THURSDAY IN HISTORY

Today is Thursday, Dec. 21, the 355th day of 2017. There are 10 days left in the year. Winter arrives at 11:28 a.m. Eastern time.

Highlight in History:

On Dec. 21, 1937, Walt Disney’s first animated feature, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” had its world premiere at the Carthay CircleTheater inLosAngeles.

On this date:

In 1620, Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower went ashore for the first time at present-day Plymouth, Mass.

In 1864, during the Civil War, Union forces led byMaj. Gen. William T. Sherman concluded their “March to the Sea” as they captured Savannah, Georgia.

In 1942, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Williams v. North Carolina, ruled 6-2 that all states had to recognize divorces granted in Nevada.

In 1958, Charles de Gaulle was elected to a seven-year term as the first president of the Fifth Republic of France.

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, eleven 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.

Ten years ago: A suicide attacker detonated a bomb at a mosque outside the home of Pakistan’s former interior minister, killing at least 50 people.

Fiveyearsago: TheNational 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.

One year ago: Presidentelect Donald Trump declared that the deadly truck attack on a Christmas market in Germany that killed 12 people two days earlier was “an attack on humanity and it’s got to be stopped."

Today’s Birthdays: Country singer Freddie Hart is 91. Talk show host Phil Donahue is 82. Actress Jane Fonda is 80. Actor Samuel L. Jackson is 69. Movie producer Jeffrey Katzenberg is 67. Actor-comedian Ray Romano is 60. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is 55. Actor Kiefer Sutherland is 51. Actor Steven Yeun is 34.

Thought for Today: “The time will come when Winter will ask us: ‘What were you doing all the Summer?’” — Bohemian proverb.