mayflower
went ashore for the first time at present-day Plymouth,
Massachusetts.
1913
- The first crossword
puzzle, compiled by Arthur Wynne, was
published, appearing in the "New
York World."
1923
- Nepal
gained independence from Great
Britain.
1928
- President Calvin
Coolidge signed the Boulder
Canyon Project Act, which intended to dam
the fourteen hundred mile Colorado
River and distribute its water for use in Arizona,
California,
Colorado,
Nevada,
New
Mexico, Utah,
and Wyoming.
1937
- Walt
Disney's "Snow
White and the Seven Dwarfs" was shown in Los
Angeles; it was the first full-length
animated talking picture.
1946
- Louis
Jordan's single, "Let the Good Times Roll,"
debuted on the rhythm and blues charts.
1948
- The state of Eire
(formerly the Irish
Free State) declared its independence.
1958
- Charles
de Gaulle was elected to a seven-year term
as the first president of the Fifth
Republic of France.
1968
- Apollo
8, the first manned mission to the Moon,
was successfully launched from Cape
Canaveral, Florida,
with astronauts Frank
Borman, James
Lovell, Jr., and William
Anders aboard.
1971
- The United
Nations Security Council chose Kurt
Waldheim to succeed U
Thant as Secretary-General.
1975
- In Vienna,
Austria,
Ilich
Ramirez Sanchez, known as "Carlos
the Jackal," led Arab terrorists on a raid
of a meeting of oil ministers from the Organization
of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
The terrorists killed three people, and took 70
people hostage, including 11 OPEC
ministers. Sanchez evaded authorities until 1994,
when French agents captured him hiding in the Sudan.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment by a French
jury.
1976
- The Liberian-registered tanker Argo Merchant ran
aground near Nantucket
Island, spilling millions of gallons of oil into
the North
Atlantic.
1988
- A terrorist bomb exploded aboard a Pam
Am Boeing 747 over Lockerbie,
Scotland,
sending wreckage crashing to the ground and
killing 270 people.
1991
- Eleven of the 12 former Soviet
Union republics proclaimed the birth of the
Commonwealth
of Independent States.
1995
- The city of Bethlehem
passed from Israeli to Palestinian control.
1996
- After two years of denials, House Speaker Newt
Gingrich admitted violating House ethics
rules.
Births
1804
- Benjamin
Disraeli, British author, statesman.
1879
- Joseph
Stalin (Dzhugashvili), Russian dictator.
1937
- Jane
Fonda, American actress, exercise guru, and
activist; daughter of actor Henry
Fonda.
1940
- Frank
Zappa, American composer, guitarist, singer,
film director, and satirist.
1954
- Chris
Evert, American tennis champion.
1957
- Ray
Romano, American actor and comedian.
Deaths
1940
- F.
Scott Fitzgerald, American novelist and
short-story writer, who wrote "The
Great Gatsby" and other works.
1945
- George
S. Patton, American military leader during World
War II.
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