On This Day December 21

2012
End of the World: According to some, the ancient Mayan calendar predicts the end of the world on this date. Also, the winter solstice is aligned with the Milky Way on this date. [More info]

1992
Home Alone: Two Illinois girls - ages 10 and 5 - run to a neighbor when a smoke alarm goes off in their home. It was discovered that their parents had left them alone during a nine-day vacation in Acapulco.

1992
Home Alone: Two Chicago girls, ages nine and four, call 911 after overfilling a bathtub and setting off a smoke alarm. Police found that they had been left alone, while their parents took a nine-day vacation in Mexico.

1989
Cosmonauts Vladimir Titov and Musa Manarov return to Earth after spending a record 366 days in orbit.

1989
Vice-Pres. Dan Quayle sends out 30,000 misspelled Christmas cards: "May our nation continue to be the beakon of hope."

1988
Flight 103: A Bomb explodes on Pan Am flight over Scotland, killing all 259 persons on board and 11 on the ground.

1988
Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc. plead guilty to six violations of federal law and accepts penalties of $650 million.

1968
First manned moon shot: Apollo 8 is launched. It orbited the moon on the 24th and returned to Earth on the 27th.

1941
The last dropkick in an NFL game: Made by Chicago Bears' Scooter McLean.

1937
First feature-length animation with both color and sound: Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs premiers. It was his first feature-length animation.

1913
First crossword puzzle, by Arthur Wynne, appears in the New York World.

1901
First transatlantic radio signal is broadcast, from England to Newfoundland, by Guglielmo Marconi.

1985
James "Bubba" Stewart, Jr., African-American motocross racer. He was the first African-American to win a major motorsport event (250cc THQ AMA Supercross Series race at Texas Stadium).

1959 d. 1998
Florence Griffith Joyner (Flo Jo), American athlete, "World's Fastest Woman." She was the first U.S. female athlete to win four medals at a single Olympics (1988, three gold and a silver), and was the co-chairman of the President's Council on Physical Fitness.

1954
Chris Evert, American tennis champion. She is the all-time leader in tournament victories (157) and has been ranked #1 in the world five times.

1946
Carl Wilson, American guitarist, with The Beach Boys. Music: Surfin' USA (1963), I Get Around (1964, #1), Help Me Rhonda, (1965, #1), and Good Vibrations (1966, #1).

1940 d. 1993
Frank Zappa (Francis Vincent Zappa Jr.), American Grammy-winning singer, songwriter, leader of The Mothers of Invention. Music: Yellow Snow (1974), Valley Girl (1982), and Jazz From Hell (1987, Grammy).

1937
Jane Fonda, American Oscar-winning actress, activist. Film: Coming Home (1978, Oscar).

1922 d. 2005
Paul Winchell, American ventriloquist. He worked with a couple of dummies named Jerry Mahoney and Knucklehead Smiff. He was also the voice of Tigger in "Winnie the Pooh" features.

1909 d. 1994
George Ball, American lawyer, economist, presidential advisor. In 1961, as Pres. Kennedy's undersecretary of state, he advised that if 15,000 troops were sent to Vietnam, it would take another 300,000 to bring them back home.

1879 d. 1953
Joseph Stalin, Russian dictator (1929-53). In 1893 he entered a seminary to study for the priesthood, but was expelled in 1898 for his Marxist activities. He also founded the newspaper Pravda (1911) and was Time magazine's 1939 and 1942 Man of the Year.

1829 d. 1889
Laura Dewey Bridgman, American blind deaf-mute. She was the first person educated using the techniques that later evolved into the modern methods.

1804 d. 1881
Benjamin Disraeli, British prime minister. He once declared "No government can be long secure without a formidable opposition."

1773 d. 1858
Robert Brown, British botanist. Known for his description of the Brownian movement (1827), which is the rapid movement of minute particles suspended in liquid.

1401 d. circa 1429
Masaccio (Tomaso Guidi), Italian Renaissance painter, called the father of modern art.

2000 b. 1918
Alfred J. Gross, Canadian-born inventor. He invented the walkie-talkie (1939) and the pager (1949) and laid the groundwork for cordless and cellular phones. While visiting Gross' workshop, Chester Gould was inspired to give Dick Tracy his 2-way wristwatch.

1993 b. 1906
Zack Mosley, American cartoonist, creator of Smilin' Jack (1933-73).

1992 b. 1901
Stella Adler, American acting instructor, her students include Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro.

1992 b. 1923
Albert King (Albert Nelson), American blues musician. Music: Laundromat Blues (1966) and Born Under a Bad Sign (1967).

1975 b. 1914
William Lundigan, American radio announcer, actor, appeared in over 120 films. TV: Climax (host).

1967 b. 1914
Louis Washkansky, South African grocer. He received the first successful human heart transplant, surviving for 18 days.

1950 b. 1878
Hattie Wyatt Caraway, American politician. She was the first woman: elected to the U.S. Senate (1932, Arkansas); to preside over Senate Sessions (1932); president pro tem of the Senate (1943).

1945 b. 1885
George Smith Patton Jr., American four-star general, called "Old Blood and Guts." He led the 3rd Army during World War II.

1940 b. 1896
F. Scott Fitzgerald (Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald), American author. Writings: This Side of Paradise (1920) and The Great Gatsby (1925).

1938 b. 1856
James M. Black, American Methodist composer. Music: When the Roll Is Called Up Yonder (wrote the tune). (Source: An Almanac of the Christian Church)

1933 b. 1874
James Forman Sloan, American jockey, the leading race horse jockey of the late 1800s. He introduced the practices of riding high on the horse and hunching down to reduce wind resistance.

1824 b. 1755
James Parkinson, English surgeon. He described the disease of shaking palsy (1817), which now bears his name. He was also one of the first to give a scientific account of fossils.

1807 b. 1725
John Newton, English clergyman, hymn writer. Music: Amazing Grace (1779). (Source: An Almanac of the Christian Church)

69 A.D. b. 15 A.D.
Aulus Vitellius, Roman Emperor (Apr-Dec 69 A.D.), killed by Vespasian.

December 21

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