http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
Dec 21, 1991: Soviet republics proclaim the Commonwealth of Independent States
In a final step signifying the dismemberment of the Soviet Union, 11 of the 12 Soviet republics declare that they are forming the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Just a few days later, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev announced he was stepping down from his position. The Soviet Union ceased to exist.
The 11 republics-Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, the Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan-signed an agreement creating the CIS. Only Georgia, embroiled in a civil war, abstained from participation. Exactly what they created was open to debate. The CIS was not a new nation, but merely an "alliance" between independent states. The political meaning of the alliance was hazy. The independent states each took over the former Soviet government facilities within their borders. The military side of the CIS was even more confusing. They agreed to sustain any arms agreements signed by the former Soviet Union. The former Soviet defense minister would retain control over the military until the CIS could agree on what to do with the nuclear weapons and conventional forces within their borders. Complicating the situation were terrific economic problems and outbreaks of ethnic violence in the new republics.
For Gorbachev, the announcement was the final signal that his power—and the existence of the Soviet Union—was at an end. Four days later, on Christmas Day, he announced his resignation.
Dec 21, 1988: Pan Am Flight 103 explodes over Scotland
On this day in 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 from London to New York explodes in midair over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all 243 passengers and 16 crew members aboard, as well as 11 Lockerbie residents on the ground. A bomb hidden inside an audio cassette player detonated in the cargo area when the plane was at an altitude of 31,000 feet. The disaster, which became the subject of Britain's largest criminal investigation, was believed to be an attack against the United States. One hundred eighty nine of the victims were American.
Islamic terrorists were accused of planting the bomb on the plane while it was at the airport in Frankfurt, Germany. Authorities suspected the attack was in retaliation for either the 1986 U.S. air strikes against Libya, in which leader Muammar al-Qaddafi's young daughter was killed along with dozens of other people, or a 1988 incident, in which the U.S. mistakenly shot down an Iran Air commercial flight over the Persian Gulf, killing 290 people.
Sixteen days before the explosion over Lockerbie, the U.S. embassy in Helsinki, Finland, received a call warning that a bomb would be placed on a Pan Am flight out of Frankfurt. There is controversy over how seriously the U.S. took the threat and whether travelers should have been alerted, but officials later said that the connection between the call and the bomb was coincidental.
In 1991, following a joint investigation by the British authorities and the F.B.I., Libyan intelligence agents Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah were indicted for murder; however, Libya refused to hand over the suspects to the U.S. Finally, in 1999, in an effort to ease United Nations sanctions against his country, Qaddafi agreed to turn over the two men to Scotland for trial in the Netherlands using Scottish law and prosecutors. In early 2001, al-Megrahi was convicted and sentenced to life in prison and Fhimah was acquitted. Over the U.S. government's objections, Al-Megrahi was freed and returned to Libya in August 2009 after doctors determined that he had only months to live.
In 2003, Libya accepted responsibility for the bombing, but didn't express remorse. The U.N. and U.S. lifted sanctions against Libya and Libya agreed to pay each victim's family approximately $8 million in restitution. In 2004, Libya's prime minister said that the deal was the "price for peace," implying that his country only took responsibility to get the sanctions lifted, a statement that infuriated the victims' families. Pan Am Airlines, which went bankrupt three years after the bombing, sued Libya and later received a $30 million settlement.
Dec 21, 1969: Thailand announces plans to withdraw troops
Thailand announces plans to withdraw its 12,000-man contingent from South Vietnam. Thai forces went to Vietnam as part of the Free World Military Forces, an effort by President Lyndon B. Johnson to enlist allies for the United States and South Vietnam. By securing support from other nations, Johnson hoped to build an international consensus behind his policies in Vietnam.
The first Thai contribution to the South Vietnamese war effort came in September 1964, when a 16-man Royal Thai Air Force group arrived in Saigon to assist in flying and maintaining some of the cargo aircraft operated by the South Vietnamese Air Force. In 1966, in response to further urging from President Johnson, the Thais agreed to increase their support to South Vietnam. The Royal Thai Military Assistance Group was formed in Saigon in February 1966. Later that year, the Thai government, once again at Johnson's insistence, agreed to send combat troops to aid the South Vietnamese government. In September 1967, the first elements of the Royal Thai Volunteer Regiment, the "Queen's Cobras," arrived in Vietnam and were stationed in Bear Cat (near Bien Hoa, north of Saigon). The Thai regiment began combat operations in October 1967.
