On this day in history - December 21

What Happened On This Day – December 21

• 1995 Palestinians take control of Bethlehem

  Isreali troops withdrew from the city under the Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip signed in September 1995. The city was under a British mandate from 1920 to 1948, and then it was captured by Jordan during the Arab-Israeli War in 1948. Most recently, it was taken over by Israel during the Six-Day War in 1967.

• 1988 Lockerbie Bombing

  A bomb exploded on Pan Am Flight number 103 on its way from Frankfurt, Germany, to Detroit, United States, over the Scottish city of Lockerbie. The terrorist attack killed all the passengers and crew on board and 11 people on the ground.

• 1965 International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination adopted

  The human rights convention was adopted by the United Nations' member states and was put into force on January 4, 1969. It attempts to eliminate racial discrimination in the world.

• 1937 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs released

  The movie made by Walt Disney Productions was the world's first full-length animated feature film and it was based on a German fairy tale of the same name by the Brothers Grimm.

• 1872 Phileas Fogg wins his wager

  The fictional character created by French writer Jules Verne for his book, Around the World in Eighty Days, finished circumnavigating the world and reached London to win the wager he had set with his friends. The date also coincides with the publication of the last of the series that ended up becoming the now popular science fiction novel.