This Day in History – December 21, 2011

1620 – Plymouth Colony: William Bradford and 102 other Mayflower pilgrims land at Plymouth Rock 1784 – John Jay becomes 1st US Secretary of State (foreign affairs) 1829 – First stone arch railroad bridge in US dedicated, Baltimore 1861 – Medal of Honor: Public Resolution 82, containing a provision for a Navy Medal of Valor, is signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln. 1864 – General Sherman conquers Savannah 1909 – First junior high school established (Berkeley CA) 1913 – Arthur Wynne’s “word-cross”, the first crossword puzzle, is published in the New York World. 1914 – First feature-length silent film comedy, “Tillie’s Punctured Romance” released (starring Marie Dressler, Mabel Normand & Charles Chaplin) 1921 – Supreme Court rules labor injunctions & picketing unconstitutional 1929 – First US group hospital insurance plan instituted, Dallas TX 1932 – Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers’ First joint movie (Flying Down to Rio) 1937 – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the world’s first full-length animated feature, premieres at the Carthay Circle Theater. 1946 – Frank Capra’s “It’s a Wonderful Life” premieres 1951 – Joe DiMaggio announces his retirement 1958 – Charles De Gaulle wins 7 year term as 1st President of 5th Republic of France 1959 – Tom Landry accepts coaching job with Dallas Cowboys (stays until 1988) 1968 – Apollo program: Apollo 8 launched from the Kennedy Space Center, placing its crew on a lunar trajectory for the first visit to another celestial body by humans. 1968 – Apollo 8 (Frank Borman, Jim Lovell & Bill Anders) First manned Moon voyage 1968 – David Crosby, Stephen Stills & Graham Nash premiere together in California 1969 – Diana Ross final TV appearance as a Supreme (Ed Sullivan Show) 1969 – Vince Lombardi (Redskins) coaches his last football game, losing 1978 – Police in Des Plaines IL, arrest John Wayne Gacy Jr for murder 1988 – A bomb explodes on board Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, killing 270. 1989 – Vice-President Quayle sends out 30,000 Xmas cards with word beacon spelled beakon 1991 – US actress Jane Fonda marries CNN-director Ted Turner 2004 – Iraq War: A suicide bomber killed 22 at the forward operating base next to the main U.S. military airfield at Mosul, the single deadliest suicide attack on American soldiers.]]]]> ]]>