In July 1968, the Queen's Cobras were replaced by the Royal Thai Army Expeditionary Division (the "Black Panthers"), which included two brigades of infantry, three battalions of 105-mm field artillery, and an armored cavalry unit. In August 1970, the Black Panther Division was renamed the Royal Thai Army Volunteer Force, a title it retained throughout the rest of its time in South Vietnam.
The decision by the Thai government to begin withdrawing its troops was in line with President Nixon's plan to withdraw U.S. troops from South Vietnam as the war was turned over to the South Vietnamese. The first Thai troops departed South Vietnam in 1971 and all were gone by early 1972.
Dec 21, 1866: Indians massacre Fetterman and eighty soldiers
Determined to challenge the growing American military presence in their territory, Indians in northern Wyoming lure Lieutenant Colonel William Fetterman and his soldiers into a deadly ambush on this day in 1866.
Tensions in the region started rising in 1863, when John Bozeman blazed the Bozeman Trail, a new route for emigrants traveling to the Montana gold fields. Bozeman's trail was of questionable legality since it passed directly through hunting grounds that the government had promised to the Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapahoe in the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851. Thus when Colorado militiamen murdered more than two hundred peaceful Cheyenne during the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864, the Indians began to take revenge by attacking whites all across the Plains, including the emigrants traveling the Bozeman Trail. The U.S. government responded by building a series of protective forts along the trail; the largest and most important of these was Fort Phil Kearney, erected in 1866 in north-central Wyoming.
Indians under the leadership of Red Cloud and Crazy Horse began to focus their attacks on Fort Phil Kearney, constantly harassing the soldiers and raiding their wood and supply parties. On December 6, 1866, Crazy Horse discovered to his surprise that he could lead a small detachment of soldiers into a fatal ambush by dismounting from his horse and fleeing as if he were defenseless. Struck by the foolish impulsiveness of the soldiers, Crazy Horse and Red Cloud reasoned that perhaps a much larger force could be lured into a similar deadly trap.
On the bitterly cold morning of December 21, about 2,000 Indians concealed themselves along the road just north of Fort Phil Kearney. A small band made a diversionary attack on a party of woodcutters from the fort, and commandant Colonel Henry Carrington quickly ordered Colonel Fetterman to go to their aid with a company of 80 troopers. Crazy Horse and 10 decoy warriors then rode into view of the fort. When Carrington fired an artillery round at them, the decoys ran away as if frightened. The party of woodcutters made it safely back to the fort, but Colonel Fetterman and his men chased after the fleeing Crazy Horse and his decoys, just as planned. The soldiers rode straight into the ambush and were wiped out in a massive attack during which some 40,000 arrows rained down on the hapless troopers. None of them survived.
With 81 fatalities, the Fetterman Massacre was the army's worst defeat in the West until the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876. Further Indian attacks eventually forced the army to reconsider its commitment to protecting the Bozeman Trail, and in 1868 the military abandoned the forts and pulled out. It was one of only a handful of clear Indian victories in the Plains Indian Wars.
Today
Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:
1163 - Hurricane hits villages in Holland/Friesland, causing
floods
1561 - Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle, Archbishop of
Mechelen, made Cardinal
1582 - Flanders adopts Gregorian calendar, tomorrow is Jan 1
1583
1598 - Battle of Curalaba: The revolting Mapuche, led by
cacique Pelentaru, inflict a major defeat on Spanish troops in southern Chile;
all Spanish cities south of the Biobio river are eventually taken by the
Mapuches, and all conquest of Mapuche territories by Europeans practically
ceases, until the 1870s "Pacification of Araucania".
1620 - 103 Mayflower pilgrims land at Plymouth Rock [OS=Dec
11]
1650 - Johan de Witt installed as Dutch pension advisor of
Dordrecht
1784 - John Jay becomes 1st US Secretary of State (foreign
affairs)
1788 - Hue Tay Son becomes emperor Quang Trung of Vietnam
1829 - 1st stone arch railroad bridge in US dedicated,
Baltimore
1835 - HMS Beagle sails into Bay of Islands (New Zealand)
1844 - The Rochdale Pioneers commence business at their
cooperative in Rochdale, England, starting the Cooperative movement.
