On This Day:
Saturday December 21, 2013 This is the 355th day of the year, with 10 days remaining in 2013. Fact of the Day: crossword puzzle The first modern crossword puzzle (originally called Word-Cross puzzle) appeared in the December 21, 1913 edition of the New York World Sunday magazine supplement, called Fun. Arthur Wynne based the "Word-Cross" on a word game from his childhood. The word crossword first appeared in the 1934 edition of Webster's New International Dictionary. The first publishing venture of Simon & Schuster was also the first crossword puzzle book, Crossword Puzzle Book, in 1924. It became a best-seller.
Holidays Feast day of St. Thomas the Apostle, Saints Themistocles and Dioscorus, St. John Vincent, St. Anastasius II of Antioch, St. Peter Canisius, and St. Glycerius.
United States, New England: Forefathers' Day.
Events 68 - Vespian, a general, entered Rome and was named emperor by the Senate.
1620 - The Pilgrims of the Mayflower went ashore for the first time at present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts.
1913 - The first crossword puzzle, compiled by Arthur Wynne, was published, appearing in the "New York World."
1923 - Nepal gained independence from Great Britain.
1928 - President Calvin Coolidge signed the Boulder Canyon Project Act, which intended to dam the fourteen hundred mile Colorado River and distribute its water for use in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming.
1937 - Walt Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" was shown in Los Angeles; it was the first full-length animated talking picture.
1946 - Louis Jordan's single, "Let the Good Times Roll," debuted on the rhythm and blues charts.
1948 - The state of Eire (formerly the Irish Free State) declared its independence.
1958 - Charles de Gaulle was elected to a seven-year term as the first president of the Fifth Republic of France.
1968 - Apollo 8, the first manned mission to the Moon, was successfully launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, with astronauts Frank Borman, James Lovell, Jr., and William Anders aboard.
1971 - The United Nations Security Council chose Kurt Waldheim to succeed U Thant as Secretary-General.
1975 - In Vienna, Austria, Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, known as "Carlos the Jackal," led Arab terrorists on a raid of a meeting of oil ministers from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). The terrorists killed three people, and took 70 people hostage, including 11 OPEC ministers. Sanchez evaded authorities until 1994, when French agents captured him hiding in the Sudan. He was sentenced to life imprisonment by a French jury.
1976 - The Liberian-registered tanker Argo Merchant ran aground near Nantucket Island, spilling millions of gallons of oil into the North Atlantic.
1988 - A terrorist bomb exploded aboard a Pam Am Boeing 747 over Lockerbie, Scotland, sending wreckage crashing to the ground and killing 270 people.
1991 - Eleven of the 12 former Soviet Union republics proclaimed the birth of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
1995 - The city of Bethlehem passed from Israeli to Palestinian control.
1996 - After two years of denials, House Speaker Newt Gingrich admitted violating House ethics rules.
Births 1804 - Benjamin Disraeli, British author, statesman.
1879 - Joseph Stalin (Dzhugashvili), Russian dictator.
1937 - Jane Fonda, American actress, exercise guru, and activist; daughter of actor Henry Fonda.
1940 - Frank Zappa, American composer, guitarist, singer, film director, and satirist.
1954 - Chris Evert, American tennis champion.
1957 - Ray Romano, American actor and comedian.
Deaths 1940 - F. Scott Fitzgerald, American novelist and short-story writer, who wrote "The Great Gatsby" and other works.
1945 - George S. Patton, American military leader during World War II.
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