December 21
1891
30-year-old James Naismith introduced the first game of basketball. Based on 13 rules created by Naismith, the game was tested by 18 students at the International Young Men’s Christian Association Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts. Two teams of nine players each competed against each other, with the objective to throw a soccer ball into a peach basket attached to a balcony 10 feet above the floor. Naismith, who died in 1939, became the first basketball coach at Kansas University, where he led the Jayhawks from 1898-1907.
1937
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs premiered at the Carthay Circle Theatre. Based on the 1812 German fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm, it is the first full-length traditionally animated feature film and the first Disney animated feature film. It was a critical and commercial success and, with international earnings of more than $8 million during its initial release, it briefly held the record of highest-grossing sound film at the time. Adjusted for inflation, it is one of the top-ten performers at the North American box office and the highest-grossing animated film. In 1989, the United States Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected it as one of the first 25 films for preservation in the National Film Registry.
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. On Christmas Eve, the astronauts entered into orbit around the moon, the first manned spacecraft ever to do so. During Apollo 8‘s 10 lunar orbits, television images were sent back home, and spectacular photos were taken of Earth and the moon from the spacecraft. In addition to being the first human beings to view first-hand their home world in its entirety, the three astronauts were also the first to see the far side of the moon. On July 20 of the next year, Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, astronauts of the Apollo 11 mission, became the first men to walk on the moon.
December 22
1894
The Amateur Golf Association of the United States—later renamed the United States Golf Association—was formed in New York to govern the sport. Five charter golf clubs join to form the association—Newport (Rhode Island) Golf Club; St. Andrews Golf Club in Westchester County, New York; Chicago Golf Club in Wheaton, Illinois; Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in Southampton, New York; and The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts.
1941
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill arrived in Washington, D.C. for a series of meetings with FDR on a unified Anglo-American war strategy and a future peace. Among the momentous results of these U.S.-Anglo meetings was a declaration issued by Churchill and Roosevelt that enjoined 26 signatory nations to use all resources at their disposal to defeat the Axis powers and not sue for a separate peace. This confederation called itself the “United Nations.” All 26 nations declared a unified goal to “ensure life, liberty, independence and religious freedom, and to preserve the rights of man and justice.” The blueprint for the destruction of fascism and a future international peacekeeping organization was born.
1956
A baby gorilla named Colo was born at the Columbus Zoo in Ohio, becoming the first-ever gorilla born in captivity. Weighing in at approximately 4lbs, Colo, a western lowland gorilla, was the daughter of Millie and Mac, two gorillas captured in French Cameroon, Africa, who were brought to the Columbus Zoo in 1951. Before Colo’s birth, gorillas found at zoos were caught in the wild, often by brutal means. Today, there are approximately 750 gorillas in captivity around the world and an estimated 100,000 lowland gorillas (and far fewer mountain gorillas) remaining in the wild. Most zoos are active in captive breeding programs and have agreed not to buy gorillas born in the wild. She eventually became a mother of three, grandmother of 16, great-grandmother of 12 and great-great-grandmother of three. Colo passed away at the age of 60 in 2017.
December 23
1968
The captain and crew of the U.S. intelligence-gathering ship USS Pueblo were released after 11 months of imprisonment by the government of North Korea. The ship, along with its 83-man crew, were seized by North Korean warships on Jan. 23, 1968 and charged with intruding into North Korean waters. One sailor was killed in the attack. To secure their release, the U.S. government had to offer a written apology, admit that the Pueblo had been engaged in a spy mission, and a pledge that the United States would never attempt to launch any future such missions. After the last man had crossed the bridge, the United States verbally retracted all its admissions, apologies and assurances. But the USS Pueblo itself remained in North Korean captivity, as it does to this day. So did ten encryption machines and thousands of pages of top secret documents seized from the ship.
