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 — Ryazan is the first Rus city to fall, after five days of siege in midwinter. The Rus had thought war impossible in this season. The Mongols had chosen it deliberately: frozen rivers gave their riders roads across the country. “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 finishes the March to the Sea at Savannah 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. The public cult of the vozhd (“leader”) began. Later the paper serialised the Short Course (1938) and staged his sixtieth and seventieth birthdays on a still grander scale.
READ THIS MOMENT → · SEE IT ON THE SOVIET UNION UNDER STALIN MAP → · THE FULL STORY →
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