December 21......

December 21 is the 355th day of the year (356th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 10 days remaining in the year on this date. It is the most common day for autumn to end and winter begin in the Northern Hemisphere and for spring to end and summer begin in the Southern Hemisphere.

EVENTS

● 69 - Year of the four emperors: Following Galba, Otho and Vitellius, Vespasian becomes the fourth Emperor of Rome within a year.

● 1163 - Hurricane hits villages in Holland/Friesland, causing floods

● 1561 - Archbishop Granvelle installed

● 1582 - Flanders adopts Gregorian calendar, tomorrow is Jan 1 1583

● 1620 - Pilgrims first land at Plymouth Rock. It's not a very big rock. They weren't very big Pilgrims.

● 1620 - Plymouth Colony: William Bradford and the 102 other Mayflower Pilgrims land on what is now known as Plymouth Rock in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

● 1650 - Johan de Witt installed as Dutch pension advisor of Dordrecht

● 1672 - Birth of Benjamin Schmolck, German Lutheran clergyman. Though a busy pastor, Schmolck found time to pen 900 hymns, the best remembered of them being "My Jesus, As Thou Wilt."

● 1672 - Birth of Johann Christoph Schwedler, German clergyman and author of the hymn, "Ask Ye What Great Thing I Know." Schwedler penned more than 500 hymns during his life, many stressing the joy filled confidence available to every Christian believer.

● 1688 - Pro-James II-earl of Devonshire occupies Nottingham

● 1762 - James Cook marries Elizabeth Batts

● 1776 - Anglican clergyman and hymnwriter John Newton wrote in a letter: 'It is necessary that our sharpest trials should sometimes spring from our dearest comforts, else we should be in danger of forgetting ourselves and setting up our rest here.'

● 1784 - John Jay becomes 1st US Secretary of State (foreign affairs)

● 1788 - Hue Tay Son becomes emperor Quang Trung of Vietnam

● 1804 - British statesman Benjamin Disraeli was born in London.

● 1829 - 1st stone arch railroad bridge in US dedicated, Baltimore

● 1835 - HMS Beagle sails into Bay of Islands (New Zealand)

● 1835 - Oglethorpe University was chartered in Milledgeville, Georgia under Presbyterian auspices. In 1913, the campus was moved to Atlanta.

● 1843 - Irish Catholic religious Frances Ward, 33, first arrived in the U.S. in Pittsburgh, where she afterward helped establish successive convents of the Sisters of Mercy, both in Chicago and in Loretto, Pennsylvania.

● 1861 - Schooner Potter arrives at Neah Bay, Wash., bringing annuity goods for the Makah--hoes, sickles, pitchforks, and Mexican spurs--much to the amazement of the fishing and whaling Makah, who converted them to fish hooks, knives, and arrowheads.

● 1861 - Medal of Honor: Public Resolution 82, containing a provision for a Navy Medal of Valor, is signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln.

● 1864 - General Sherman conquers Savannah

● 1865 - Illegal Executive Order (we know, it's redundant) removes lands from the Oregon Coast Indian Reservation, cutting the territory in half.

● 1866 - Cheyennes, Arapho's, Sioux, Fetterman Massacre

● 1872 - Challenger expedition: HMS Challenger, commanded by Captain George Nares, sails from Portsmouth.

● 1879 - Birth of Joseph Stalin, Russian dictator; murdered 11,000,000.

● 1879 - Joseph Stalin, the Soviet butcher who was leader of the Communist Party and dictator of the Soviet Union for 25 years , was born Josef Dzhugashvili in Gori, Georgia.

● 1882 - Peter Kropotkin arrested in France for agitation of workers.

● 1890 - Pim Mulier 1st & only trip to "Alvesteddetocht"

● 1891 - 18 students play 1st basketball game (Springfield College)

● 1892 - Birth of Rebecca West, London. Writer, feminist, critic; companion for 10 years of author and socialist H. G. Wells. "People call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute."

● 1898 - Scientists Pierre and Marie Curie discovered the radioactive element radium.

● 1907 - Dutch government of De Master falls due to war budget

● 1909 - University of Copenhagen rejects Cook's claim that he was 1st to North Pole

● 1909 - McKinley and Washington schools of Berkeley, CA, became the first authorized, junior-high schools in the U.S.