1849 - 1st US skating club formed (Phila)
1864 - General Sherman conquers Savannah, Georgia
1866 - Cheyennes, Arapho's, Sioux, Fetterman Massacre
1890 - Pim Mulier 1st & only trip to
"Alvesteddetocht"
1891 - 18 students play 1st basketball game (Springfield
College)
1898 - Scientists Pierre & Marie Curie discovers radium
1900 - Gerhart Hauptmann's "Michael Kramer"
premieres in Berlin
1907 - Dutch government of De Master falls due to war budget
Author and Nobel Laureate Gerhart HauptmannAuthor and Nobel
Laureate Gerhart Hauptmann 1909 - 1st junior high school established (Berkeley
California)
1909 - Clyde Fitch' "City" premieres in NYC
1909 - U of Coopenhagen rejects Cook's claim that he was 1st
to North Pole
1910 - Explosion in coal mine in Hulton England, 344 mine
workers dies
1912 - Denmark, Norway & Sweden declare neutrality in
Comende war
1913 - 1st crossword puzzle (with 32 clues) printed in NY
World
1914 - "Tillie's Punctured Romance" 1st six-reel feature
comedy debuts
1914 - 1st feature-length silent film comedy "Tillie's
Punctured Romance" released. (Marie Dressler, Mabel Normand & Charles
Chaplin)
1915 - 10.17" (25.83 cm) of rainfall, Glenora, Oregon
(state record)
1918 - Red Sox trade Dutch Leonard, Ernie Shore & Duffy
Lewis to Yankees for Ray Caldwell & Slim Love, Frank Gilhooey, Al Walters
& $15,000
1919 - J. Edgar Hoover deports anarchists/feminist Emma
Goldman to Russia
1920 - Jerome Kern/BG DeSylva's musical "Sally"
premieres in NYC
1921 - Supreme Court rules labor injunctions & picketing
unconstitutional
1923 - Nepal changes from British protectorate to
independent nation
1925 - Eisenstein's movie Battleship Potemkin premieres in
Moscow
First Director of the FBI J. Edgar HooverFirst Director of
the FBI J. Edgar Hoover 1925 - Stork Hendry scores 325 for Victoria against NZ
1926 - Soccer team DOS Struggle forms
1929 - 1st group hospital insurance plan offered (Dallas Tx)
1932 - Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers, 1st joint movie
(Flying Down to Rio)
1932 - Giants sign former outfielder Billy Southworth as a
coach
1933 - Dried human blood serum 1st prepared, Univ of
Pennsylvania
1933 - Fox Films signs Shirley Temple, 5, to a studio
contract
1933 - Newfoundland reverts to being a crown colony of Great
Britain
1936 - Bradman's 2nd consecutive Test Cricket duck!
Australia all out 80
1937 - 1st feature-length color & sound cartoon
premieres (Snow White)
1937 - O'Reilly completes 14-98 for cricket match, NSW v
South Aust
1939 - Hitler named Adolf Eichmann leader of "Referat
IV B"
1941 - Chicago Bears Ray McLean makes last NFL drop kick for
an extra point
1941 - Chicago bears win the NFL championship
1941 - David Diamond's 1st Symphony premieres
Dictator of Nazi Germany Adolf HitlerDictator of Nazi
Germany Adolf Hitler 1941 - German submarine U-567 sinks
1941 - Last NFL drop kick for an extra point (Ray McLean,
Chicago Bears)
1942 - US Supreme court declares Nevada separation legal
1944 - Cards' Marty Marion wins NL MVP
1945 - "Billion Dollar Baby" opens at Alvin
Theater NYC for 219 performances
1945 - Gould/Comden/Green's "Billion Dollar Baby"
premieres in NYC
1946 - "If the Shoe Fits" closes at Century
Theater NYC after 20 performances
1946 - Earthquake in South Japan, kills 1,086
1946 - Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life"
premieres
1946 - Morton Gould's "Minstrel Show" premieres in
Indianapolis
1948 - O'Neil Place in the Bronx erronously renamed O'Neill
Place
1948 - State of Eire (formerly Irish Free State) declares
its independence
1949 - Dutch 1st Chamber accept soeveregnty of Indonesia
1950 - Cole Porte's musical "Out of this World"
premieres at New Century Theater NYC for 157 perfs
1951 - Joe DiMaggio announces his retirement
1952 - Broadway Tunnel opens in SF
1952 - WSBT TV channel 22 in South Bend, IN (CBS) begins
broadcasting
1953 - KOMU TV channel 8 in Columbia, MO (NBC/PBS) begins
broadcasting
1957 - Indonesia proclaims end to state of war
French President Charles de GaulleFrench President Charles
de Gaulle 1958 - Charles De Gaulle wins 7 year term as 1st pres of 5th Rep of
