December 21·Every year

National Crossword Puzzle Day

December 21st marks the 1913 publication of the first crossword puzzle by Arthur Wynne in the New York World — he called it a word-cross. The New York Times rejected crosswords as too lowbrow until 1942. Its crossword now has over 750,000 digital subscribers. The average NYT crossword uses 78 answers; the average solver takes 20 minutes on Monday and cannot finish Friday.

Category: Culture
Observed in: United StatesUnited KingdomAustraliaCanada

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Notable · 2018

Operatives of the British Special Boat Service boarded the container ship Grande Tema in the Thames Estuary to detain four stowaways who had threatened the crew.

2023Fourteen people are killed and 25 others injured during a mass shooting at Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic.
2020A great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn occurs, with the two planets separated in the sky by 0.1 degrees. This is the closest conjunction between the two planets since 1623.
20122012 phenomenon: Festivities are held in parts of Mesoamerica to commemorate the conclusion of b'ak'tun 13, a roughly 5,126-year-long cycle in the Mesoamerican Long Count Calendar whose passing many New Age spiritualists had earlier held to portend a variety of cataclysmic or transformative events.