December 21st is
Crossword Puzzle Day *
Humbug Day
Short Story Day *
Flashlight Day *
Ribbon Candy Day *
Short Girl Appreciation Day
Look on the Bright Side Day
International Dalek Remembrance Day *
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MORE! Maud Gonne, Henrik Ibsen and Alicia Alonso, click
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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS
Celebrated by Pagans and Celts:
Northern Hemisphere – Winter Solstice (aka Yule)
Southern Hemisphere – Summer Solstice (aka Litha)
Theravada Buddhism – Sanghamittā Day
(founder Buddhist women’s monastic order)
Australia – South Wharf: Midsommer Festival
Brazil – Porto Alegre: Atmosphere Festival
Cameroon – Douala: Festival des
Jeunes Talents de beri (youth talent festival)
Canada – Hamilton: Winter Solstice Festival
China – Dōngzhì Festival (Winter Solstice)
Guatemala – Chichicastenango:
Santo Tomas/Palo Volador (dance of the fliers)
Indonesia – Bali: Hello Bali Festival
Mexico – Mexico City: Empo Sinfonico
Nigeria – Lagos: Alténative Festival
Netherlands – Amsterdam: Het Amsterdamse
Winterparadijs (The Amsterdam Winter Paradise)
Philippines – Armed Forces Day
Sāo Tomé e Príncipe – Dia de Sāo Tomé e Príncipe
Spain – San Sebastián:
Día de Santo Tomás de San Sebastián
South Africa – Cape Town: Love & Light Festival
United Kingdom – Brighton: Burning the Clocks
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On This Day in HISTORY
69 – The Roman Senate formally declares Vespasian emperor of Rome, the last in the ‘Year of the Four Emperors’ after the brief reigns of Galba, Otho and Vitellius during the civil war set off by the suicide of Nero
1118 – Thomas Becket born, English archbishop and saint
1237 – The city of Ryazan, southeast of Moscow, is sacked by the Golden Horde of Mongol ruler Batu Khan
1361 – Reconquista, Battle of Linuesa: The forces of the Emirate of Granada are defeated by the combined forces of the Kingdoms of Castile and Jaén
1598 – Battle of Curalaba: The Mapuche, led by cacique (chief) Pelentaru, launch a night attack on Spanish troops under governor Martín García Óñez de Loyola in southern Chile, killing the governor and all but one of his soldiers, who was left for dead, and a priest. This begins a full revolt under the leadership of the Mapuche toqui (war leader) Paillamucha
1603 – Roger Williams born, English minister, theologian, and politician, founded the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. He was a staunch advocate for religious freedom, separation of church and state, fair dealings with American Indians, and he was one of the first abolitionists
1620 – Plymouth Colony: William Bradford and the Mayflower Pilgrims land on what is now known as Plymouth Rock in Plymouth MA
1728 – Hermann Raupach born, German harpsichordist and composer
1795 – Jack Russell born, English priest, hunter, and dog breeder
1804 – Benjamin Disraeli born, British prime minister (1868 and 1874-1880)
1805 – Thomas Graham born, Scottish chemist noted for his pioneering work in dialysis and the diffusion of gases
1826 – The Fredonian Rebellion, which lasted just over month, is the first attempt by Anglo settlers in Texas to secede from Mexico; led by empresario Haden Edwards, they declare independence from Mexican Texas and create the Republic of Fredonia near Nacogdoches on land the Mexican government had granted to Edwards in 1825, which included areas that had been previously settled
1830 – Bartolomé Masó born, Cuban freedom fighter and politician; in 1851, he gave a speech protesting the execution of Narciso López, leader of an expedition attempting to free Cuba from Spanish rule, on the garrote. After the speech, he was under surveillance by the colonial authorities; he fought in the Ten Years’ War, and was imprisoned by the Spanish in 1878, but was later released, and fought in the Cuban War of Independence (1895-1898), and was chosen as vice president of the “Republic in Arms,” and became the first president of the revolutionary government (1897-1898)
1840 – Namik Nadal born, Ottoman Turkish writer, intellectual, reformer, journalist, playwright, and political activist, influential in formation of the Young Turks and their struggle for governmental reform in the Ottoman Empire
1841 – Thomas Bracken born in Ireland, New Zealand poet, journalist and politician who wrote “God Defend New Zealand” the country’s English-language National Anthem
1844 – The Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers commences business at its cooperative in Rochdale, England, establishing its ‘Rochdale Principles’ as the operational principles for cooperatives which continue to be used worldwide today
1850 –Zdeněk Fibich born, Czech composer and poet