● 1910 - Explosion in coal mine in Hulton England, 344 mine workers dies

● 1911 - First use of get-away-car in bank robbery, by the anarchist Bonnot Gang, Paris.

● 1912 - Denmark, Norway & Sweden declare neutrality in Comende war

● 1912 - The movie Das Mirakel premiered in Germany.

● 1913 - Arthur Wynne's "word-cross", the first crossword puzzle (with 32 clues), is published in the New York World.

● 1914 - Marie Dressler, Charlie Chaplin, Mabel Normand and Mack Swain appeared in the first six-reel, feature-length comedy. The film was entitled "Tillie’s Punctured Romance.”

● 1915 - 25.83 cm (10.17") of rainfall, Glenora OR (state record)

● 1916 - Industrial Workers of the World union outlawed in Australia.

● 1917 - Meiji Dairies, a Japanese dairy industry company, is founded.

● 1919 - Amid a strike for union recognition by 395,000 steelworkers, the "Red Scare" is launched with the deportation of Alexander Berkman, Emma Goldman, and some 250 other radicals to Russia on the S.S. Buford ("The Soviet Ark") from the "Land of the Free." A young, ambitious man named J. Edgar Hoover, heading the Justice Department's General Intelligence Division, advanced his career by implementing to the fullest extent possible the government's plan to deport all foreign-born radicals.

● 1921 - U.S. Supreme Court rules labor injunctions and picketing to be unconstitutional.

● 1923 - Nepal changes from British protectorate to independent nation

● 1924 - Germany: After five years of prison for his participation in the Republic of the Workers Councils, anarchist Erich Muhsam is amnestied. Thousands of workers turn out for his release.

● 1925 - Eisenstein's film "Battleship Potemkin" was first shown in Moscow.

● 1929 - 1st US group hospital insurance plan instituted, Dallas TX

● 1932 - Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers, 1st joint movie (Flying Down to Rio)

● 1933 - Dried human blood serum 1st prepared, University of Pennsylvania

● 1933 - Newfoundland reverts to being a crown colony

● 1933 - 20th Century Fox signs Shirley Temple, 5, to a studio contract

● 1936 - First flight of the Junkers JU-88 bomber prototype.

● 1937 - Walt Disney debuted the first, full-length, animated feature in Hollywood, CA. The movie was "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs."

● 1939 - Hitler named Adolf Eichmann leader of "Referat IV B"

● 1940 - Frank Zappa born.

● 1941 - German submarine U-567 sinks

● 1942 - US Supreme court declares Nevada separation legal

● 1944 - Horse racing was banned in the United States until after the end of World War II.

● 1945 - U.S. Gen. George S. Patton died in Heidelberg, Germany, of injuries from a car accident.

● 1946 - Earthquake in South Japan, kills 1,086

● 1946 - Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life" premieres

● 1948 - State of Eire (formerly Irish Free State) declares its independence

● 1949 - Dutch 1st Chamber accept sovereignty of Indonesia

● 1951 - Explosion at New Orient coal mine in West Frankfurt, Illinois, kills 199 workers. Illinois State mine inspector had approved techniques for removal of the excessive coal dust in the mine ten days previous.

● 1951 - Joe DiMaggio announces his retirement

● 1952 - Broadway Tunnel opens in San Francisco

● 1953 - J. Robert Oppenheimer, Director of the Atomic Development Project during WWII, is told that Pres. Eisenhower wanted "a blank wall" placed between him and secret data, pending a security review on charges that he was a Communist sympathizer.

● 1954 - Dr Sam Sheppard is convicted of his wife, Marilyn's murder

● 1957 - Indonesia proclaims end to state of war

● 1958 - Charles De Gaulle wins 7 year term as 1st President of 5th Republic of France as his Union des Démocrates pour la République party gain 78.5% of the vote.

● 1959 - 10th largest snowfall in NYC history (13.7")

● 1959 - Citizens of Deerfield IL block building of interracial housing

● 1959 - Shah of Persia marries Farah Diba

● 1959 - Tom Landry accepts coaching job with Dallas Cowboys (stays until 1988)

● 1961 - Beatles record "Sweet Georgia Brown" & "Ready Teddy"

● 1961 - JFK & British PM MacMillan meet in Bermuda

● 1962 - America to sell Polaris to Britain
President Kennedy and Prime Minister Harold Macmillan agree the UK will buy nuclear missiles from the US to form a multilateral NATO nuclear force.

