Events, Births and Deaths Happening on this Date

1620

Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower went ashore for the first time at present-day Plymouth, Mass.

1898

Scientists Pierre and Marie Curie discovered the radioactive element radium.

1913

The first crossword puzzle was published, appearing in the "New York World." It was compiled by Arthur Wynne.

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.

1962

President Kennedy and British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan agree the UK will buy nuclear missiles from the US to form a multilateral NATO nuclear force.

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.

1970

Elvis Presley met with President Nixon in the Oval Office. Presley had requested the meeting to discuss his ideas for fighting drugs.

1971

The U.N. 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 OPEC. The terrorists killed three people, and took 70 people hostage, including 11 OPEC ministers.

1976

The Liberian-registered tanker Argo Merchant ran aground near Nantucket Island, spilling millions of gallons of oil into the North Atlantic.

1978

Police in Des Plaines, Ill., arrested John W. Gacy Jr. and began unearthing the remains of 33 men and boys that Gacy was later convicted of murdering.

1988

A terrorist bomb exploded aboard a Pan Am Boeing 747 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people.

1991

Eleven of the 12 former Soviet 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.

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.

1940

F. Scott Fitzgerald, American novelist and short-story writer, who wrote "The Great Gatsby" and other works.

1945

Gen. George S. Patton, American military leader during World War II, died in Heidelberg, Germany, of injuries from a car accident.