THE DAY IN HISTORY · DECEMBER 21
December 21 in history
What happened on December 21: 3 moments from the Maps of History atlases, in 1237, 1864 and 1929, each linked to the map that shows it.
— Siege of Ryazan
21 Dec 1237 — The first Rus city falls after five days, in midwinter — the season the Rus thought impossible for war and the Mongols chose on purpose, riding the frozen rivers like roads. “And not an eye remained open to weep for the dead,” writes the chronicler.
READ THIS MOMENT → · SEE IT ON THE MONGOL EMPIRE MAP → · THE FULL STORY →
— Capture of Savannah
21 Dec 1864 — Sherman completes the March to the Sea and wires Lincoln: “I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah.” Some 19,000 freedpeople have followed his columns out of slavery.
READ THIS MOMENT → · SEE IT ON THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR MAP → · THE FULL STORY →
— Stalin’s 50th birthday in Pravda
21 Dec 1929 — For Stalin’s fiftieth birthday, Pravda filled its pages with tributes from the leadership, and the public cult of the vozhd (“leader”) began. The paper later serialised the Short Course (1938) and staged the sixtieth and seventieth birthdays on a grander scale.
READ THIS MOMENT → · SEE IT ON THE SOVIET UNION UNDER STALIN MAP → · THE FULL STORY →
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