● 1962 - Rondane National Park is established as Norway's first national park.

● 1962 - Angolin leaves Comecon

● 1962 - American interests pay Cuba $53 million worth of medicine and supplies to free 1,113 prisoners held since Bay of Pigs invasion.

● 1965 - Student anti-war activists Tom Hayden, Staughton Lynd, and Herbert Aptheker begin visit to Hanoi, North Vietnam.

● 1966 - USSR launches Luna 13; soft-landed in Oceanus Procellarum

● 1968 - Apollo 8 (Frank Borman, Jim Lovell & Bill Anders) 1st manned Moon voyage

● 1968 - David Crosby, Stephen Stills & Graham Nash premiere together in California

● 1969 - Seven hundred supporters visit jailed war resisters, Allenwood Federal Penitentiary, Pennsylvania.

● 1970 - Elvis Presley met with President Richard M. Nixon in the Oval Office to discuss fighting (the high price of?) drugs.

● 1971 - UN Security Council chooses Kurt Waldheim to succeed U Thant as its 4th Secretary General

● 1972 - Soviet Union signs a separate peace with East Germany

● 1973 - Israel, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, US & USSR meet in Geneva

● 1975 - Madagascar adopts constitution

● 1976 - Patricia R Harris named Secretary of HUD

● 1976 - UN General Assembly passes a resolution declaring 1979-Year of Child

● 1976 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

● 1977 - Firemen jeer TUC's pay snub; The TUC General Council narrowly votes to reject firemen's demands for a public campaign against a 10% limit on wage increases.

● 1978 - Police in Des Plaines, IL, arrested John W. Gacy Jr. and began unearthing the remains of 33 men and boys that Gacy was later convicted of killing.

● 1978 - Police in suburban Chicago arrest John W. Gacy, Jr. for the murders of dozens of boys. Later, local disk jockey Steve Dahl would get in enormous trouble for his rendition of "All in all, it's just another kid in the crawl."

● 1979 - Lancaster House Agreement: An independence agreement for Rhodesia is signed in London by Lord Carrington, Sir Ian Gilmour, Robert Mugabe, Joshua Nkomo, Bishop Abel Muzorewa and Dr S C Mundawarara.

● 1979 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalitinsk USSR

● 1979 - Zimbabwe adopts constitution

● 1981 - Cincinnati defeated Bradley 75-73 in seven overtimes. The game was the longest collegiate basketball game in the history of NCAA Division I competition.

● 1983 - Loretta Swit weds Dennis Holahan

● 1984 - USSR launches Vega 2 for fly-by of Halley's Comet

● 1985 - ARCO Anchorage runs aground near Port Angeles WA

● 1987 - The passenger ferry Doña Paz sinks after colliding with the oil tanker Vector 1 in the Tablas Strait in the Philippines, killing 1,565.

● 1987 - Three white teenagers convicted in New York City of manslaughter in the Dec. 1986 death of a young black man, Michael Griffith. After entering a restaurant in Howard Beach, he was chased by about a dozen whites, ran onto a highway and was killed.

● 1987 - Soyuz TM-4 carries 3 cosmonauts (Musa Manarov, Anatoly Levchenko & Vladimir Titov) to space station Mir

● 1988 - Drexel agrees guilt to security felonies, pays a $650 million fine

● 1988 - New York bound Pan Am jumbo jet (Flight 103) explodes over Lockerbie, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, killing all 259 people on the plane and 11 people on the ground

● 1988 - Vladimir Titov, Anatoly Levchenko & Musa Manarov return to earth (a year) with Chretien

● 1989 - Romania's dictator Nicolae Ceausescu's final speech (he is executed 12/25)

● 1989 - US invades Panamá and ousts General Noriega

● 1989 - Vice-President Quayle sends out 30,000 Christmas cards with word beacon spelled beakon

● 1990 - In a German television interview, Saddam Hussein declared that he would not withdraw from Kuwait by the UN deadline.

● 1991 - El Sayid Nosair acquitted of killing Meir Kahane

● 1991 - Soviet Union formally dissolves 11 of 12 republics sign treaty forming Commonwealth of Independent States

● 1991 - US actress Jane Fonda marries CNN-director Ted Turner

● 1992 - Dutch DC-10 in fire at landing on Faro Portugal, 56 die

● 1994 - Liberian warlords sign cease-fire pact.