France
1959 - 10th largest snowfall in NYC history (13.7")
1959 - Citizens of Deerfield Ill block building of
interracial housing
1959 - Tom Landry accepts coaching job with Dallas Cowboys
(stays until 1988)
1961 - Beatles record "Sweet Georgia Brown" &
"Ready Teddy"
1961 - JFK & British PM MacMillan meet in Bermuda
1962 - Angolin leaves Comecon
1962 - US & Cuba accord, releases bay of pigs captive
1966 - USSR launches Luna 13; soft-landed in Oceanus
Procellarum
1968 - Apollo 8 (Borman, Lovell & Anders) 1st manned
Moon voyage
1968 - David Crosby, Stephen Stills & Graham Nash
premiere together in Calif
1969 - Diana Ross final TV appearance as a Supreme (Ed
Sullivan Show)
1969 - Vince Lombardi (Redskins) coaches his last football
game, losing
1970 - WUTV TV channel 29 in Buffalo, NY (IND) begins
broadcasting
1971 - UN Security Council chooses Kurt Waldheim as 4th
secretary General
1972 - Soviet Union signs a separate peace with East Germany
1973 - Israel, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, US & USSR meet in
Geneva to discuss the Arab-Israeli conflict
1975 - "Hello, Dolly" closes at Minskoff Theater
NYC after 51 performances
1975 - "Very Good Eddie" opens at Booth Theater
NYC for 307 performances
1975 - 1st NY Jet to gain 1,000 yards rushing (John Riggins)
1975 - 64th Davis Cup: Sweden beats Czechoslovakia in
Stockholm (3-2)
1975 - Madagascar adopts constitution
1975 - Buffalo Sabres set NHL record of 40 points beating
Caps 14-2 scoring 5 goals vs Washington Caps in 4:57
1976 - 20th Islander shut-out opponent-Billy Smith 3-0 vs
Bruins
1976 - Patricia R Harris named secretary of HUD
1976 - UN General Assembly passes a resolution declaring
1979-Year of Child
1976 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1978 - "Broadway Musical" opens/closes at Lunt
Fontanne Theater NYC
1978 - Police in Des Plaines Ill, arrest John Wayne Gacy Jr
for murder
1979 - Gary Unger plays in record 914th consecutive NHL game
1979 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern
Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
1979 - New constitution for Zimbabwe agreed
1980 - Harold Carmichael ends NFL streak of 127 consecutive
game receptions
1981 - Cincinnati beats Bradley 75-73 in 7 OTs (NCAA record)
1983 - Musical "Tap Dance Kid" opens at Broadhurst
Theater NYC for 669 performances
1983 - NBA Indiana Pacers end a 28 game road losing streak
1983 - NCAA rules rescinded last 2-minute men's basketball
free throw rule
1984 - Islander Kelly Hrudy's 1st shut-out win-Whalers 1-0
1984 - USSR launches Vega 2 for fly-by of Halley's Come
1985 - ARCO Anchorage runs aground near Port Angeles, WA
1985 - Alice Miller/Don January wins LPGA Mazda Golf
Championship
1985 - Heart's "Heart" album goes #1
1986 - 75th Davis Cup: Australia beats Sweden in Melbourne
(3-2)
1986 - Amy Alcott/Bob Charles wins LPGA Mazda Golf
Championship
1987 - 3 white NY teens convicted of manslaughter in death
of a black man
1987 - Soyuz TM-4 launches 3 cosmonauts to space station Mir
1987 - Vladimir Titov & Musa Manarov launched
1988 - Drexel agrees guilt to security felonies, pays a $650
million fine
1988 - NY bound Pan Am jumbo jet explodes over Scotland all
258 aboard die
1988 - Vladimir Titov & Musa Manarov return to earth (a
year) with Chretien
1988 - Pan AM Flight 103 was destroyed by a bomb killing 243
passengers and 16 crew (also known as the Lockerbie bombing)
1989 - VP Quayle sends out 30,000 Xmas cards with word
beacon spelled beakon
1990 - Steve & Mark Waugh complete 464* partnership for
NSW v WA
1991 - 95 share in Madrid Spain $1.3 billion lottery
(#47996)
1991 - El Sayid Nosair acquitted of killing Meir Kahane
1991 - Soviet Union formally dissolves 11 of 12 republics
sign treaty forming Commonwealth of Independent States
1992 - Dutch DC-10 in fire at landing on Faro Portugal, 56
die
1994 - Bomb goes off on #4 train on Fulton Street NYC
1995 - Martina Ertl of Germany wins her 3rd giant slalom
world cup
1995 - SF Giants announce plans to build a new stadium to
open in 2000
1995 - The city of Bethlehem passes from Israeli to
Palestinian control.
