NOW & THEN
DECEMBER 21
Winter solstice begins.
1620: The Pilgrim Fathers went ashore from the Mayflower at what is now New Plymouth, Massachusetts.
1846: The first rotary printing press to be used in Britain was patented by Augustus Applegarth.
1846: Robert Liston used anaesthetic (ether) for the first time in a British surgical operation at University College Hospital, London, to perform a leg amputation.
1872: HMS Challenger set off from Portsmouth on the first global marine research expedition, organised by the Royal Society in collaboration with Edinburgh University. The voyage lasted three and a half years and covered 68,890 miles.
11898: Radium was discovered by scientists Pierre and Marie Curie.
1910: 344 miners died in disaster at Pretoria Pit, Bolton.
1913: The first crossword puzzle published, in the weekend supplement of the New York World, compiled by Liverpool-born Arthur Wynne.
1934: The first “Ovaltineys” radio series was broadcast from Radio Luxembourg.
1937: The premiere of the Walt Disney cartoon film Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs took place in Los Angeles.
1958: General Charles de Gaulle, France’s prime minister, was elected first president of the Fifth Republic.
1960: Saudi Arabia’s Premier Emir Faisal resigned, and King Saud took over government.
1968: Launch of Apollo 8 space mission with Frank Borman, James Lovell and William Anders.
1972: East and West Germany formally signed treaty ending more than two decades of official enmity.
1975: Terrorists raided meeting of Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) in Vienna, Austria. Eleven delegates and others were taken hostage, and two guards were killed.
1987: More than 2,000 people died in a ferry disaster in the Philippines, the worst maritime episode since the sinking of the Titanic.
1988: Pan-am flight 103 was blown up in mid-air by a terrorist bomb and crashed on Lockerbie, Dumfriesshire, killing all 259 on board and 11 people on the ground.
1989: Nicolae Ceausescu declared state of emergency in Timosoara, Romania, after tens of thousands of protesters filled the streets.
1991: The Soviet Union was pronounced dead when leaders of 11 former Soviet republics formally signed a declaration founding a Commonwealth of Independent States.
1992: A Dutch DC-10, flight Martinair MP 495, crashed at Faro Airport, killing 56 people.
1995: The city of Bethlehem passed from Israeli to Palestinian control.
1999: The Spanish Civil Guard intercepted a van loaded with 950kg of explosives that ETA intended to use to blow up Torre Picasso in Madrid.
2004: A suicide bomber killed 22 people at a base next to the main US military airfield at Mosul, Iraq.