● 1994 - Bomb goes off on #4 train on Fulton Street NYC

● 1995 - San Francisco Giants announce plans to build a new stadium to open in 2000

● 1995 - The city of Bethlehem passed from Israeli to Palestinian control.

● 1996 - After two years of denials, U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich admitted violating House ethics rules.

● 1998 - Israel's parliament voted overwhelmingly for early elections. It was the signal to the demise of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's hard-line government.

● 1998 - A Chinese court sentenced two dissidents to long prison terms for attempting to organize an opposition party. A third man was sentenced to 12 years in prison on December 22, 1998.

● 1998 - The first vaccine for Lyme disease was approved.

● 1999 - The Spanish Civil Guard intercepts a van loaded with 950 kg of explosives which ETA intend to use to blow up Torre Picasso in Madrid.

● 2001 - Terror alert as police seize cargo ship; Police storm a cargo ship in the English Channel after an intelligence tip-off.

● 2001 - The Islamic militant group Hamas released a statement that said it was suspending suicide bombings and mortar attacks in Israel.

● 2002 - Larry Mayes was released after spending 21 years in prison for a rape that maintained that he never committed. He was the 100th person in the U.S. to be released after DNA tests were performed.

● 2004 - A suicide bombing at a mess hall tent near Mosul, Iraq, killed 22 people, including 14 U.S. service members and three American contractors. Two French reporters held hostage for four months in Iraq were released.

● 2012 - The Long Count of the Maya calendar recycles according to the most popular correlation. A minority argues it does so on December 23, 2012.

BIRTHS

● 1118 - Thomas Becket, Lord Chancellor of England and Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1170)

● 1401 - Tommaso Masaccio, Italian painter (d. 1428)

● 1596 - Petro Mohyla, Moldovan Orthodox Metropolitan Bishop of Kiev and Galicia (d. 1646)

● 1603 - Roger Williams, English theologian and colonist (d. 1684)

● 1714 - John Bradstreet, Canadian-born soldier (d. 1774)

● 1773 - Robert Brown, Scottish botanist (d. 1858)

● 1804 - Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1868, 1874-80) (d. 1881)

● 1805 - Thomas Graham, British chemist (d. 1869)

● 1811 - Archibald Campbell Tait, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1882)

● 1815 - Thomas Couture French painter and teacher (d. 1879)

● 1843 - Thomas Bracken, Irish-born New Zealander poet (d. 1898)

● 1850 - Zdeněk Fibich, Bohemian composer (d. 1900)

● 1859 - Gustave Kahn, French poet (d. 1936)

● 1860 - Frederick Bonfils, American publisher of the Denver Post (d. 1933)

● 1860 - Henrietta Szold, American Jewish leader; founded Hadassah (Women's Zionist Organization of America) (d. 1945)

● 1872 - Don Lorenzo Perosi, Italian composer (d. 1956)

● 1872 - Albert Payson Terhune, American author (d. 1942)

● 1876 - Jack Lang (John Thomas Lang), Premier of New South Wales (d. 1975)

● 1878 - Jan Łukasiewicz, Polish philosopher and mathematician (d. 1956)

● 1879 - Joseph Stalin, Soviet dictator (1941-53) (d. 1953)

● 1885 - Frank Patrick, National Hockey League player and head coach (d. 1960)

● 1889 - Sewall Wright, American biologist (d. 1988)

● 1890 - Hermann Joseph Muller, American geneticist and Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1967)

● 1892 - Walter Hagen, American golfer (d. 1969)

● 1892 - Dame Rebecca West, American writer (d. 1983)

● 1896 - Leroy Robertson, American composer (d. 1971)

● 1911 - Josh Gibson, African-American baseball player (d. 1947)

● 1914 - Ivan Generalić, Austro-Hungarian-born Croatian painter (d. 1992)

● 1917 - Andre Eglevsky, Russian-born American ballet dancer and instructor (d. 1977)

● 1917 - Heinrich Böll, German writer and Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1985)

● 1918 - Donald Regan, White House Chief of Staff and United States Secretary of the Treasury (d. 2003)

● 1918 - Kurt Waldheim, Austrian Nazi, United Nations Secretary-General and Federal President of Austria

● 1920 - Jean Gascon, Canadian actor, director and administrator (d. 1988)

