On this day in history

December 21

26 births · 11 deaths · 5 events

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Anniversary highlights

Event anniversary

2012 phenomenon

13 years ago

Born this day

1977

Emmanuel Macron

Turns 48

Oldest record

906th

Thomas Becket

birth anniversary

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Famous births26

1119 · 906 yrs

Thomas Becket

Thomas Becket, also known as Saint Thomas of Canterbury, Thomas of London and later Thomas à Becket (21 December 1119 or 1120 – 29 December 1170), was an English cleric and statesman who served as Lord Chancellor from 1155 to 1162, and then as Archbishop of Canterbury from 1162 until his death in 1170.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ReligionDied aged 51

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Photo: Peter of Langtoft · Public domain

1773 · 252 yrs

Robert Brown

Robert Brown (21 December 1773 – 10 June 1858) was a Scottish botanist and paleobotanist who made important contributions to botany largely through his pioneering use of the microscope.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 84

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Photo: Unknown author · Public domain

1804 · 221 yrs

Benjamin Disraeli

Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield (born Benjamin D'Israeli; 21 December 1804 – 19 April 1881), was a British statesman, Conservative politician and writer who twice served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsDied aged 76

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Photo: Cornelius Jabez Hughes · Public domain

1836 · 189 yrs

Mily Alexeyevich Balakirev

Mily Alexeyevich Balakirev (UK: bə-LA(H)K-i-rev, US: BAH-lah-KEER-ef; Russian: Милий Алексеевич Балакирев, pronounced; 2 January 1837 – 29 May 1910) was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor known today primarily for his work promoting musical nationalism and his encouragement of more famous Russian composers,…

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MusicDied aged 73

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Photo: Unknown author · Public domain

1890 · 135 yrs

Hermann Joseph Muller

Hermann Joseph Muller (December 21, 1890 – April 5, 1967) was an American geneticist who was awarded the 1946 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for the discovery of the production of mutations by means of X-ray irradiation".

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 135

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Photo: Alfred De Bat · Public domain

1892 · 133 yrs

Rebecca West

Dame Cecily Isabel Fairfield (21 December 1892 – 15 March 1983), known as Rebecca West, or Dame Rebecca West, was a British author, journalist, literary critic and travel writer.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureWould be 133

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Photo: Madame Yévonde · CC BY-SA 3.0

1895 · 130 yrs

Dziga Vertov

Denis Arkadyevich Vertov (born David Abelevich Kaufman; 2 January 1896 – 12 February 1954), better known as Dziga Vertov, was a Soviet pioneer documentary film and newsreel director, as well as a cinema theorist.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

FilmWould be 130

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Photo: Mikhail Kaufman · Public domain

1917 · 108 yrs

Heinrich Böll

Heinrich Theodor Böll (German:; 21 December 1917 – 16 July 1985) was a German writer. Considered one of Germany's foremost post–World War II writers, Böll received the Georg Büchner Prize (1967) and the Nobel Prize for Literature (1972).

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureWould be 108

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Photo: Hoffmann, Harald · CC BY-SA 3.0 de

1918 · 107 yrs

Kurt Waldheim

Kurt Josef Waldheim (Austrian German:; 21 December 1918 – 14 June 2007) was an Austrian politician and diplomat. Waldheim was the secretary-general of the United Nations from 1972 to 1981 and the president of Austria from 1986 to 1992.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 107

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Photo: Bernard Gotfryd · Public domain

1937 · 88 yrs

Jane Fonda

Jane Seymour Fonda (born December 21, 1937) is an American actress and activist. Fonda's work spans several genres and over seven decades of film and television.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ActivismAge 88

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Photo: Unstated photographer · Public domain

1940 · 85 yrs

Frank Zappa

Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American composer, songwriter, guitarist, conductor, actor, satirist, filmmaker, and activist.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MusicWould be 85

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Photo: Mark Estabrook · Attribution

1942 · 83 yrs

Hu Jintao

Hu Jintao (born 21 December 1942) is a retired Chinese politician who served as the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 2002 to 2012, president of China from 2003 to 2013, chairman of the Party Central Military Commission (CMC) from 2004 to 2012 and chairman of the State Central Military…

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MilitaryAge 83

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Photo: Pete Souza · Public domain

Showing 12 of 26

Famous deaths11

1549 · 476 yrs

Margaret of Valois-Angoulême

Marguerite de Navarre (French: Marguerite d'Angoulême, Marguerite d'Alençon; 11 April 1492 – 21 December 1549), also known as Marguerite of Angoulême and Margaret of Navarre, was a princess of France, Duchess of Alençon and Berry, and Queen of Navarre by her second marriage to King Henry II of Navarre.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyDied aged 57

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Photo: Jean Clouet · Public domain

