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🌟 Editor's Note
Good morning — it’s Sunday, December 21. Today, we explore the first basketball game, the first human-crewed Moon mission, tragic Pan Am Flight 103, the first YouTube video to reach 1 billion views, and much more — quick, sharp, and bursting with excitement!
Correction: Yesterday's issue had a mistake regarding Elvis's draft notice. We fixed it to 1956. Thanks to Tom and other beloved readers for alerting us with their keen eyes.
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— Fatih Taskiran, Editor
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🚀 Time Machine
-1891
The first basketball game was played in Springfield, Massachusetts, using James Naismith's rules, and it's now celebrated as World Basketball Day.
-1898
Scientists Pierre and Marie Curie discovered radium.
-1937
"Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", the first Walt Disney Animated Classic, premiered at the Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles.
-1968
First crewed Moon mission with Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and William Anders aboard Apollo 8.
-1988
Pan Am Flight 103 was destroyed by a terrorist bomb over Scotland, killing all 259 on board and 11 on the ground.
-1991
The Soviet Union officially dissolved as 11 of 12 republics formed the Commonwealth of Independent States.
-1967
The Graduate opens in two theaters in New York: the Coronet and the Lincoln Art Theater.
-2012
"Gangnam Style" by Psy becomes the first video to reach one billion views on YouTube.
📸 Snapshot
Princess Diana on her way to Boarding School with her bag and tuck box, 1970
🗨️ Final Words
“I am curious to see what happens in the next world to one who dies unshriven“
🤯 Strange Times
The Real Case Behind "The Fugitive"
December 21, 1954: Cleveland osteopath Dr. Sam Sheppard is convicted of killing his wife, Marilyn—despite his story of a "bushy-haired" intruder and a courtroom drowning in daily, guilty-leaning coverage. The jury wasn't sequestered, the affair made headlines, and a life sentence followed more like a media matinee than due process.
In 1966, the Supreme Court overturned a verdict from an unfair, press-soaked trial—fueling modern rules on screening and, in big cases, sequestering juries. The case loosely inspired The Fugitive (hello, one-armed man). Decades later, 1998 DNA tests indicated another man was at the scene; in 2000, Sheppard's son lost a wrongful-imprisonment suit. Justice is slow; TV moves fast, and FlashBack finds.