● 1921 - Vampira (Maila Nurmi), Finnish-born actress

● 1921 - Alicia Alonso (Alicia Ernestina de la Caridad del Cobre Martinez Hoya), Cuban ballerina

● 1922 - Paul Winchell, American ventriloquist (d. 2005)

● 1926 - Freddie Hart, Country singer

● 1926 - Joe Paterno, American Football coach

● 1928 - Ed Nelson, Actor

● 1935 - John G. Avildsen, American film director and editor

● 1935 - Yusuf Bey (Joseph Stephens), American activist and businessman (d. 2003)

● 1935 - Phil Donahue, American talk show host

● 1935 - Edward Schreyer, Canadian politician, Premier of Manitoba

● 1937 - Jane Fonda, American actress and activist

● 1938 - Larry Bryggman, Actor

● 1939 - Lloyd Axworthy, Canadian politician

● 1940 - Frank Zappa, American singer, guitarist and composer (d. 1993)

● 1940 - Ray Hildebrand, American singer (Paul & Paula)

● 1942 - Hu Jintao, President of the People's Republic of China

● 1942 - Reinhard Mey, German singer

● 1942 - Carla Thomas, American singer

● 1943 - Albert Lee, Rock musician

● 1943 - André Arthur. Quebec radio host and politician

● 1944 - Michael Tilson Thomas, American conductor

● 1944 - Bill Atkinson, English footballer

● 1946 - Carl Wilson, American singer and guitarist (The Beach Boys) (d. 1998)

● 1947 - Paco de Lucía, Spanish guitarist

● 1947 - Bryan Hamilton, Northern Irish footballer and football manager

● 1948 - Samuel L. Jackson, American actor

● 1948 - Willi Resetarits, Austrian musician and cabaret artist

● 1948 - Dave Kingman, Major League Baseball player

● 1950 - Jeffrey Katzenberg, American producer

● 1952 - Joaquín Andújar, Baseball player

● 1953 - Betty Wright, American singer

● 1954 - Chris Evert, American tennis player and Hall of Fame member

● 1955 - Jane Kaczmarek, American actress (''Malcolm in the Middle'')

● 1955 - Kazuyuki Sekiguchi, Japanese musician

● 1956 - Jim Rose, Entertainer (The Jim Rose Circus Sideshow)

● 1956 - Lee Roy Parnell, American country singer

● 1957 - Tom Henke, American baseball player

● 1957 - Ray Romano, American comedian and actor (''Everybody Loves Raymond'')

● 1959 - Florence Griffith Joyner, American sprinter, Olympic gold medalist and 100 m & 200 m world record holder (d. 1998)

● 1960 - Louis Demetrius Alvanis, London-based pianist

● 1960 - Andy Van Slyke, Major League Baseball player

● 1961 - Francis Ng, Hong Kong actor

● 1962 - Christy Forester, Country singer (The Forester Sisters)

● 1964 - Murph, Rock musician (The Lemonheads)

● 1964 - Rob Kelly, English football manager

● 1965 - Andy Dick, American actor and comedian

● 1965 - Gabrielle Glaser, Rock musician (Luscious Jackson)

● 1965 - Anke Engelke, German comedienne

● 1966 - Kiefer Sutherland, British-born Canadian actor (''24'')

● 1966 - Karri Turner, American actress (''JAG'')

● 1967 - Mikhail Saakashvili, Soviet-born President of Georgia

● 1968 - Khrystyne Haje, Actress

● 1968 - Brad Warren, Country singer (The Warren Brothers

● 1969 - Julie Delpy, French actress

● 1969 - Mihails Zemļinskis, Latvian footballer

● 1971 - Mathieu Chedid, French musician, singer and songwriter

● 1971 - Brett Scallions, American singer (Fuel)

● 1972 - Latroy Hawkins, professional baseball player

● 1972 - Dustin Hermanson, baseball player

● 1973 - Karmen Stavec, German-born Slovenian singer

● 1973 - Mike Alstott, American football player

● 1974 - Karrie Webb, Australian golfer

● 1975 - Paloma Herrera, Argentine ballet dancer (American Ballet Theatre)

● 1976 - Lukas Rossi, Rock singer (Rock Star Supernova)

● 1977 - Jim Carson, American music producer and disc jockey

● 1978 - Mike Vitar, American actor

● 1980 - Lee Eun Ju, Korean actress (d. 2005)

