Today 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.
Today’s highlights
On Dec. 21, 1937, Walt Disney’s first animated feature, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” had its world premiere at the Carthay Circle Theater in Los Angeles. The first Dr. Seuss book, “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street,” was published by Vanguard Press.
On this date
In 1620, Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower went ashore for the first time at presentday Plymouth, Massachusetts.
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, Georgia.
In 1891, the first basketball game, devised by James Naismith, is believed to have been played at the International YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts. ( The final score of this experimental game: 1- 0.)
In 1940, author F. Scott Fitzgerald died in Hollywood, California, at age 44.
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 1945, U.S. Army Gen. George S. Patton, 60, died in Heidelberg, Germany, 12 days after being seriously injured in a car accident.
In 1958, Charles de Gaulle was elected to a sevenyear term as the first president of the Fifth Republic of France.
In 1967, Louis Washkansky, the first human heart transplant recipient, died at a hospital in Cape Town, South Africa, 18 days after receiving the donor organ. The satirical comedy- drama “The Graduate,” starring Anne Bancroft and Dustin Hoffman, was released by Embassy Pictures.
In 1968, Apollo 8 was launched on a mission to orbit the moon.
In 1976, the Liberian-registered tanker Argo Merchant broke apart near Nantucket Island off Massachusetts almost a week after running aground, spilling 7.5 million gallons of oil into the North Atlantic.
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 (the ex- official escaped injury).
Five years ago: 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, Connecticut, shootings that claimed the lives of 26 children and school staff. President Barack Obama nominated Sen. John Kerry as his next secretary of state. Gymnast Gabby Douglas, the first African-American to win an all-around Olympic title, won the AP’s Female Athlete of the Year.