1860 – Henrietta Szold born, American Jewish leader; founder of Hadassah (American women’s Zionist organization)
1861 – Medal of Honor: Public Resolution 82, containing a provision for a Navy Medal of Valor, is signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln
1866 – Maud Gonne born, Irish nationalist, political activist and suffragette; when the poet William Butler Yeats fell in love with her, she did not return his feelings
1872 – HMS Challenger, a scientific expedition commanded by Captain George Nares, sails from Portsmouth, England, to travel 70,000 nautical miles (130,000 km) surveying and exploring; Report Of The Scientific Results of the Exploring Voyage of H.M.S. Challenger during the years 1873-76 catalogs over 4,000 previously unknown species
Challenger’s laboratory
1872 – Albert Payson Terhune born, American journalist, author of a series of collie stories beginning with Lad: A Dog
1879 – World premiere of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, Denmark – with a tacked-on happy ending
1883 – The Royal Canadian Dragoons and the Royal Canadian Regiment, the first Permanent Force cavalry and infantry regiments of the Canadian Army, are formed
1884 – María Cadilla Colón de Martínez born, Puerto Rican writer, educator, women’s rights activist, and one of the first Puerto Rican women to earn a doctorate, from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, in 1933; taught history and literature at the University of Puerto Rico, and collected Puerto Rico’s folklore; wrote La Campesina de Puerto Rico (The Farmwoman of Puerto Rico) and Hitos de la Raza (Milestones of the Race)
1892 – Dame Rebecca West born, English journalist who covered the Nuremberg trials, and novelist, The Return of the Soldier
1898 –Marie and Pierre Curie discover the radioactive element radium
1899 – Flashlight Day * – In January 1899, a U.S. patent was issued to British Inventor David Misell for a primitive version of the modern flashlight – his company gave a number of them to the New York Police Department, and the police responded highly favorably, which helped make the new kind of light popular – celebrated on the shortest day of the year as a reminder to check and replace your batteries to be prepared for wintertime emergencies
1905 – Käte Fenchel née Käte Sperling born, German Jewish mathematician, noted for her work on Non-abelian groups; because of gender discrimination, she was not allowed at first to study pure mathematics at the University of Bern, and had to enroll in mathematics education classes. When Adolf Hitler came to power, she lost her job. Newly married to Werner Fenchel, another mathematician and also a Jew, she fled with him to Denmark, and when the Nazis invaded there, to Sweden. They returned to Denmark after the war
1907 – The Chilean Army opens fire in a massacre of 2,000 striking saltpeter miners and their wives and children in Iquique, Chile. The miners were striking to protest their terrible working conditions and low wages
1913 – Arthur Wynne’s “word-cross”, the first crossword puzzle, is published in the New York World
1914 – Marie Dressler, Charlie Chaplin, Mabel Normand and Mack Swain appear in the first six-reel, feature-length comedy, entitled “Tillie’s Punctured Romance”
Left to Right: Marie Dressler, Charlie Chaplin, Mabel Normand and Mack Swain
1917 – Andre Eglesky born in Russia, American ballet dancer who was a leading dancer with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, and premier danseur with George Balanchine’s American Ballet (later renamed New York City Ballet)
1917 – Henrich Böll born, one of Germany’s foremost writers after WWII; 1972 Nobel Prize for Literature; Billiards at Half-past Nine, The Bread of Those Early Years, The Clown, The Safety Net
1919 – Emma Goldman, American anarchist, feminist and labor activist, is deported to Russia, after serving two years in prison for conspiring to “induce persons not to register” for the WWI U.S. military draft
1920 – Adele Goldstine born, American mathematician and computer programmer; wrote the first computer manual, for ENIAC the first electronic digital computer, and worked on the project to program ENIAC to perform fifty different stored instructions
1921 – Alicia Alonso born, Cuban ballerina and choreographer, founded the Cuban National Ballet
1922 – Cécile DeWitt-Morette born, French mathematician and physicist; she was a student at the University of Paris when her mother, sister, and grandmother were tragically killed in the Allied bombing of Caen in support of the D-Day landings. In 1944, while still working toward her doctorate at the University of Paris, Morette took a job at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. She completed her Ph.D. (Sur la production des mésons dans les chocs entre nucléons) in 1947. In 1951, she founded the summer school at Les Houches in the French Alps; attendees at the school included over 20 students who went on to be Nobel Laureates