1907 · 118 yrs

Klara Hitler

Klara Hitler (née Pölzl; 12 August 1860 – 21 December 1907) was the mother of Adolf Hitler, dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. In 1934, Adolf Hitler honoured his mother by naming a street in Passau after her.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Notable PeopleDied aged 47

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Photo: Unknown author · Public domain

1937 · 88 yrs

Frank B. Kellogg

Frank Billings Kellogg (December 22, 1856 – December 21, 1937) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served in the U.S. Senate and as U.S. Secretary of State. He co-authored the Kellogg–Briand Pact, for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1929.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsDied aged 80

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Photo: Miscellaneous Items in High Demand, PPOC, Library of Congress · Public domain

1940 · 85 yrs

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940), widely known as F. Scott Fitzgerald or simply Scott Fitzgerald, was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureWould be 130

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Photo: Nickolas Muray · Public domain

1942 · 83 yrs

Franz Boas

Franz Uri Boas (July 9, 1858 – December 21, 1942) was a German-American anthropologist and ethnomusicologist. He was a pioneer of modern anthropology who has been called the "Father of American Anthropology".

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScholarshipDied aged 84

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Photo: Unknown author · Public domain

1945 · 80 yrs

George S. Patton

George Smith Patton Jr. (11 November 1885 – 21 December 1945) was a general in the United States Army who commanded the Seventh Army in the Mediterranean Theater of World War II, then the Third Army in France and Germany after the Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MilitaryWould be 140

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Photo: Robert F. Cranston / Harry Warnecke · CC0

1958 · 67 yrs

Lion Feuchtwanger

Lion Feuchtwanger (German:; 7 July 1884 – 21 December 1958) was a German Jewish novelist and playwright. A prominent figure in the literary world of Weimar Germany, he influenced contemporaries including playwright Bertolt Brecht.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureWould be 142

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Photo: Unknown author · Public domain

1988 · 37 yrs

Nikolaas Tinbergen

Nikolaas "Niko" Tinbergen ( TIN-bur-gən, Dutch:; 15 April 1907 – 21 December 1988) was a Dutch biologist and ornithologist who shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Karl von Frisch and Konrad Lorenz for their discoveries concerning the organization and elicitation of individual and social behavior…

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 119

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Photo: Lorenz_and_Tinbergen2.jpg : Max Planck Gesellschaft derivative work: Materialscientist · CC BY-SA 3.0

2006 · 19 yrs

Saparmyrat Nyýazow

Saparmurat Atayevich Niyazov (19 February 1940 – 21 December 2006) was a Turkmen politician and dictator who led Turkmenistan from 1985 until his death in 2006. He was the first secretary of the Communist Party of Turkmenistan from 1985 until 1991 and supported the 1991 Soviet coup attempt.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 86

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Photo: Danny Gys · CC BY 4.0

2014 · 11 yrs

Udo Jürgens

Udo Jürgens (born Jürgen Udo Bockelmann; 30 September 1934 – 21 December 2014) was an Austrian composer and singer of popular music whose career spanned over 50 years. He won the Eurovision Song Contest 1966 for Austria, composed close to 1,000 songs, and sold over 104 million records.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MusicWould be 92

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Photo: Unknown author · CC BY-SA 4.0

2023 · 2 yrs

Robert Solow

Robert Merton Solow (August 23, 1924 – December 21, 2023) was an American economist known for his studies of economic growth and the development of the Solow–Swan model, for which he won the 1987 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 102

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Photo: Olaf Storbeck from Düsseldorf, Deutschland · CC BY-SA 2.0

Events5

1988 · 37 yrs

Pan Am Flight 103

Pan Am Flight 103 was a regularly scheduled Pan Am flight from Frankfurt to Detroit, with stopovers in London and New York City. Shortly after 19:00 GMT on 21 December 1988, the Boeing 747 Clipper Maid of the Seas was destroyed by a bomb while flying over the Scottish town of Lockerbie.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Disaster

2012 · 13 yrs

2012 phenomenon

The 2012 phenomenon was a range of eschatological beliefs that cataclysmic or transformative events would occur on or around 21 December 2012.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

History

2017 · 8 yrs

2017 Catalan parliamentary election

A regional election was held in Catalonia on 21 December 2017 to elect the 12th Parliament of the autonomous community. All 135 seats in the Parliament were up for election.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Politics

2018 · 7 yrs

2018 Sunda Strait tsunami

The 2018 Sunda Strait tsunami (Indonesian: Tsunami Selat Sunda 2018) occurred on 22 December 2018 at around 21:38 local time after large parts of the southwestern side of Anak Krakatoa collapsed onto its caldera.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Disaster

2023 · 2 yrs

2023 Prague shooting

On 21 December 2023, a mass shooting occurred at Charles University's Faculty of Arts main building in central Prague, Czech Republic.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Tragedy

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