1972
The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Oakland Raiders, 13-7, on rookie running back Franco Harris' "Immaculate Reception" touchdown in the waning seconds of a playoff game, one of the greatest plays in NFL history. On 4th-and-10 from his 40-yard line with 22 seconds left and no timeouts, Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw, under pressure, threw a pass toward Frenchy Fuqua at Oakland's 35-yard line. Raiders defensive back Jack Tatum crashed into Fuqua, apparently hitting the football, which ricocheted toward Harris, who caught it inches off the turf and ran down the sideline for a 60-yard touchdown.
1982
The Missouri Department of Health and the federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC) inform residents of Times Beach, Missouri that their town was contaminated when the chemical dioxin, “the most potent cancer-causing agent made by man,” was sprayed on its unpaved roads, and that the town will have to be evacuated and demolished. By February, the federal and state governments had spent $36 million to buy every house in town except one (its owners, lifelong residents of Times Beach, refused to sell). In all, the EPA incinerated 265,000 tons of dioxin-tainted soil. In 1985, the city was officially disincorporated.
December 24
1812
The Treaty of Ghent was signed by British and American representatives at Ghent, Belgium, ending the War of 1812. By terms of the treaty, all conquered territory was to be returned, and commissions were planned to settle the boundary of the United States and Canada. In June 1812, the US declared war against Great Britain in reaction to three issues: the British economic blockade of France, the forced induction of thousands of neutral American seamen into the British Royal Navy, and the British support of Native American tribes. A faction of Congress, made up mostly of western and southern congressmen, had been advocating the declaration of war for several years. These “War Hawks" hoped that war with Britain, which was preoccupied with its struggle against Napoleonic France, would result in U.S. territorial gains in Canada and British-protected Florida.
1851
A devastating fire at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. destroyed about 2/3 of its 55,000 volumes. Thomas Jefferson, who advocated for the expansion of the library during his two terms in office, sold his personal library, the largest and finest in the country, to Congress in 1815. The majority of Jefferson's 6,487 volume library was destroyed by the fire. Congress responded quickly and generously to the disaster, replacing most of the lost books within a few years. Today, the collection, housed in three enormous buildings in Washington, contains more than 39 million books, as well as millions of maps, manuscripts, photographs, films, audio and video recordings, prints and drawings.
1895
George Vanderbilt, a member of the prominent Vanderbilt family who amassed a huge fortune through steamboats, railroads, and various business enterprises, opened Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC. A three-mile railroad spur was constructed to bring materials to the building site. Construction on the main house required the labor of about 1,000 workers and 60 stonemasons. The Gilden Age mansion reportedly cost $5 million (today's equivalent of $150 million) to construct. Still owned by his descendants, it is the largest privately owned house in America spanning 175,000 square feet, which is more than 4 acres floor space. The 250-room French Renaissance chateau includes 35 bedrooms, 43 bathrooms, and 65 fireplaces.
December 25
1776
During the American Revolution, Patriot General George Washington crossed the icy Delaware River with 5,400 troops, hoping to surprise a Hessian force celebrating Christmas at their winter quarters in Trenton, New Jersey. The unconventional attack came after several months of substantial defeats for Washington’s army that had resulted in the loss of New York City and other strategic points in the region. Washington’s men quickly overwhelmed the Germans’ defenses and surrounded the town. Although several hundred Hessians escaped, nearly 1,000 were captured at the cost of only four American lives.
1914
Just after midnight on Christmas morning during WW1, German troops stopped firing their weapons to begin singing Christmas carols. At daybreak, the soldiers approached the Allied lines, calling out “Merry Christmas” in their enemies’ native tongues. Seeing the Germans unarmed, The Allied soldiers shook hands with the enemy soldiers. The men exchanged presents of cigarettes and plum puddings, sang carols and songs and even played a good-natured game of soccer. The so-called Christmas Truce of 1914 came only five months after the outbreak of war in Europe and was one of the last examples of the outdated notion of chivalry between enemies in warfare.