1925 – Eisenstein’s film Battleship Potemkin premieres in Moscow
1932 – U. R. Ananthamurthy born, Indian author, Samskara
1937 – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs premieres, the world’s first full-length animated feature
1937 – Jane Fonda born, American actress, producer, and political activist; notable for her opposition to the Vietnam war, and fundraising for the Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and the Indochina Peace Campaign. She has spoken openly about being raped, and also being fired because she refused to sleep with the boss, and is an active supporter of V Day. In 2001, she founded the Jane Fonda Center for Adolescent Reproductive Health, aimed at preventing teen pregnancy
1940 – Frank Zappa born, American singer-songwriter- producer; Mothers of Invention
1948 – Ireland becomes an independent republic
1958 – Charles de Gaulle is elected president of France
1959 – Florence Griffith Joyner (“Flo-Jo”) born, Olympic track and field champion, won 3 gold medals and a silver at 1988 Summer games, dubbed “World’s Fastest Woman”
1960 – Sherry Rehman born, Pakistani politician and diplomat; since 2015, representative of Sindh in the Senate of Pakistan; Pakistani Ambassador to the U.S. (2011-2013); Member of the National Assembly of Pakistan (2007-2011)
1962 – Rondane National Park is established as Norway’s first national park
1963 – International Dalek Remembrance Day * – the first time that the Daleks appeared on Doctor Who
1967 – Louis Washkansky, the first man to undergo a heart transplant, dies 18 days after surgery in Cape Town, South Africa
1968 – NASA’s Apollo 8 is launched from the Kennedy Space Center, placing its crew on a lunar trajectory for the first orbit of another celestial body by a manned spacecraft
1971 –Kurt Waldheim is chosen to succeed U Thant as UN secretary general (1972-1981); but his Nazi war record, uncovered when he successfully ran for President of Austria in 1986, causes international controversy
1973 – UN convenes the Geneva Conference on the Arab-Israeli conflict; no agreement is reached, but military disengagements between Israel and Egypt and between Israel and Syria are signed the following year
1975 – Paloma Herrera born, Argentine ballet dancer, and choreographer; artistic director of the ‘Ballet Estable del Teatro Colón’ since 2017; she was a principal dancer of the American Ballet Theatre (1995-2015)
1991 –Eleven of the 12 former Soviet republics proclaim the birth of the Commonwealth of Independent States
1995 – The city of Bethlehem passes from Israeli to Palestinian control
1996 – After two years of denials, U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich admitted violating House ethics rules
1997 – Nigeria’s deputy head of state, Lieutenant General Oladipo Diya, and eleven others are arrested and accused of plotting to overthrow General. Sani Abacha
1998 – The first vaccine for Lyme disease is approved
1998 – Ribbon Candy Day * – Judy Pancoast of New Hampshire, Ribbon Candy has a special meaning. “My father’s birthday was December 21st, and since it was so close to Christmas all he ever wanted for his birthday was a box of ribbon candy. He passed away in the spring of 1998. As his birthday approached I began to feel sad, thinking that I had no one to give a box of ribbon candy to that year. Then it dawned on me – I could honor my Daddy by giving away boxes of ribbon candy in his name on his birthday”
2010 – Short Story Day * is launched, to celebrate the art and refinement of the short story form on the shortest day of the year
2014 – Osama Mehmood, spokesman the South Asia branch of Al Queda, condemned the slaughter by the Taliban of 149 people, 132 of them children, at a school in Peshawar, reaffirming Al Queda’s opposition to the U.S. and the government of Pakistan, but that the murders had “crossed the limit.”
2017 – The United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to condemn Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. The nonbinding resolution against “illegal Israeli actions in occupied East Jerusalem and the rest of occupied Palestinian territory” declared any moves to settle Jerusalem’s fate outside of a broader peace deal to be “null and voided.” The United States’ ambassador to the U.N., Nikki Haley, warned that the U.S. would be “taking names” of those nations opposing the U.S. in the vote, and Trump suggested that the U.S. would cut foreign aid to any nation voting to condemn the U.S. The 128-9 vote, with 35 abstentions, was interpreted as a harsh rebuke of Trump’s decision and its impact on peace efforts
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