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21 December| 21 December 1375 | Italy [births and deaths] | Giovanni Boccaccio, Italian poet and scholar who, with Petrarch (Petrarca), laid the foundations of Renaissance humanism, author of the Decameron, dies in Certaldo, Tuscany, Italy (c. 62). | | 21 December 1522 | Ottoman Empire, Rhodes [wars] | The Order of the Knights of St John of the Hospital surrender their fortress of Rhodes to Ottoman forces under Sultan Suleiman I the Magnificent; they leave the island, accepting generous terms of capitulation after a bitter six-month siege. | | 21 December 1804 | England [births and deaths] | Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield, British prime minister 1868 and 1874–80, a Conservative, born in London, England (–1881). | | 21 December 1818 | France [administration] | Armand du Plessis, duc de Richelieu, resigns as prime minister in France and is succeeded by Elie, duc de Decazes, after the October elections show increasing support for the left. | | 21 December 1879 | USSR, Russian Empire [births and deaths] | Joseph Stalin (adopted name, Russian for steel, of Josef Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili), secretary general of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union 1922–53, and premier 1941–53, born in Gori, Georgia, Russian Empire (–1953). | | 21 December 1979 | UK, Zimbabwe Rhodesia [political events] | The Lancaster House Agreement is signed in London, England, providing for an end to the civil war in Rhodesia and the introduction of majority rule. The new state of Zimbabwe becomes independent in April 1980. | | 21 December 1988 | UK, USA [terrorism] | A terrorist bomb explodes on a Pan Am Boeing 747 airliner flying over Lockerbie in Scotland, killing all 259 passengers on board and 11 people on the ground. |
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