1962
To Kill a Mockingbird, a film based on the 1960 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name by Harper Lee, opened in theaters. The Great Depression-era story of racial injustice and the loss of childhood innocence is told from the perspective of a young Alabama girl named Scout Finch, played in the film by Mary Badham, who lives with her older brother Jem (Phillip Alford) and their widowed attorney father Atticus (Gregory Peck). The American Film Institute has rated Atticus Finch as the greatest movie hero of the 20th century, and in 1995 the United States National Film Registry picked To Kill a Mockingbird for preservation in the Library of Congress as a “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” film.
December 26
1908
Texan Jack Johnson defeated Canadian Tommy Burns to become the first African American world heavyweight boxing champion. Admired for quick footwork and defensive acumen, he retained the heavyweight title from 1908 to 1915. Johnson's success in the ring made him an international celebrity, but he is known for his defiance of the early 20th-century “Jim Crow” racial conventions. Outspoken, independent, and conspicuous with his wealth, Johnson intentionally provoked those who did not celebrate his success. Most upsetting to the press and public opinion was the boxer's open challenge to society's disapproval of interracial dating and marriage with three of his marriages being to white women. He is considered the greatest defensive boxer in heavyweight history.
1944
During the brutal Battle of the Bulge, Adolf Hitler's last major offensive in WWII against the Western Front and the costliest ever fought by the U.S. Army with over 100,000 casualties, General Patton employed an audacious strategy where he wheels his 3rd Army a sharp 90 degrees in a counter thrust movement to break through the German lines and enter Bastogne, Belgium. He was able to relieve the besieged and exhausted Allied defenders of Bastogne and ultimately push the Germans east across the Rhine. Claiming victory of the battle on January 25, 1945, the Allies headed for Berlin. The war ended less than five months later with Germany’s May 7 surrender.
1946
Mobster Bugsy Siegel opened the glitzy Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. Siegel and his New York “partners” had invested $1 million in a property already under construction by Billy Wilkerson, owner of some very popular nightclubs in the Sunset Strip. Convinced that Siegel wasn’t giving them a “square count,” it is widely believed that his partners in organized crime had him killed while he was reading the paper June 20, 1947, at Virginia Hill’s Beverly Hills mansion. Hill, Siegel's girlfriend, was in Paris, having flown the coop after a fight with Siegel 10 days prior. The crime remains unsolved to this day. Surviving a series of name and ownership changes, the hotel is known today as The Flamingo Las Vegas.
December 27
1900
Prohibitionist Carry Nation smashed up the bar at the Carey Hotel in Wichita, Kansas, causing several thousand dollars in damage and landing in jail. Nation, who was released shortly after the incident, became famous for carrying a hatchet and wrecking saloons as part of her anti-alcohol crusade. Her disdain for spirits resulted from her first husband dying from alcoholism and leaving her with a young child. Upon marrying a preacher and lawyer, she became involved with the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). The WCTU was founded in 1874 by women “concerned about the problems alcohol was causing their families and society.” At the time, women lacked many of the same rights as men and their lives could be ruined if their husbands drank too much.
1932
At the height of the Great Depression, thousands turn out for the opening of Radio City Music Hall, a magnificent Art Deco theater in New York City. The brainchild of billionaire John D. Rockefeller, Jr., who decided to make the theater the cornerstone of the Rockefeller Complex he was building in a formerly derelict neighborhood in midtown Manhattan, Radio City Music Hall was designed as a palace for the people, a place of beauty where ordinary people could see high-quality entertainment. n its first four decades, Radio City Music Hall alternated as a first-run movie theater and a site for gala stage shows. More than 700 films have premiered at Radio City Music Hall since 1933. In the late 1970s, the theater changed its format and began staging concerts by popular music artists. More than 300 million people have visited Radio City Music Hall.
1970
Hello, Dolly!, following the story of Dolly Gallagher Levi, played by Carol Channing, a strong-willed matchmaker, as she travels to Yonkers, New York, to find a match for the miserly "well-known unmarried half-a-millionaire" Horace Vandergelder, closed at St James Theater NYC after 2844 performances. The musical won ten Tony Awards during its initial run and eventually became one of the most enduring musical theater hits, with four Broadway revivals and an Academy Award winning adaptation.