History for December 21

History for December 21 - On-This-Day.com:
Benjamin Disraeli 1804 - Author, statesman: "No government can be long secure without a formidable opposition.", Joseph Stalin (Dzhugashvili) 1879 - Georgian Marxist revolutionary and later dictator of USSR (1928-53), Phil Donahue 1935 - TV host ("The Phil Donahue Show"), known for pioneering the audience-participation style of TV talk shows.


Jane Fonda 1937 - Daughter of actor Henry Fonda and sister of actor Peter Fonda, Frank Zappa 1940 - Musician (The Mothers of Invention, Valley Girl (w/daughter Moon)), Kiefer Sutherland 1966 - Actor ("The Lost Boys," "Young Guns," "A Time to Kill"), son of actor Donald Sutherland


1620 - The "Mayflower", and its passengers, pilgrims from England, landed at Plymouth Rock, MA.


1898 - Scientists Pierre and Marie Curie discovered the radioactive element radium.


1913 - Arthur Wynne published a new "word-cross" puzzle in the "New York World" in England. The name was later changed to "crossword."


1937 - Walt Disney debuted the first, full-length, animated feature in Hollywood, CA. The movie was "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs."


1945 - U.S. Gen. George S. Patton died in Heidelberg, Germany, of injuries from a car accident.


1968 - Apollo 8 was launched on a mission to orbit the moon. The craft landed safely in the Pacific Ocean on December 27.


1978 - Police in Des Plaines, IL, arrested John W. Gacy Jr. and began unearthing the remains of 33 men and boys that Gacy was later convicted of killing.


1988 - 270 people were killed when Pan Am Boeing 747 exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, due to a terrorist attack.