1879 (SUNDAY)
RUSSIA: Ioseb Jughashvili is born in Gori, Georgia. He will later adopt the name Joseph Stalin.
1907 (SATURDAY)
AUSTRIA: Adolf Hitler's mother, Klara Hitler, dies a painful death from breast cancer at the age of 47 in Linz. Hitler was 18. Dr. Eduard Bloch, Klara Hitler's doctor, will later say he has never seen a more grieving son. Bloch remains in Austria but after the Anschluss in 1938, Hitler made sure that he is protected until the proper documents can be procured for his emigration and Hitler saw to it that Bloch, whom he called a "noble Jew," could leave Germany unharmed. Bloch emigrated to the U.S. in 1940 and settled in New York City where he died in the Bronx in 1945. (Tom Hickcox)
1931 (MONDAY)
MANCHURIA: The Japanese government announces "Large scale anti-bandit operations" have begun by the Japanese in Manchuria. The ultimatum is announced to force the Chinese from Chinchow.
1933 (THURSDAY)
NEWFOUNDLAND: King George V of Britain assents to the Royal Commission's recommendation for government and economic reform for Newfoundland. As a result, Newfoundland loses its status as a Dominion and reverts to Crown Colony status.
1935 (SATURDAY)
UNITED STATES: The first newspaper crossword puzzle is published by the New York World.
1936 (MONDAY)
GERMANY: The prototype Junkers Ju 88 V1 medium bomber, with civil registration D-AQEN, makes its first flight at Dessau. The Ju 88 is arguably one of the best medium bombers/night fighters of World War II. (Ron Babuka)
1937 (TUESDAY)
GERMANY: The General Staff's strategy plan, Plan Green, is completed, anticipating an aggressive war with Czechoslovakia.
UNITED KINGDOM: In the House of Commons, Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden says that the League of Nations could not impose sanctions in the Sino-Japanese dispute because ". . . nobody could contemplate any action of that kind in the Far East unless they are convinced that they have overwhelming force to back their policy. . . . It must be perfectly clear to every one that overwhelming force does not exist. Every nation at Geneva from the beginning of this dispute knows perfectly well that the very thought of action of any kind in the Far East must depend on the cooperation of other nations besides those who are actually Members of the League at this time. . . ." British policy must be ". . . to be patient yet to be firm, to be conciliatory without being defeatist, and, above all, to continue to rearm . . . because, paradoxical as it may sound, only in that way shall we get an arms agreement." Britain had no intention of trying to reach a settlement with Germany in the colonial field on the basis of a deal with other powers. "I have seen it suggested in certain quarters. . . . Such a policy could never be accepted for one instant by this House. . . ."
The Government officially repudiates the Peel Commission's Partition Plan, a plan to divide Palestine into two states, one Arab and one Jewish.
UNITED STATES: Walt Disney presents the first, full-length, animated feature which debuts on this day at the Carthay Circle Theatre in Hollywood, California. The cost to produce "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" was US$1.5 million (US$20.78 million in year 2005 dollars). Disney got his total investment back in the first year of the film’s showing. "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is 83 minutes in length and is the work of 750 artists. Nearly one million drawings are made, of which 250,000 are used in the final print of the classic film.
December 21st, 1939 (THURSDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM:
The boom defense vessel HMS Bayonet (Z 05) strikes a mine and sinks in the Firth of Forth, Scotland.
Corvette KNM Andenes (ex-HMS Acanthus) laid down.
Anti-Aircraft cruiser HMS Spartan laid down.
Destroyer HMS Lauderdale laid down.
GERMANY: Commander s.g. F. H. Kjøllsen is appointed the 1st Danish Naval Attaché at the Royal Danish Legation in Berlin.
FINLAND: The army stages a successful counter-attack at Kemijarvi.
ROMANIA: The Government signs a new economic agreement with Germany to amend the exchange rate between leu and the mark.
U.S.S.R.: Stalin celebrates his 60th birthday. He receives a telegram
To Joseph Stalin: Best wishes for your personal well-being as well as for the prosperous future of the peoples of the friendly Soviet Union. Adolf Hitler"
He sends one back to Hitler
To the Chancellor of the German Reich, A Hitler. The friendship of the peoples of Germany and the Soviet Union, cemented by blood, has every reason to be lasting and firm.
PARAGUAY: Montevideo: The British Naval Attache reported to London that merchant seamen prisoners on board the ADMIRAL GRAFF SPEE had noticed a continually revolving "rangefinder" on top of the superstructure. (Peter Beeston)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: