TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Monday, Dec. 21, the 356th day of 2020. There are 10 days left in the year. Winter arrives at 2:02 a.m. Pacific time.
Today’s highlight in history
On Dec. 21, 1620, Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower went ashore for the first time at present-day Plymouth, Mass.
On this date
In 1864, during the Civil War, Union forces led by Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman concluded their “March to the Sea” as they captured Savannah, Ga.
In 1913, the first newspaper crossword puzzle, billed as a “Word-Cross Puzzle,” was published in the New York World.
In 1914, the U.S. government began requiring passport applicants to provide photographs of themselves.
In 1945, U.S. Army Gen. George S. Patton, 60, died in Heidelberg, Germany, 12 days after being seriously injured in a car accident.
In 1968, Apollo 8 was launched on a mission to orbit the moon.
In 1988, 270 people were killed when a terrorist bomb exploded aboard a Pam Am Boeing 747 over Lockerbie, Scotland, sending wreckage crashing to the ground.
In 1991, 11 of the 12 former Soviet republics proclaimed the birth of the Commonwealth of Independent States and the death of the Union of
Soviet Socialist Republics.
In 1995, the city of Bethlehem passed from Israeli to Palestinian control.
In 2012, the National Rifle Association said guns and police officers were needed in all American schools to stop the next killer “waiting in the wings,” taking a no-retreat stance in the face of growing calls for gun control after the Newtown, Conn., shootings that claimed the lives of 26 children and school staff.
Ten years ago: The Census Bureau announced that the nation’s population on April 1, 2010, was 308,745,538, up from 281.4 million a decade earlier. A divided Federal Communications Commission approved, 3-2, new rules known as “net neutrality” meant to prohibit broadband companies from interfering with Internet traffic flowing to their customers.
Five years ago: A Taliban attacker rammed a bombladen motorcycle into a joint NATO and Afghan patrol near the Bagram Airfield, killing six Americans in the deadliest attack on foreign troops since the previous August. The nation’s three-decade-old ban on blood donations from gay and bisexual men was formally lifted, but major restrictions continued to limit who could give blood in the U.S.
One year ago: Six people died and 13 others were injured in a fire at an apartment building in downtown Las Vegas.
Today’s birthdays
Talk show host Phil Donahue is 85. Actor Jane Fonda is 83. Actor Larry Bryggman is 82. Singer Carla Thomas is 78. Musician Albert Lee is 77. Conductor Michael Tilson Thomas is 76. Actor Samuel L. Jackson is 72. Singer Nick Gilder is 70. Producer Jeffrey Katzenberg is 70. Actor Dennis Boutsikaris is 68. International Tennis Hall of Famer Chris Evert is 66. Actor Jane Kaczmarek is 65. Singer Lee Roy Parnell is 64. Actorcomedian Ray Romano is 63. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is 58. Actor-comedian Andy Dick is 55. Musician Gabrielle Glaser is 55. Actor Michelle Hurd is 54. Actor Kiefer Sutherland is 54. Actor Karri Turner is 54. Actor Julie Delpy is 51. Singer Natalie Grant is 49. World Golf Hall of Famer Karrie Webb is 46.