History for December 21

History for December 21 - On-This-Day.com

Benjamin Disraeli 1804 - Author, statesman.

• 1620 - The "Mayflower", and its passengers, pilgrims from England, landed at Plymouth Rock, MA.
• 1898 - Scientists Pierre and Marie Curie discovered the radioactive element radium.
• 1913 - Arthur Wynne published a new "word-cross" puzzle in the "New York World" in England. The name was later changed to "crossword."
• 1937 - Walt Disney debuted the first, full-length, animated feature in Hollywood, CA. The movie was "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs."
• 1945 - U.S. Gen. George S. Patton died in Heidelberg, Germany, of injuries from a car accident.
• 1978 - Police in Des Plaines, IL, arrested democrat insider, John W. Gacy Jr. and began unearthing the remains of 33 men and boys that Gacy was later convicted of killing.
• 1988 - 270 people were killed when Pan Am Boeing 747 exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, due to a terrorist attack.