December 21

WINTER SOLSTICE

It’s Humbug Day, Forefather’s Day, National Flashlight Day and Look on the Bright Side Day

ON THIS DAY…

1620 103 Mayflower pilgrims land at Plymouth Rock
1835 HMS Beagle sails into Bay of Islands
1861 Public Resolution 82, containing a provision for a Navy Medal of Valor, is signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln
1913 Arthur Wynne’s “word-cross”, the first crossword puzzle, is published in the New York World
1914 The first feature-length silent film comedy, Tillie’s Punctured Romance is released (Starring Marie Dressler, Mabel Normand & Charlie Chaplin)
1933 20th Century Fox signs 5-year-old Shirley Temple to a studio contract
1937 Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs premieres in Los Angeles
1954 Dr. Sam Sheppard is convicted of murdering his wife, Marilyn
1968 Apollo 8 (crewed by Frank Borman, James Lovell and William Anders), the first manned mission to the moon, is launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida
1970 Elvis Presley meets with President Richard Nixon to discuss the war on drugs

BORN:

1118 Thomas Becket, Lord Chancellor of England and Archbishop of Canterbury
1804 Benjamin Disraeli, first Earl of Beaconsfield, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1868, 1874-80)
1937 Jane Fonda, actress (Barbarella, Klute)
1940 Frank Zappa, composer/musician/director/satirist (Mothers of Invention)
1943 Jack Nance, actor (Eraserhead, Twin Peaks)
1946 Carl Wilson, Beach Boy
1948 Samuel L. Jackson, actor (Star Wars, Pulp Fiction)
1966 Kiefer Sutherland, actor (24, Lost Boys)

DIED:

1940 F. Scott Fitzgerald, author (The Great Gatsby, A Moveable Feast), dies at 44
1945 George S. Patton, soldier, dies at 60
1958 H.B. Warner, actor (The Ten Commandments, Lost Horizon), dies at 83
1974 Richard Long, actor (The Big Valley, Nanny and the Professor), dies at 47