21 December
Notable Births
Cooper Flagg
b. 2006
American basketball player (born 2006)
Clara Tauson
b. 2002
Danish tennis player (born 2002)
Madelyn Cline
b. 1997
American actress (born 1997)
Charlie McAvoy
b. 1997
American ice hockey player (born 1997)
Ben Chilwell
b. 1996
English footballer (born 1996)
Kaitlyn Dever
b. 1996
American actress (born 1996)
Luke Brooks
b. 1994
Australian rugby league footballer
Ha Ha Clinton-Dix
b. 1992
American football player (born 1992)
Jamie Oleksiak
b. 1992
Canadian ice hockey player (born 1992)
Nic Maddinson
b. 1991
Australian cricketer
Otis (wrestler)
b. 1991
American professional wrestler (born 1991)
Riccardo Saponara
b. 1991
Italian footballer
Mark Ingram II
b. 1989
American football player (born 1989)
Tamannaah Bhatia
b. 1989
Indian actress (born 1989)
Danny Duffy
b. 1988
American baseball player (born 1988)
Perri Shakes-Drayton
b. 1988
English track and field athlete (born 1988)
Khris Davis
b. 1987
American baseball player (born 1987)
Tom Sturridge
b. 1985
English actor (born 1985)
Taylor Teagarden
b. 1983
American baseball player (born 1983)
Steven Yeun
b. 1983
South Korean and American actor (born 1983)
Notable Deaths
Michelle Botes
d. 2024
South African actress (1962–2024)
Art Evans (actor)
d. 2024
American actor (1942–2024)
Andrew Clennel Palmer
d. 2019
British engineer (1938–2019)
Bruce McCandless II
d. 2017
American aviator and astronaut (1937–2017)
Udo Jürgens
d. 2014
Austrian singer and composer (1934–2014)
Sitor Situmorang
d. 2014
Indonesian poet
Edgar Bronfman Sr.
d. 2013
Canadian-American businessman (1929–2013)
John Eisenhower
d. 2013
United States Army general, military historian, diplomat
Enzo Bearzot
d. 2010
Italian football player and manager (1927–2010)
Edwin G. Krebs
d. 2009
American biochemist (1918–2009)
Saparmurat Niyazov
d. 2006
President of Turkmenistan from 1991 to 2006
Ernst-Günther Schenck
d. 1998
German SS surgeon
Stella Adler
d. 1992
American actress and acting teacher (1901–1992)
Albert King
d. 1992
American blues musician (1923–1992)
Nathan Milstein
d. 1992
American violinist (1904–1992)
Nikolaas Tinbergen
d. 1988
Dutch zoologist and ethologist (1907–1988)
Hafeez Jalandhari
d. 1982
Pakistani poet (1900–1982)
Richard Long (actor)
d. 1974
American actor (1927–1974)
Vittorio Pozzo
d. 1968
Italian football manager (1886–1968)
Claude Champagne
d. 1965
French Canadian composer, teacher, pianist and violinist (1891–1965)
On This Day in History
All 37 ›
2023
Fourteen people are killed and 25 others injured during a mass shooting at Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic.
2023 Prague shootings
2020
A great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn occurs, with the two planets separated in the sky by 0.1 degrees. This is the closest conjunction between the two planets since 1623.
Great conjunction
2012
2012 phenomenon: Festivities are held in parts of Mesoamerica to commemorate the conclusion of b'ak'tun 13, a roughly 5,126-year-long cycle in the Mesoamerican Long Count Calendar whose passing many New Age spiritualists had earlier held to portend a variety of cataclysmic or transformative events.
2012 phenomenon
2004
Iraq War: A suicide bomber kills 22 at the forward operating base next to the main U.S. military airfield at Mosul, Iraq, the single deadliest suicide attack on American soldiers in Iraq.
Iraq War
1999
The Spanish Civil Guard intercepts a van loaded with 950 kg of explosives that ETA intended to use to blow up Torre Picasso in Madrid, Spain.
Civil Guard (Spain)
1999
Cubana de Aviación Flight 1216 overshoots the runway at La Aurora International Airport, killing 18.
Cubana de Aviación Flight 1216
1995
The city of Bethlehem passes from Israeli to Palestinian control.
Bethlehem
1992
A Dutch DC-10, flight Martinair MP 495, crashes at Faro Airport, Portugal, killing 56.
Netherlands
1991
Dissolution of the Soviet Union: The leaders of 11 now effectively autonomous Soviet republics sign the Alma-Ata Protocol establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States in place of the collapsing Soviet Union.
Dissolution of the Soviet Union
1988
A bomb explodes on board Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, killing 270. This is to date the deadliest air disaster to occur on British soil.
Pan Am Flight 103
1979
Lancaster House Agreement: An independence agreement for Rhodesia is signed in London by Lord Carrington, Sir Ian Gilmour, Robert Mugabe, Joshua Nkomo, Bishop Abel Muzorewa and S.C. Mundawarara.
Lancaster House Agreement
1973
The Geneva Conference on the Arab–Israeli conflict opens.
Geneva Conference (1973)
1968
Apollo program: Apollo 8 is launched from the Kennedy Space Center, placing its crew on a lunar trajectory for the first visit to another celestial body by humans.
Apollo program
1967
Louis Washkansky, the first man to undergo a human-to-human heart transplant, dies in Cape Town, South Africa, having lived for 18 days after the transplant.
Louis Washkansky
1965
International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination is adopted.
International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination
1963
"Bloody Christmas" begins in Cyprus, ultimately resulting in the displacement of 25,000–30,000 Turkish Cypriots and destruction of more than 100 villages.
Bloody Christmas (1963)
1946
An 8.1 Mw earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Nankaidō, Japan, kills over 1,300 people and destroys over 38,000 homes.
Moment magnitude scale
1941
World War II: A Thai-Japanese Pact of Alliance is signed.
World War II
1934
Lieutenant Kijé, one of Sergei Prokofiev's best-known works, premiered.
Lieutenant Kijé (Prokofiev)
1923
United Kingdom and Nepal formally sign an agreement of friendship, called the Nepal–Britain Treaty of 1923, which superseded the Treaty of Sugauli signed in 1816.
Nepal