December 20, 1946 –* It’s a Wonderful Life* is first released in New York City.
December 21, 1923: The French airship *Dixmude*is struck by lightning and explodes killing all 52 aboard. At the time it was the deadliest airship accident ever to have occurred.
December 21, 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.
December 21, 1913: Arthur Wynne’s “word-cross”, the first crossword puzzle, is published in the New York World.
December 21, 1919 – American anarchist Emma Goldman is deported to Russia.
December 21, 1913: The first crossword puzzle – with 32 clues – is printed in the New York World.
December 22, 1989: Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate re-opens after nearly 30 years, effectively ending the division of East and West Germany.
December 22, 856: The Damghan earthquake in Persia kills 200,000-- one of history’s deadliest natural natural disasters.
Psst. Look two posts above.
December 22, 1807 – The Embargo Act, forbidding trade with all foreign countries, is passed by Congress at the urging of President Thomas Jefferson.
**December 23, 1972 **: The last survivors of Uruguayan Flight 571are rescued in the Andes. They had managed to stay alive in sub-zero temperatures and harsh conditions for over two months, even resorting to cannibalism to avoid starvation.
December 23, 1970: The North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City is topped out at 1,368 feet (417 m), making it the tallest building in the world.
D’oh! :smack: Time to get new glasses.
December 23, 1888: Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh cuts off his left ear with a razor and sends it to a prostitute for safekeeping.
December 24, 1945: Faulty electrical wiring causes a house fire in Fayetteville, West Virginia that claims the life of five children in the Sodder family. Or was it arson? And did the children really die that night?
December 24, 1968: The crew of Apollo 8 enters into orbit around the Moon, becoming the first humans to do so. They performed ten lunar orbits and broadcast live TV pictures.
December 24, 1818: “Silent Night,” composed by Franz Xaver Gruber, is sung for the first time at St Nicholas parish church in Oberndorf, Austria.
December 25, 1914: The Christmas Truce (much to the dismay of some military leaders) led to group carols, gift exchanges, supply sharing and even a soccer game or two between English and German troops from opposite trenches during WW1.
December 25, 1991: Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as President of the Soviet Union (the union itself is dissolved the next day).
December 25, AD 800: Pope Leo III crowns Charlemagne as the first Holy Roman Emperor.
December 26, 1943: The Battle of North Cape led to the sinking of the German battleship *Scharnhorst *in the cold arctic waters of the North Atlantic. Nearly 2000 of her crew died.
December 26, 1963: The Beatles’ “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “I Saw Her Standing There” are released in the United States, marking the beginning of Beatlemania on an international level.