1996 - Pakistan all out 67 to lose to Tasmania by an inning
1997 - Detroit Lions Barry Sanders is 3rd to run for 2,000
yards in a season
1997 - Detroit Lions linebacker Reggie Brown, knocked
unconscious in game
1997 - Lexus Senior Golf Challenge
1997 - Wendy's Three-Tour Senior Golf Challenges
1997 - Wendy's Three-Tour LPGA Challenge
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.
2006 - Puzzle Play aired to network Ten, replacing In the
Box
2007 - The Schengen Agreement area increases to include 9
European Union member states; Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia,
Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia on land and sea borders.
2012 - 39 people are killed in violent clashes in Kenya
2012 - The Mesoamerican Long Count calendar reaches the date
13.0.0.0.0
2012 - "Gangnam Style" becomes the first video to
reach one billion views on YouTube
2012 - The NHL announces a further cancellation of games
until January 14 brining the total number of cancelled games to 625
1620 - The "Mayflower", and its passengers, pilgrims from England, landed at Plymouth Rock, MA. 1849 - The first ice-skating club in America was formed in Philadelphia, PA. 1879 - Ibsen's "A Doll's House" was first performed in Copenhagen, Denmark, with a revised happy ending. 1898 - Scientists Pierre and Marie Curie discovered the radioactive element radium. 1909 - McKinley and Washington schools of Berkeley, CA, became the first authorized, junior-high schools in the U.S. 1913 - The "New York World" Sunday edition included a crossword puzzle as an added feature of the "Fun" supplement. It was the first crossword puzzle to be published. 1914 - Marie Dressler, Charlie Chaplin, Mabel Normand and Mack Swain appeared in the first six-reel, feature-length comedy. The film was entitled "Tillie’s Punctured Romance". 1925 - Eisenstein's film "Battleship Potemkin" was first shown in Moscow. 1937 - Walt Disney debuted the first, full-length, animated feature in Hollywood, CA. The movie was "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." Disney movies, music and books 1944 - Horse racing was banned in the United States until after the end of World War II. 1945 - U.S. Gen. George S. Patton died in Heidelberg, Germany, of injuries from a car accident. 1948 - The state of Eire (formerly the Irish Free State) declared its independence. 1951 - Joe DiMaggio announced his retirement from major league baseball. 1958 - Charles de Gaulle was elected to a seven-year term as the first president of the Fifth Republic of France. 1968 - Apollo 8 was launched on a mission to orbit the moon. The craft landed safely in the Pacific Ocean on December 27. 1971 - The U.N. Security Council chose Kurt Waldheim to succeed U Thant as secretary-general. 1978 - Police in Des Plaines, IL, arrested John W. Gacy Jr. and began unearthing the remains of 33 men and boys that Gacy was later convicted of killing. 1981 - Cincinnati defeated Bradley 75-73 in seven overtimes. The game was the longest collegiate basketball game in the history of NCAA Division I competition. 1988 - 270 people were killed when Pan Am Boeing 747 exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, due to a terrorist attack. 1990 - In a German television interview, Saddam Hussein declared that he would not withdraw from Kuwait by the UN deadline. 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, U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich admitted violating House ethics rules. 1998 - Israel's parliament voted overwhelmingly for early elections. It was the signal to the demise of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's hard-line government. 1998 - A Chinese court sentenced two dissidents to long prison terms for attempting to organize an opposition party. A third man was sentenced to 12 years in prison on December 22, 1998. 1998 - The first vaccine for Lyme disease was approved. 2001 - The Islamic militant group Hamas released a statement that said it was suspending suicide bombings and mortar attacks in Israel. 2002 - Larry Mayes was released after spending 21 years in prison for a rape that maintained that he never committed. He was the 100th person in the U.S. to be released after DNA tests were performed.
1620 The Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, Massachusetts. 1891 The first basketball game, invented at Springfield College in Massachusetts by James E. Naismith, was played. 1898 Pierre and Marie Curie discovered radium. 1913 The first crossword puzzle was printed in the New York World. 1937 Disney's Snow White, the first feature length color and sound cartoon, premiered. 1970 Elvis Presley met with president Richard Nixon in the White House. 1988 A terrorist bomb exploded aboard a Pan Am Boeing 747 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people. 1991 Eleven of the former Soviet republics form the Commonwealth of Independent States. 1995 Palestinians took over the control of the city of Bethlehem.
The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:
http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php
http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/dec21.htm
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory
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