Arthur Wynne (above), a journalist from Liverpool, England, published what he
called a “word-cross” puzzle in the “Fun” supplement of the Sunday edition of the
New York World. It was the first crossword puzzle to be published. The name was
later changed to “crossword” and became a regular weekly feature in the World
and spread to other newspapers.
Raymond Albert “Ray” Romano a actor, writer and stand-up comedian. He’s
best known for his roles on the CBS sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond (1996-
2005) and in the animated Ice Age film series.
Ray voicing Manny the Mammoth in Ice Age
George Smith Patton, Jr. (November 11, 1885 – December 21, 1945)
Patton was U.S. Army General, best known for his controversial leadership while commanding armies during World War ll. In 1944, Patton assumed command of
the U.S. Third Army, which under his leadership advanced farther, captured more
enemy prisoners, and liberated more territory in less time than any other army in
military history.
On December 9, 1945, Patton was severely injured in, what seemed to be at first,
a minor automobile accident while on a day trip to hunt pheasants in Germany. He received a severe cervical spinal cord injury and was paralyzed from the neck
down. He died of a pulmonary embolism on Friday December 21, 1945.
The crew of Apollo 8: Frank Borman, Bill Anders and Jim Lovell.
Apollo 8 was the second crewed mission in the Apollo space program. After the
launch on December 21, 1968, Apollo 8 took three days to reach the Moon. It
orbited ten times over the course of 20 hours, during which time the crew made a Christmas Eve TV broadcast, reading the first 10 verses from the Bibles Book of Genesis. At the time, the broadcast was the most watched TV program ever. The successful mission of Apollo 8 paved the way for Apollo 11 and the fulfillment of President John F. Kennedy’s goal of landing a man on the Moon before the end
of the 1960s.
