Today in History: December 21, Pilgrims come ashore for the first time

"Today in history: On Dec. 21,1620, Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower went ashore at present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts, for the first time. Also on this date: In 1864, during the Civil War, Union forces led by Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman concluded their March to the Sea when they captured Savannah, Georgia. In 1891, the first basketball game, devised by James Naismith, is believed to have been played at the International YMCA Training School (now Springfield College) in Springfield, Massachusetts."

"In 1913, the first newspaper crossword puzzle, billed as a Word-Cross Puzzle, was published in the New York World. In 1976, the oil tanker Argo Merchant broke apart near Nantucket Island off Massachusetts almost a week after running aground, spilling 7.7 million gallons of oil into the North Atlantic. In 1988, a terrorist bomb exploded aboard New York-bound Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all 259 people aboard the Boeing 747 and 11 on the ground."

"The blast occurred about 40 minutes into the flight from London and claimed the lives of citizens from 21 countries, including 190 Americans. In 1991, 11 of the 12 former Soviet republics formally proclaimed the birth of the Commonwealth of Independent States. In 2020, President-elect Joe Biden received his first dose of the coronavirus vaccine on live television as part of a growing effort early in the pandemic to convince the American public the inoculations were safe."

Dec. 21 carries a range of historical milestones, including the Pilgrims landing at Plymouth in 1620 and Sherman capturing Savannah in 1864. The date is linked to cultural origins such as the first basketball game in 1891 and the first newspaper crossword in 1913. It also records disasters and violence, notably the 1976 Argo Merchant oil spill, the 1988 Lockerbie bombing that killed 270 people, and a 2023 mass shooting in Prague. Political change and public-health moments also occurred: the 1991 formation of the Commonwealth of Independent States and a 2020 public coronavirus vaccine inoculation.

Read at www.mercurynews.com