21 December

The **21st o December** is the 355t day o the year (356t in lowp years) in the Gregorian Calendar, wi 10 days bidin.

## Events

* 69 - Vespasian becomes Roman Emperor.
* 1471 - The island o Sao Tomé off the coast o Gabon, Africae, is claimed for Portugal bi Joao de Santarém.
* 1880 - The Isle o Man allows weemen tae vote.
* 1898 - Marie Curie an Pierre Curie discover radium.
* 1910 - An unnergroond splosion at Hulton Bank Colliery in Westhoughton, then-pairt o Lancashire, Northwast Ingland, kills 344 miners.
* 1913 - The first crossword puzzle appears in the New York World newspaper.
* 1937 - Premiere o Walt Disney's Snow White an the Seven Dwarfs.
* 1958 - Charles de Gaulle is electit Preses o Fraunce.
* 1962 - Norawa's first naitional pairk, the Rondane Naitional Pairk, is creatit.
* 1968 - Launch o Apollo 8.
* 1988 - Pan Am Flicht 103 explodes ower Lockerbie, Dumfries an Gallowa, killin 270 fowk.
* 2007 - Estonie, Latvie, Lithuanie, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakie, Hungary, Slovenie an Malta join the Schengen Area.
* 2012 - End o the Mayan Long Coont Calendar.
* 2014 - Beji Caid Essebsi is electit Preses o Tunisie.
* 2015 - Sepp Blatter an Michel Platini are banned frae fitbaa for 8 year ower corruption at FIFA.
* 2017 - Catalonie haulds regional elections; The pro-unthirldom coaleetion o pairties retains its oweraw majority.
* 2017 - Birmingham gets the richt tae host the 2022 Commonweel Gemmes.

## Births

* 1118 - Thomas Becket, Inglis airchbeeshop (d. 1170)
* 1401 - Masaccio, Italian penter (d. 1428)
* 1773 - Robert Brown, Scots botanist (d. 1858)
* 1777 - John Campbell, 7t Duke o Argyll, Scots peer an politeecian (d. 1847)
* 1795 - Leopold von Ranke, German historian (d. 1886)
* 1799 - David Don, Scots botanist (d. 1841)
* 1804 - Benjamin Disraeli, Prime Meenister o the Unitit Kinrick (d. 1881)
* 1805 - Thomas Graham, Scots chemist (d. 1869)
* 1818 - Charles Stuart, 12t Laird Blantyre, Scots politeecian an laundawner (d. 1900)
* 1879 − Joseph Stalin, Soviet leader (d. 1953)
* 1892 - Rebecca West, Inglis writer (d. 1983)
* 1917 - Heinrich Böll, German writer (d. 1985)
* 1918 - Kurt Waldheim, Austrick politeecian an diplomat (d. 2007)
* 1937 - Jane Fonda, American actress
* 1939 - Alan Anderson, Scots fitbawer
* 1940 - Frank Zappa, American muisicker (d. 1993)
* 1942 - Hu Jintao, umwhile Preses o the Fowkrepublic o Cheenae
* 1947 - Paco de Lucia, Spaingie guitarist (d. 2014)
* 1948 - Samuel L. Jackson, American actor
* 1949 - Thomas Sankara, Preses o Burkina Faso (d. 1987)
* 1950 - Jeffrey Katzenberg, American film studio executive an producer
* 1954 - Chris Evert, American tennis player
* 1959 - Florence Griffith Joyner, American athlete (d. 1998)
* 1965 - Andy Dick, American comedian, actor an producer
* 1966 - Kiefer Sutherland, Canadian actor
* 1967 - Mikheil Saakashvili, umwhile Preses o Georgie
* 1972 - Kirsten Oswald, Scots politeecian
* 1975 - Charles Michel, Preses o the European Cooncil an umwhile Prime meenister o Belgium
* 1977 - Emmanuel Macron, Preses o Fraunce

## Daiths
* 1375 - Giovanni Boccaccio, Italian writer (b. 1313)
* 1839 - St. Andrew Dung Lac, Vietnamese mairtyr (b. 1795)
* 1926 - Harold Raeburn, Scots muntaineer (b. 1865)
* 1937 - Frank B. Kellogg, 45t Unitit States Secretar o State (b. 1856)
* 1940 - F. Scott Fitzgerald, American writer (b. 1896)
* 1945 - George S. Patton, American general (b. 1885)
* 1968 - James Kennaway, Scots novelist an screenwriter (b. 1928)
* 2006 - Saparmurat Niyazov, Preses o Turkmenistan (b. 1940)
* 2014 - Udo Jürgens, Austrick sangster (b. 1934)
* 2017 - Bruce McCandless II, American astronaut (b. 1937)
* 2018 - Tom Leonard, Scots poet; b. 1944

## Halidays

* Winter Solstice (Northren Hemisphere), can also be on 22 December
* Simmer Solstice (Soothren Hemisphere), can also be on 22 December
* The **21st o December** is the feast day o the follaein saunts:
:St. Peter Canisius
:Bl. Adrian
:St. Anastasius XII
:St. Andrew Dung Lac
:St. Themistoeles
:St. Severinus
:St. Glycerius
:St. Honoratus o Toulouse
:SS. John & Festus
:St. John Vincent
:St. Thomas the Apostle