● 1981 - Dima Bilan, Russian singer

● 1981 - Cristian Zaccardo, Italian Footballer

● 1982 - Luke Stricklin, Country singer

● 1982 - Mike Gansey, American basketball player

● 1984 - Darren Potter, Irish footballer

● 1985 - Yanagi Kotarou, Japanese actor

DEATHS

● 1295 - Marguerite Berenger of Provence, wife of Louis IX of France (bc. 1221)

● 1308 - Henry I of Hesse (b. 1244)

● 1375 - Giovanni Boccaccio, Italian writer (b. 1313)

● 1504 - Bertold von Henneberg-Römhild, German archbishop and elector (b. 1442)

● 1549 - Marguerite of Navarre, wife of Henry II of Navarre (b. 1492)

● 1579 - Vicente Masip, Spanish painter

● 1597 - Petrus Canisius, Dutch Jesuit (b. 1521)

● 1807 - John Newton, English cleric and hymnist (b. 1725)

● 1824 - James Parkinson, English physician, geologist, paleontologist, and political activist (b. 1755)

● 1873 - Francis Garnier, French explorer (b. 1839)

● 1889 - Friedrich August von Quenstedt, German geologist (b. 1809)

● 1935 - Kurt Tucholsky, German journalist and satirist (b. 1890)

● 1937 - Frank B. Kellogg, United States Secretary of State, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1856)

● 1940 - F. Scott Fitzgerald, American writer (b. 1896)

● 1945 - George S. Patton, U.S. general (b. 1885)

● 1957 - Eric Coates, English composer (b. 1886)

● 1958 - Lion Feuchtwanger, German writer (b. 1884)

● 1959 - Rosanjin, Japanese calligrapher, restaurateur and ceramicist (b. 1883)

● 1964 - Carl Van Vechten, American writer and photographer (b. 1880)

● 1965 - Claude Champagne, Quebec composer (b. 1891)

● 1967 - Stuart Erwin, American actor (b. 1903)

● 1974 - James Henry Govier, British artist (b. 1910)

● 1974 - Richard Long, American actor (b. 1927)

● 1981 - Allan Dwan, Canadian-born American director and screenwriter (b. 1885)

● 1983 - Paul de Man, Belgian-born literary critic (b. 1919)

● 1988 - Nikolaas Tinbergen, Dutch ornithologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1907)

● 1992 - Albert King, American musician (b. 1924)

● 1992 - Nathan Milstein, Ukrainian violinist (b. 1903)

● 2001 - Dick Schaap, American sports journalist (b. 1931)

● 2004 - Autar Singh Paintal, Indian medical scientist (b. 1925)

HOLIDAYS AND OBSERVANCES

● Roman Catholic:
● St. O Oriens
● St. Petrus Canisius, priest & doctor
● St. Thomas the Apostle
● St. Anastasius XII
● St. Andrew Dung Lac
● St. Themistoeles
● St. Severinus
● St. Glycerius
● St. Honoratus of Toulouse
● St. John & Festus
● St. John Vincent
● Bl. Adrian

● Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar for December 8 (Civil Date: December 21)
● Nativity Fast.
● St. Patapius of Thebes.
● Holy Apostles of the Seventy: Sosthenes, Apollos, Cephas, Tychicus, Epaphroditus, Caesar and Onesiphorus.
● Holy 362 Martyrs of Africa, martyred by the Arians
● Martyr Anthusa, at Rome.
● St. Cyril, abbot of Chelmogorsk.
● New Martyr Priest John (Kochurov) of Chicago.

● Lutheran and Anglican:
● St. Thomas the Apostle

● Roman festivals:
● Divalia in honour of Angerona

● The December solstice, sometimes known as Yule, occurs on or very close to this date. In the Northern Hemisphere, it marks the first official day of Winter. It is also an important festival in the Chinese calendar.

● Nepál : Independence Day/Unity Day (1923)

● Plymouth MA : Forefathers' Day (1620)

● This Holiday is only applicable on a given "day of the week"
● World : Underdog Day - ( Friday )


Click on this LINK to see original Wikipedia list with many having links with details.

Additional facts taken from:

On this day in the New York Times

The BBC’s Take on the day

On This Day Website

Scope Systems Any Day Website

Geov Parrish's this Day in Radical History, things that happened on this day that you never had to memorize in school.

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