Today is Monday, Dec. 21, the 355th day of 2015. There are 10 days left in the year. Winter arrives at 11:48 p.m. Eastern time.

On this date:

In 1620, Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower went ashore for the first time at present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts.

In 1864, during the Civil War, Union forces led by Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman concluded their “March to the Sea” as they captured Savannah, Georgia.

In 1879, the Henrik Ibsen play “A Doll’s House” premiered at the Royal Theater in Copenhagen.

In 1914, the first feature-length silent film comedy, Mack Sennett’s “Tillie’s Punctured Romance,” starring Marie Dressler, Mabel Normand and Charlie Chaplin, premiered. The U.S. government began requiring passport applicants to provide photographs of themselves.

In 1937, Walt Disney’s first animated feature, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” had its world premiere in Los Angeles.

In 1940, author F. Scott Fitzgerald died in Hollywood, California, at age 44.

In 1958, Charles de Gaulle was elected to a seven-year term as the first president of the Fifth Republic of France.

In 1968, Apollo 8 was launched on a mission to orbit the moon.

In 1971, the U.N. Security Council chose Kurt Waldheim to succeed U Thant as Secretary-General.

In 1976, the Liberian-registered tanker Argo Merchant broke apart near Nantucket Island, off Massachusetts, almost a week after running aground, spilling 7.5 million gallons of oil into the North Atlantic.