HISTORY AT A GLANCE

TODAY is Thursday, December 21, the 355th day of 2017. There are 10 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:

1923 – United Kingdom and Nepal formally signed an agreement of friendship, called the Nepal–Britain Treaty of 1923, which superseded the Sugauli Treaty signed in 1816. 1937 – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the world’s first full-length animated feature, premieres at the Carthay Circle Theatre. 1941 – World War II: A formal treaty of alliance between Thailand and Japan is signed in the presence of the Emerald Buddha in Wat Phra Kaew, Thailand. 1946 – An 8.1 Mw earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Nankaido, Japan, kills over 1,300 people and destroys over 38,000 homes. 1967 – Louis Washkansky, the first man to undergo a heart transplant, dies in Cape Town, South Africa, having lived for 18 days after the transplant. 1968 – Apollo program: Apollo 8 is launched from the Kennedy Space Center, placing its crew on a lunar trajectory for the first visit to another celestial body by humans. 1969 – The United Nations adopts the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. 1973 – The Geneva Conference on the Arab–Israeli conflict

opens. 1979 – Lancaster House Agreement: An independence agreement for Rhodesia is signed in London by Lord Peter Carrington, Sir Ian Gilmour, Robert Mugabe, Joshua Nkomo, Bishop Abel Muzorewa and S.C. Mundawarara. 1988 – A bomb explodes on board Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, killing 270. 1994 – Mexican volcano Popocatépetl, dormant for 47 years,

erupts gases and ash. 1995 – The city of Bethlehem passes from Israeli to

Palestinian control. 1999 – The Spanish Civil Guard intercepts a van loaded with 950 kg of explosives that ETA intended to use to blow up Torre Picasso in Madrid, Spain. 2004 – Iraq War: A suicide bomber killed 22 at the forward operating base next to the main U.S. military airfield at Mosul, Iraq, the single deadliest suicide attack on American soldiers.