December 21, Pilgrims come ashore for the first time

Today is Sunday, Dec. 21, the 355th day of 2025. There are 10 days left in the year.

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.

In 2023, a student opened fire at Charles University in Prague, killing at least 14 people and injuring more than 20 in the Czech Republic’s worst mass shooting. Authorities said the 24-year-old student, who had a license to own eight guns and no criminal record, killed himself as police closed in.